Scratch Build – In Progress ProtoHype - (paused)

thx a lot.. yeah I bet that sanding will hurt a bit. Thx for believing and Im glad I didn't do any more weard shapes since it's easy to do it in CAD but a hole other task to make it a reality.

Hehe then I guess I'll have to thank you for the second subscribtion Yeah a lathe and mill is a greate addon to the hand tools. But if you want a cheaper alternative you should check out hand held wood routers/bench routers. If you master these you can make some amazing shapes close to that of some mills. Some of them can even mill alu.

 

True, a router is also on my to get list after seeing some of the neat things done with them , infact it's next on the list, almost finished my current build so by the next time I'm ready to do another I'll have built up some new skills, techniques & a couple new tools, mod on mate .

 

Absolutely fantastic work! I love the design, and what you have done to the top piece so-far, is just brilliant! I really like the HDD-mout as well, what a great way to combine cooling with mounting, thumbs up!

I do however have a little advice. It seems that when you are milling in aluminium, you use no cooling at all. Is that the case? Speaking from experience I know that a milling-bit will only last like 1/8'th of the time while used without cooling, compared to a bit used with cooling. The cutting edges are simply being worn too fast due to the extra heat, which the cooling normally would move away. Of course this is only in metal (aluminium, iron, steel ect.), in softer materials like plexi and other plastics, cooling is not as important (it can in some cases however be a great way to reduce melted plastic on the bits and drills)
So, what I am saying is basically that applying liquid whilst milling will help both your bits, but also (and this might be even more important) increase the quality of the work done.

I know that with cooling follows a mess. Everything is getting soaped in, but it really is worth it! If your mill does not have a build-in cooling system to supply water, you could as an alternative manually add alcohol.

All right, just my 2cent. Keep up the great modding! It looks fantastic.

 

awesome work and a nice work log

 

Tanks you for the nice coments. Im glad to hear you like the design and the work so far. Thanks for caring and giving advice on how to improve the work. Really apreciate it. However in this case, I'm actually using quite alot of cooling. Since the mill isn't equiped with a built in cooling Im using a bottle as you say. Thats why there is never any cooling sprayed in the pictures since It's hard to use the bottle and the cam at the same time. However you can see the bottle in the background of one of the shots in the last post (looks like milk), it's not alcohol but some special cuttingfluid based on oil and water I think. And boy does it make a hell of a mess, just as you say. Takes some time to clean that up.

Thanks for the advice and feel free to give me more if you know any. Hope you'll stay tuned

Thanks to you too, nice to hear you like the log aswell as the work since I spend quite some time to try to make the log as good as possible. Like tuning the pics and trying to keep a line through the updates to prevent confusion.

 

Then I have nothing more to add. I see the bottle in the pictures now ... And of course - with that finish you get when milling, I should have known that you in fact were using some kind of cooling

Keep up the good work, it looks very good so far!

 

Well I dont blame you since 90% of the pictures are coverd with metal chips Anyway, any tips or tricks regarding machining (or anything else) is welcome. The machining you see here is basically what I have done so far, and there is much more to learn. Most machinist seems to have their own tricks up their sleeves.

 

Most machinist who are been educated nowaday are trained to use CNC machines. This sure makes machining a whole lot easier However, one of the hardest things in this field whether it's a lathe or a mill, a CNC or a manual, is to find the right feed in relation to the spindle-speed.
You will be surpriced how much this actually means! Both in relation to the quality of the work done, but also the life-time of your tools.
Feeds and speeds can be looked up. If you don't have a huge book with information about various tools, then you can google the name of your tool, and look up what speed and feed you should be using in a given material.

Hope this helps a little, if you allready know all this.. Well, then hopefully someone else will find this post, and realize that this is important to play around with

 

Don't forget money. On big machines it's more economic to burn through cutters instead of wasting time.

 

This looks amazing I could see this being shown on Million Dollar PC when its complete.

Keep up the good work I cant wait to see the rest.

 

Yeah thats tru. To bad that this build is far from economical

Thanks, yeah MDPC would be a true honour.

 

Here we go again.
I managed to get to the workshop and finish the milling of the last rods for the top and bottom of the case. Since there are 12 in total, these milling pictures might seem somewhat familiar if you have been watching this log before.


(CLICK TO ZOOM)


(CLICK TO ZOOM)



(CLICK TO ZOOM)



(CLICK TO ZOOM)



(CLICK TO ZOOM)


Yay.. almost done with the last one

(CLICK TO ZOOM)



(CLICK TO ZOOM)




(CLICK TO ZOOM)



(CLICK TO ZOOM)


(CLICK TO ZOOM)

The shapemilling of all the pieces is finally done. Next up is cutting, drilling and taping holes for them to be mounted. And of course there is the sanding. Hope you liked this mini update.

See ya

 

Hell yes I liked this mini-update!


-Do you have enough material on the ends to add screws? It looks really skimpy.

 

Thanks

I'm not shure where you mean it looks skimpy, but I guess you mean the two side pieces closest to the tablesurface?. The holes for these will be a bit closer to the edge for shure but im pretty shure there is enough material for the M4 screws im using. Also the heads of the screws for the side pieces will not be hidden inside the corner pieces like the rest of them since ther is no room for that. Might be vissible in the pic below.

Flashback

(CLICK TO ZOOM)

 

Great work as always, awesome machining skills.

 

I like it!

 

Yes. That's what I was talking about. I have the feeling I've asked before too.
-See. That's what you get for taking so long! All the senile folk start repeating themselves. If you don't hurry up I might steal your design and build one myself.

 

Thanks, still learning machining thoug

Nuce to hear.

He he Yeah sometimes I wish I had just made a cube shaped design. But hopefully there will be more frequent updates since this part probably was the most boring and timeconsuming part. Sucks even harder to realise that there is another method that I could have used to make the top much faster and probably just as acurate. Well well atleast I learn. Stealing the design you say... hm...then I guess it would be out of fluorecent coloured acrylics aswell

 

A cube would have been boring.
-Acrylic, yes...It's all I can afford.

 

That drive is amazing, I had to read how you did two or three times to just absorb the genius here.