- Joined
- Aug 15, 2013
- Messages
- 2,108
Wobbly,
Everything Mike said is true. Trust me. Would I lie to you?
First, at a minimum, you need collet blocks. Note I said blocks, plural, because as sure as the sun rises in the… uh… East, yeah, the East... you will need to cut a hexagon shape next week and having only a square block when you need a hexagonal one can lead to severe mental anguish and heavy substance abuse. It’s science.
As for the actual productive part of your endeavor, you can do as already mentioned, put the round stock in the square collet block and put the collet block in the vise and file a significant portion of your life away. BUT, as all us veteran hobby machinists know from minutes of past experience, files are only for knocking burrs off the edge of milled chunks of metal. They aren’t for labor intensive tasks such as filing said pieces of metal down to size. For that, as Mike so subtly hinted, the vise holding the collet block should be firmly attached to a mill. Preferably a humongous mill that takes up at least half of your shop space, but at minimum, a bench mill that takes at least two people and/or an engine hoist to lift into place. You definitely have a project that requires you to purchase said mill. Trust me. More science. Note I didn’t say “justifies” a mill, I said “requires” a mill. Justification is for wimps. All us manly-men operate on the requirement principle, no justification needed. Sort of like the "because it's there" philosophy.
Now that that is settled, after you get your new mill (and you know you will) get back to us and we will gleefully help you spend more of your money on tooling than you ever imagined. No, no… no need to thank us. We’re here to help.
Has anybody mentioned a rotary table, yet?
Tom
Everything Mike said is true. Trust me. Would I lie to you?
First, at a minimum, you need collet blocks. Note I said blocks, plural, because as sure as the sun rises in the… uh… East, yeah, the East... you will need to cut a hexagon shape next week and having only a square block when you need a hexagonal one can lead to severe mental anguish and heavy substance abuse. It’s science.
As for the actual productive part of your endeavor, you can do as already mentioned, put the round stock in the square collet block and put the collet block in the vise and file a significant portion of your life away. BUT, as all us veteran hobby machinists know from minutes of past experience, files are only for knocking burrs off the edge of milled chunks of metal. They aren’t for labor intensive tasks such as filing said pieces of metal down to size. For that, as Mike so subtly hinted, the vise holding the collet block should be firmly attached to a mill. Preferably a humongous mill that takes up at least half of your shop space, but at minimum, a bench mill that takes at least two people and/or an engine hoist to lift into place. You definitely have a project that requires you to purchase said mill. Trust me. More science. Note I didn’t say “justifies” a mill, I said “requires” a mill. Justification is for wimps. All us manly-men operate on the requirement principle, no justification needed. Sort of like the "because it's there" philosophy.
Now that that is settled, after you get your new mill (and you know you will) get back to us and we will gleefully help you spend more of your money on tooling than you ever imagined. No, no… no need to thank us. We’re here to help.
Has anybody mentioned a rotary table, yet?
Tom
)
You aren't discouraging me!