Scratch Build – Complete Puddidium235 - Feb 2023 Complete +Final pics

All this bit ball and shank talk is making me very jealous Cheaps i'm still dreaming of the day i'll own a decent cnc but for now i'm happy to follow and learn from this incredible worklog.

Some ones already said it but this is going be one of the great water setups

 

Thanks.

You mean 'convoluted'. I'm not sure I even routed right. I have to go back and check.

 

Cheap I like the progress on your project, I copied your idea and I bought myself a "silent air compressor" too, it works well for metal dust too, and no one can complain about the noise .

Cheers

 

I'm a bad influence, Jean. I knew I had this, but someone put it in a 'safe place'. I've been looking for the thing for years. The chemical sprayer can go back to being an airbrush pump now.
At 7 1/2 hours cut time, I figure I stomped that thing about 5 hours. I should hook it up to an exercise bike somehow.

 

Nice job on dremeling out that channel under the surface, I wouldn't have thought that would have worked so well. How did that acrylic get so warped, uneven heating?

 

Thanks. -No clue. It might have been stored wrong before I got it. It's warped like it was laid flat with two corners raised.

 

I got a new bit finally. I owe you guys an update.

-I used the down time to rearrange all the lights and hoses so the work could be seen better. I promptly snapped off the back hose.

-This bit has 1 1/8" cutting length, but the fluting is continued further. It was exactly what I needed for this deep cut. 7 inches a minute, .032 inch depth of cut, .27" cut so two passes each cut = 4 hours+. ow.

-Here's where I'm stumped: The back and left side edges are like glass near the top.

-Better pic. The front and right side are grooved a bit. I'm thinking the mill is leaning just a bit to that direction? It's not enough to see using a square, but when I fly cut a high spot on the top, I noticed the cutter leaning that way too.

-Here's the one that's really confusing me. The front left corner was getting gouged consistently in a staggered pattern. I was cleaning the chips. It shouldn't be doing that on a .02" shave anyway.

-Another angle. Anyone?

-Anyway. Here's the un-drilled, super rough, half-finished CHONK. I've already started sanding.
It was found in a heap at a recycling center ages ago. Of course it needs sanded. I even used it as a table at one point.

 

Looks like the mill is out of square in the Z axis. Have you trammed the mill in yet? I think the polished areas are because the cutter is doing a very light cut there as the z axis steps down at an angle.

 

That was my guess too. The Taig is built with a swing-arm that you have to level. It's been bonked out of true/leaned on before. For the forward tilt, I never had to tram. I fear the ways are getting worn and I will need to adjust it soon... I don't have tooling for that. Level indicating with the fly cutter sounds NOT fun.

-But that gouging. What about that? It even happened on the first pass, where chips wouldn't have caused it.

 

Testing the z axis for square is fairly easy. All you need is a machinist square, ideally as big as your machine z travel and an .001 indicator. Attach the indicator on the spindle nose and place the square on the preferably flat table with the indicator on the squares vertical edge and jog up and down to see the tilting error. This can be done in x and y axis to verify tram. After the first step is done place the indicator in the spindle and sweep the table, it will let you know if the spindle axis is out of square. All this is assuming that your table is already flat. As for the gouging, I don't know, could be erroneous steps from the motion planner? or if the axis is sticky in certain spots could also do it to. possibly chunks in the drive belts.

 

*cough* Indicators cost money.
I would think a bad spot in the Y would affect the left side cut too. The material that was removed on the roughing pass side has polish from the lean in that area, then goes to a normal looking rough cut.

I should drop the subject. I'll try doing a .001" full depth final pass next time I use some thick material.

 

Yes nothing is cheap when it comes to machining. This is where ebay is your friend though. Here is a cheap one, even has the spindle mount bracket. The polished looking area is a good indicator that the mill is capable of doing a full depth of cut and having a good surface finish. Probably could probably do a finish cut at .005 step over and full depth since acrylic is pretty easy to cut.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Yuasa-300-...rentrq:02fa6bc51770acc7b434eb64fffcd7f2|iid:1

 

I mean, I can't imagine what would make my mill lean all of a sudden...

- Oh... Right.
I'm late for your update.

-I made a thing.

-I guess the edges were moot, because I sanded everything even. I figured the top would need work, so I added 1/32" to it in the model. Sure enough, that was the side that had the weird gouges in the cut. Here's a teaser with the switch assembly.

-I guess I hadn't sanded the sides in the earlier pic yet. Here you can see that I drilled the holes the rest of the way, and tapped stuff.

-Next up: This jig was so I could mill the ports connecting the two manifolds.

-Done. Now I had to drill the rest of those mounting holes and tap them.

-So, more squirrely tool setup.

-There was some equal squirrel levels for the tapping. Who is the idiot that designs these things?!?

-I used the base plate to find the other two holes. I filled in the holes with fine-point marker here. Earlier design tweaks in cad moved the holes closer together because the material was much thinner.

-And nailed it. -sort of... Viva loose tolerances!

 

Will you have a gasket or rubber seal between the plates?

Also, is it hard to clean up the plastic shavings out of the carpet? My wife is less happy when I do work over carpets/rugs...

 

!!!DANGER !!! no hand tap ????? scary stuff ! So much sexy plexy pRon !

 

Thanks.
@Karrek -

On the left side, you can see the ports have a lip for O-rings.
As for the carpet, it was installed in 1984. That room is separated from the rest of the house and has always been used as a work room/office. It also helps that I have a decent vac...or 2, and a steam cleaner... or 2.

 

I do see that now. thanks!
And I like the marbled effect on the acrylic - nice choice!

 

Yeah seems like you could do some damage lol, Agreed

 

I think you guys overestimate the power of decade-old drill batteries.
The drill is better since tapping at this small size is a half-second of tapping, and then backing the bit out to clean the chips.

 

You know your right !

I had 16 holes to drill and tap last night and thought fug it ..... Adapted my tap into my small makita cordless screwdriver and was done in less then a minute. Grunty enuf yet just slow enuf not to let me damage the threads.

TY Cheaps