First couple of parts...

[Wal]

After a couple of - ahem - 'experimental runs' I've managed to cut a few parts...

Switch mount:



This is a part that my machine made for itself. It mounts to the plate edge and holds an inductive proximity switch. The idea is to be able to tweak the position of the limit/home switch. Machined in about 10 minutes.

Drill jig:



A friend of mine had a load of small parts cast, the inverted spherical cups that you see have come out slightly under-size... He has a shed load of these that he wants to widen by kissing them with a ball-nose end-mill. They're fiddly things (only 16mm long) and he needed a way of locating them quickly and accurately under his press-drill, so I came up with this. I had to oversize the pockets by 0.25mm to account for the lip you get with cast parts, but it's a pretty good snug fit without the part 'sticking'. This is the part before it got cut loose of the stock it was machined from. The finish was a bit of wet and dry paper followed by wire wool. He's using it and says it works a treat. Good stuff! Machined in the best part of an hour.

Measuring both parts with my vernier callipers, they're ±0.05. Fresh end-mills and conservative feeds (no more than 300mm/min with DOC no more than 0.5mm) go a long way...

Wal.

[EddyCurrent]

Wal,
Great stuff ! , regarding the switch mount, how did you get that nice rounded edge around the perimeter ?

[Wal]

Wal,
Great stuff ! , regarding the switch mount, how did you get that nice rounded edge around the perimeter ?

That's just a by-product of the once over with the wire wool, I think... The metal was pretty soft..!

[GEOFFREY]

Well done Wal. It must give you a great sense of satisfaction. Design a machine, build it and then start to produce meaningful work with it.WOW. G.

[cncJim]

Really nice wal, great job on both the machine and the first jobs! Are you pleased with the accuracy? Jim

[njhussey]

Great stuff Wal, good to see things cut by your machine. Must give you great satisfaction!

[Washout]

Great stuff and always nice to see parts coming off of a machine.

What CAM software did you use for those?

[Wal]

Thanks guys,

Yes indeed - it's pretty cool seeing something you've made make something else...

Jim - accuracy wise, yep, for the kind of stuff I'm going to be making I'm reasonably happy with the accuracy. Of course, compare this to real world precision engineering and it's just a toy - to take it to the next level would require not only better grades of accuracy/stiffness in the components used, but also a more refined approach to assembling/measuring/adjusting the finished machine. For example, (using the rather laborious process of shimming) I can get the dial gauge mounted in the spindle to stay at 0 spinning it from the left to the right of the table - however, front to back I'm seeing a 0.05mm rise over around 20cms. I'll try to iron that out, but for the moment I'm living with it.

Adrian, software wise - .pdf of the profiles/pockets/drill holes etc. generated in Illustrator. Toolpaths created with Vectric's Cut2D (really nice, easy to use piece of software - can't recommend it highly enough...) Machine control by LinuxCNC - again, top software and easy to get a handle on the basics of operating it (which is as far as I've got).

Thanks again to the MyCNC Forum and everyone who has contributed an opinion along with advice/encouragement.

Wal.

[njhussey]

Wal, I can't remember seeing finished pics of your machine? Are they somewhere and I'm blind or you keeping it a secret?

[Wal]

Hi Neil,

I think I posted pics on one of the other threads, but this should give you an idea:



I'll be putting together a retrospective build diary at some point in the not too distant future.

Wal.