Have a little project I’m working on. Looking to make a solid tool post mount for my 14x40 lathe. Researching I’ve found the recommended material would be cast iron. I have some suitcase weights off some old tractors 3” thick. Perfect sizes for what I need. Well I marked what I needed and went to the bandsaw.
Wow that took awhile probably a hour. It seemed to dull the blade about 3/4 through it. I went and grabbed a portaband and it cut for awhile then seemed to just rub. But I got it
So now to the machining. Figured I’d drill the center hole then use that to align to rotary table and go at it. Drilling the hole was not a problem. Mounted to RT and put a new 1” ruffer end mill 3” long in a 1” toolholder. Running about 135 rpm It made marks in the cast but wasn’t cutting more rubbing and pressure than I liked. So I threw a 3/4 carbide ruffer 1 1/2 long bump the speed to around 250 and it cuts a little better but man this will take a week.
Feels like a lot of pressure to achieve this.
So my question is how would you all go about this?Set up and tooling?
My plan was to ruff out on RT get it round. Then I was gonna put on lathe to cut all the base features. Bring it back to the mill and square out the upper half where the qctp will be mounted. Was thinking of tapering the top area which will be square and transition to the round base that mounts to cross slide. I’m thinking I need to ruff cut more material off before I start machining but the bandsaw blades don’t seem to like it. Any help is much appreciated.
Wow that took awhile probably a hour. It seemed to dull the blade about 3/4 through it. I went and grabbed a portaband and it cut for awhile then seemed to just rub. But I got it
So now to the machining. Figured I’d drill the center hole then use that to align to rotary table and go at it. Drilling the hole was not a problem. Mounted to RT and put a new 1” ruffer end mill 3” long in a 1” toolholder. Running about 135 rpm It made marks in the cast but wasn’t cutting more rubbing and pressure than I liked. So I threw a 3/4 carbide ruffer 1 1/2 long bump the speed to around 250 and it cuts a little better but man this will take a week.
Feels like a lot of pressure to achieve this.
So my question is how would you all go about this?Set up and tooling?
My plan was to ruff out on RT get it round. Then I was gonna put on lathe to cut all the base features. Bring it back to the mill and square out the upper half where the qctp will be mounted. Was thinking of tapering the top area which will be square and transition to the round base that mounts to cross slide. I’m thinking I need to ruff cut more material off before I start machining but the bandsaw blades don’t seem to like it. Any help is much appreciated.