Milling with a drill press

Boy, isn't that the truth. We ran into that time and again at the electronics developement place I worked at for 20 years a long time ago. ...lew...

Reply to
Lew Hartswick
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A varispeed router in aluminum should work assuming carbide bits. A ton of 80/20 extrusion gets cut on a chop saw.

Wes

Reply to
clutch

Sadly, I've found that doing it half assed and getting the job running quickly gets more points than taking longer and doing it right.

After that, getting time to back go do it right becomes the struggle.

Wes

Reply to
clutch

Having seen your mill, I think that you made an excellent purchase.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17582

I can scrap parts a lot faster now .

Mike

Reply to
Mike Henry

While there are posted surface speeds for aluminum, unlike steel, you can machine it at pretty much any attainable surface speed with few, if any, problems. I would think that the vast majority of carbide router bits would be made of a C2 grade, which is perfect for the application. I vote for the router.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Sigh! Yep----that's the word, chary. Thanks for the correction, John.

Nice catch, Lew.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Heh! At my last place of employment, just before I started my machine shop back in '67, one of the owners of the shop where I was employed actually told me to work that way. He had a philosophy of where he'd prefer to crash through a job, leaving enough time to do it twice if necessary, instead of doing it right the first time.

That was a great learning experience for me----and only bolstered my attitude about how machining should be accomplished. I have no patience for hackers.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Agreed! But that's a statement about the decline of pride in workmanship in the good ol' US of A. I'm not sure it is representative of those of us that still take great pride in doing a job well.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

If you are just machining parts take time and do it right.

When doing prototype design work it is a waste of time to spend elaborate time on designs that might not work or will need to be changed before the final product is going to be produced. I have one special machine that I designed and built that we sort of slapped together. I could have spent a lot of time to make it pretty but after three months the customer decided he wanted to use it to grind bigger parts. It meant redoing a number of things on the machine. We wound up operating the machine for him since he didn't want any competitor to see it in his plant. As we have run the prototype we have come up with a number of improvements that will save a lot of time. We are in the process of incorporating these changes with a final design that will be built with functionality and beauty. Maybe not beauty but professional looking. :)

John

Reply to
John

That's all well and good for your circumstances, but the job shop where I worked was heavily engaged in defense work. If you haven't been involved in that, or aero-space work, you likely have no idea what the potential is when you have an attitude like this dude had. It's not uncommon to have a buyer cut you off from work when he discovers you have the potential, or especially the inclination, to deliver work that isn't acceptable.

A friend of mine bit off a lot more than he could chew and experienced that very thing. The friend was too inexperienced for the work in question, but bid on and got it any. I had "no bid" the job, and had years more experience than he had. Cutting deep 1/8" slots in stainless, particularly when they have but .001" tolerance, is not for the feint of heart. I was more than qualified to do the job, but not with the equipment I had at my disposal.

Don't do hack work unless you don't mind having the reputation of being a hacker. Guys like me have a dim view of such people.

No, I'm not ashamed to say it. People should take more pride in the things they do------or quit complaining about the low quality coming from China.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

We get precision work and loose tolerance work, loose meaning .030+- Precision meaning holding .0003+- on a ten inch ring .250 thick with no spring.

A lot of the stuff goes to heat treating after machining with the threads cut in the soft condition and trying to figure out how much the stuff is going to shrink. Its kind of hard to recut a thread when the bhn is up to 750.

The challenging stuff is fun to do. The easy stuff is boring.

John

Reply to
John

I see some pretty good stuff coming from china, along with a lot of bad stuff. I grew up with the first influx of Japanese stuff. Deja voo all over again.

John

Reply to
John

Man, you said a mouth full! I remember all too well what Made in Japan used to mean. Then things changed------really changed. I used to run an Ortofon moving coil cartridge on my Ortofon tone arm (respectable stereo gear). Went in for a replacement one day and was offered a Supex. A little more money, but guaranteed to be better. It was. Made in Japan.

They are now teaching us how to do quality.

We, as a nation, should be ashamed. We used to be world leaders in such things.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Their

Intentionally misleading is what I meant by "slick marketing". I think this is one of the "Projects XX" series. They sell for about the same money. I think he is hiding the title to prevent people from becoming interested by his ads and then purchasing elsewhere. He does write a compelling ad, but his shipping has been too high in the past, compared to other sources.

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

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Reply to
Ron Thompson

Over my cold, dead body (and booby traps).

That's just great! I moved to Florida to get away from snow, and with all the retirees down here the snow would have to be at least 20 feet deep, year round.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Be careful, Ron. The grim reaper is always busy here in Florida, what with the millions of retirees that keep moving south. :)

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Michael, reminds me of a young couple I was talking to that had recently moved to a rural lakeside community that was almost entirely populated by elderly retirees. Commenting on the frequency with which their neighbors were passing on, the wife says "Makes you want to go out and smear blood on the doorpost!"

well, *I* thought it was funny ;)

Reply to
Rex

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