TOPIC:

Exhaust flanges are nearly done. Had some fun on the rotary vise, also thinned them a bit and sank the retaining ring a bit deeper. No chamfer mills so I chamfered them with files. They still need a bit of polishing.

just realized the photos didn't attach for some reason.

damn nice!
good job with files as well sir.

leon

I started the footpeg brackets over. I want to check fitment before I proceed further. I'm no machinist, and a lot of eye balling was going on here, so these are less than perfect, but when I brush them I will remove inconsistencies and they will look pretty good

That's DAMN good.
Steve

yessir very nice work.

i guess your getting pretty good at indicating stuff in on the rotary table now eh?


leon

thanks guys.
Getting better at it Leon. still not great. I think i might take a community college class this summer so I can get better. Right now its just you-tube videos and i feel like I'm doing some stuff that isn't best practice. I have been putting a chuck in the mill and then putting a transfer punch in that to center the work piece on the rotary table. It seems to work OK but definitely not super precise. The problem I was having with these sets was I made the fixture a little too small and there wasn't a lot of room to clamp onto. When I was doing the rough cuts I got a little too aggressive and pushed the piece off center and had to re-center. I have almost 30 hours in these because i kept re-centering out of paranoia that i had pushed the piece of center again.

Get yourself a "wobbler" set. Quick and easy way to center on holes and even edge find. I like using a off set edge finder though. Dial indicators take some practice to use quickly but are the most accurate when it's critical.





You don't have to get Starretts, even many of the better Chinese will do. You could probably get decent ones for less than $100 combined on ebay if you look carefully and patiently. I've seen very nice sets go for next to nothing quite often.

Vic,
Those foot peg mounts look good!
Fixturing is always hard for most new fabricators. Over the years I've had enough of my work fly off my mill so now I figure out the fixtures first.
I use an offset edge finder 90% of the time.

Thanks for the tips guys. I used an offset edge finder to center the rotary table and then zero out the digital display. my problem is then centering the hole I want to radius around on the rotary table. Thats were i was putting a transfer punch in the chuck and leaving the mill head centered over the rotary table using the transfer punch to line up the hole on the workpiece. Is there a better way to do that? is there a way to do that with the offset edge finder?

DoctoRot wrote: Thanks for the tips guys. I used an offset edge finder to center the rotary table and then zero out the digital display. my problem is then centering the hole I want to radius around on the rotary table. Thats were i was putting a transfer punch in the chuck and leaving the mill head centered over the rotary table using the transfer punch to line up the hole on the workpiece. Is there a better way to do that? is there a way to do that with the offset edge finder?

You can do it with an edge finder if the hole is big enough but it's better to use the wobbler if the hole is smaller or dial from either inside a larger hole or outside a round feature.

I'm sure there are good YouTube videos on using both

I have a ProtoTrak controler on the mill that I use.And I am having a MachMotion 3 axis control installed on my new to me Acer mill. I've been using systems like these for 25 years and they eliminate using a rotary table 99% of the time. I'll post some process photos the next time I make a triple clamp.