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General Metalworking - All aspects of working with metal.
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Posted by on April 6, 2008, 2:44 pm
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It turned out the tilt table upon which the mill vise was mounted had
a breaking or broken T-nut holding it down--or rather, not holding it
down so well. I am now able to mill 6061 aluminum quite adequately--
even with a four flute end mill. (I don't have a two flute small
enough for some of these cuts.)
I need to radius the ends of a rectangle that extends out from the
rest of the workpiece. If I had a rotary table, it would be obvious
how to do this:
1. Put the mill vise on the rotary table.
2. Put the workpiece in the mill vise with the center of the "circle"
at the center of the rotary table.
3. Start at the top of the rectangle (0 degrees), and slowly turn the
rotary table until I get to 90 degrees.
4. Repeat back to -90 degrees.
I don't have rotary table, and while it might be useful to have one,
I suspect that there's a way to do this with a tilt table as well. My
first thought is that you could put the mill vise up to 90 degrees,
with the workpiece at the top--then moving the tilt table one or two
degrees at a time. (Turn the mill off while moving the tilt table.)
But I think then that the location of the workpiece on the tilt table
would have to be the same as the radius I am trying to cut. If I am
doing a .375" radius, the workpiece would have to be .375" from the
pivot point of the tilt table--which obviously isn't possible.
Suggestions?
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Posted by Backlash on April 6, 2008, 3:46 pm
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round-over cutter, aka, a radius cutter. See mscdirect.com
RJ
> It turned out the tilt table upon which the mill vise was mounted had
> a breaking or broken T-nut holding it down--or rather, not holding it
> down so well. I am now able to mill 6061 aluminum quite adequately--
> even with a four flute end mill. (I don't have a two flute small
> enough for some of these cuts.)
>
> I need to radius the ends of a rectangle that extends out from the
> rest of the workpiece. If I had a rotary table, it would be obvious
> how to do this:
>
> 1. Put the mill vise on the rotary table.
>
> 2. Put the workpiece in the mill vise with the center of the "circle"
> at the center of the rotary table.
>
> 3. Start at the top of the rectangle (0 degrees), and slowly turn the
> rotary table until I get to 90 degrees.
>
> 4. Repeat back to -90 degrees.
>
> I don't have rotary table, and while it might be useful to have one,
> I suspect that there's a way to do this with a tilt table as well. My
> first thought is that you could put the mill vise up to 90 degrees,
> with the workpiece at the top--then moving the tilt table one or two
> degrees at a time. (Turn the mill off while moving the tilt table.)
> But I think then that the location of the workpiece on the tilt table
> would have to be the same as the radius I am trying to cut. If I am
> doing a .375" radius, the workpiece would have to be .375" from the
> pivot point of the tilt table--which obviously isn't possible.
>
> Suggestions?
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Posted by Karl Townsend on April 6, 2008, 7:41 pm
Please log in for more thread options
> round-over cutter, aka, a radius cutter. See mscdirect.com
or if'n you're cheap, make a form cutter to put in a fly cutter holder.
Karl
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Posted by Don Foreman on April 6, 2008, 7:27 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Sun, 6 Apr 2008 11:44:22 -0700 (PDT), clayton@claytoncramer.com
wrote:
>It turned out the tilt table upon which the mill vise was mounted had
>a breaking or broken T-nut holding it down--or rather, not holding it
>down so well. I am now able to mill 6061 aluminum quite adequately--
>even with a four flute end mill. (I don't have a two flute small
>enough for some of these cuts.)
>
>I need to radius the ends of a rectangle that extends out from the
>rest of the workpiece. If I had a rotary table, it would be obvious
>how to do this:
>
>1. Put the mill vise on the rotary table.
>
>2. Put the workpiece in the mill vise with the center of the "circle"
>at the center of the rotary table.
>
>3. Start at the top of the rectangle (0 degrees), and slowly turn the
>rotary table until I get to 90 degrees.
>
>4. Repeat back to -90 degrees.
>
>I don't have rotary table, and while it might be useful to have one,
>I suspect that there's a way to do this with a tilt table as well. My
>first thought is that you could put the mill vise up to 90 degrees,
>with the workpiece at the top--then moving the tilt table one or two
>degrees at a time. (Turn the mill off while moving the tilt table.)
>But I think then that the location of the workpiece on the tilt table
>would have to be the same as the radius I am trying to cut. If I am
>doing a .375" radius, the workpiece would have to be .375" from the
>pivot point of the tilt table--which obviously isn't possible.
>
>Suggestions?
You didn't mention a spec for required precision or accuracy. For
"unfussy" radiussing, an inexpensive belt sander can do a very nice
job. You should be able to "grind to the line" to well with .010"
accuracy. Ceramic grit belts do a great job on non-ferrous metals,
steel and even stainless, cut surprisingly quickly and last quite a
long time. I get my belts from:
www.customsandingbelts.com
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Posted by Doug White on April 7, 2008, 6:16 pm
Please log in for more thread options Keywords:
clayton@claytoncramer.com wrote:
>It turned out the tilt table upon which the mill vise was mounted had
>a breaking or broken T-nut holding it down--or rather, not holding it
>down so well. I am now able to mill 6061 aluminum quite adequately--
>even with a four flute end mill. (I don't have a two flute small
>enough for some of these cuts.)
>
>I need to radius the ends of a rectangle that extends out from the
>rest of the workpiece. If I had a rotary table, it would be obvious
>how to do this:
>
>1. Put the mill vise on the rotary table.
>
>2. Put the workpiece in the mill vise with the center of the "circle"
>at the center of the rotary table.
>
>3. Start at the top of the rectangle (0 degrees), and slowly turn the
>rotary table until I get to 90 degrees.
>
>4. Repeat back to -90 degrees.
>
>I don't have rotary table, and while it might be useful to have one,
>I suspect that there's a way to do this with a tilt table as well. My
>first thought is that you could put the mill vise up to 90 degrees,
>with the workpiece at the top--then moving the tilt table one or two
>degrees at a time. (Turn the mill off while moving the tilt table.)
>But I think then that the location of the workpiece on the tilt table
>would have to be the same as the radius I am trying to cut. If I am
>doing a .375" radius, the workpiece would have to be .375" from the
>pivot point of the tilt table--which obviously isn't possible.
>
>Suggestions?
Depending on how fussy you are, you can make pretty nice approximate
radiuses by stepping around the arc. I wrote a computer program to
calculate the X & Y feeds required based on the radius and how big a step
you want to take. It usually takes less time than swapping a part out
onto a rotary table, and it would go really fast if I had a DRO. What's
left can be cleaned up very quickly with a file. Unfortunately, the
program is written in APL so it's not very portable. You could do it
fairly easily in Excel.
Doug White
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> a breaking or broken T-nut holding it down--or rather, not holding it
> down so well. I am now able to mill 6061 aluminum quite adequately--
> even with a four flute end mill. (I don't have a two flute small
> enough for some of these cuts.)
>
> I need to radius the ends of a rectangle that extends out from the
> rest of the workpiece. If I had a rotary table, it would be obvious
> how to do this:
>
> 1. Put the mill vise on the rotary table.
>
> 2. Put the workpiece in the mill vise with the center of the "circle"
> at the center of the rotary table.
>
> 3. Start at the top of the rectangle (0 degrees), and slowly turn the
> rotary table until I get to 90 degrees.
>
> 4. Repeat back to -90 degrees.
>
> I don't have rotary table, and while it might be useful to have one,
> I suspect that there's a way to do this with a tilt table as well. My
> first thought is that you could put the mill vise up to 90 degrees,
> with the workpiece at the top--then moving the tilt table one or two
> degrees at a time. (Turn the mill off while moving the tilt table.)
> But I think then that the location of the workpiece on the tilt table
> would have to be the same as the radius I am trying to cut. If I am
> doing a .375" radius, the workpiece would have to be .375" from the
> pivot point of the tilt table--which obviously isn't possible.
>
> Suggestions?