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Milling & Machining

So over lunch break I went home and was working on a chamfer program when, power cuts out and an outlet starts making a not so nice buzzing noise :baldy So no I'll be trying to fix the power to the garage after work
 
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Thanks, learnt something new,

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Not sure how well that will work without coolant. The one I used had a plastic tub that sat on the table. The unit had a pump in it that would suck the coolant out and return it to the machine. The electrodes are pretty much thin wall copper tube. The coolant is pumped through the center to cool electrode and flush out the hole.
 
Too cheap to buy a Rabaconda ( sorry MVI 😔) so decided to build my own version. Machined up the main spindle. It's has 24mm, 22mm and 20mm steps. The main spindle was going to be 18mm, but my Yamaha has a 17mm front axle, so that's that. Had to school myself on hss grinding to make internal and external thread cutting tools because I'm too cheap to buy taps and dies, too! Surface finish on the external thread is meh, but the internal thread came out good and the fit is great. Scrapped two of the spindle mount bases before I got the hang of it, but overall pleased and a nice way to spend a rainy weekend.



Bad news: I learned my lathe is turning a .007" taper over a 24" span. One mountain at a time...

Lesson learned: 5/8" isn't a great size to choose for internal single point threading. You end up with a long, skinny tool with tons of flex. Something like 437 spring passes before hitting dimension 😁

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Too cheap to buy a Rabaconda ( sorry MVI 😔) so decided to build my own version. Machined up the main spindle. It's has 24mm, 22mm and 20mm steps. The main spindle was going to be 18mm, but my Yamaha has a 17mm front axle, so that's that. Had to school myself on hss grinding to make internal and external thread cutting tools because I'm too cheap to buy taps and dies, too! Surface finish on the external thread is meh, but the internal thread came out good and the fit is great. Scrapped two of the spindle mount bases before I got the hang of it, but overall pleased and a nice way to spend a rainy weekend.



Bad news: I learned my lathe is turning a .007" taper over a 24" span. One mountain at a time...

Lesson learned: 5/8" isn't a great size to choose for internal single point threading. You end up with a long, skinny tool with tons of flex. Something like 437 spring passes before hitting dimension 😁

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Looking good, the runout wont really matter much for the tool you are making.

As for the non-sale, Not to worry, we also sell tires.
:photog
 
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Those consumables is how they get ya!

Yeah, the taper won't bother this thing. Not looking forward to determining how to correct it, though. We'll get there eventually.
 
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That's the spindle done. Milled in some wrench flats and turned up the other spindle adapter. Think I'll dig the torch out of mothballs and harden/temper this thing properly. At least the steps, threads and wrench flats. Blue and oil it afterwards.
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After fighting with the power it’s finally back! Finished up making a little something, I finally have an F to give :imaposer
Made a set of soft jaws so I can run a repeatable zero with the raw stock on the left and the second op on the right. The only thing I’m not completely happy with is the engraving crispness, but it’s still plenty serviceable. I thinks it’s my gfs favorite thing I’ve made so far.
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Looks so fun watching the cool kids do it on YouTube, but man...boring heads are freaking tedious. Chinesium boring head didn't disappoint. Increments on the dial turned out to be on the money and it makes round holes where they're weren't any. Can't ask for more than that.
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Over on the Royal Enfield forums a question came up about chain breakers, there are some light units out there with bodies made of billet or cast aluminum but they're well over $100 and they're labeled light duty.

I've got the Harbor Freight model
HF chain breaker
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I'm thinking about making an aluminum handle for it and drilling some speed holes to cut down on weight.

Thoughts?
 
I feel like I put a ton of pressure on my chain tool handle. Especially when setting the rivet heads down. First instinct is aluminum isn't a great choice, but I've got thin little aluminum tire spoons that have proven to be incredibly strong. I guess if you use the right alloy it should work.
 
For the handle I'd make it out of 7075 Al, but for my own I would just keep the steel, if you are stranded in the middle of nowhere you can hit it with things or hit things with it and it will last longer:ricky
 
Oh, you want to lighten it so it weighs less when being packed away? Yeah, I'd go with psykown's advice on that regard 😁
 
Saw mills count? We laid about 2 post beam houses in a week and tossed out enough cypres to buid a couple canoes. We racked up 24 2x10 by 25ft by lunch today ..oh well brokers big money and true post beam homes. The hobby mill struggles with 25ft. I got into the controls and cnc is different than spinning and cutting logs. I wiil get some pics. I am a machine tool guy by trade and this is impressive but manual labor is used to protect the precious wood. We sell 1200-1500 oak mats a year for logging on the same mill in the down time. Oh its nice to see a 25ft beam cut out of wood. US grown and cut...kinda wild with heavy timber flying around.. Those trees are old and dragged out of the swamp. Pretty wood.
 
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All is tr
Once dried out, how true is the lumber?
Now I have to measure. The production speed could be slowed down for tighter tolerances. The buyers do the finishing so the wood has to be slightly oversized.
 
Saw mills count? We laid about 2 post beam houses in a week and tossed out enough cypres to buid a couple canoes. We racked up 24 2x10 by 25ft by lunch today ..oh well brokers big money and true post beam homes. The hobby mill struggles with 25ft. I got into the controls and cnc is different than spinning and cutting logs. I wiil get some pics. I am a machine tool guy by trade and this is impressive but manual labor is used to protect the precious wood. We sell 1200-1500 oak mats a year for logging on the same mill in the down time. Oh its nice to see a 25ft beam cut out of wood. US grown and cut...kinda wild with heavy timber flying around.. Those trees are old and dragged out of the swamp. Pretty wood.
What mill do you have? I don't have equipment to move a 25' log, so I'm happy with only having 16' of track on my little mill. I rarely need lumber longer than 16', usually 8' will be plenty.

How big was the finished size of that 25' beam?
 
Once dried out, how true is the lumber?
Not trying to interrupt and butt in, but man, there's so many variables. I'm pretty new at it all and was really surprised how much there was to learn. Beyond the simple stuff like what kinda tree and limby, there's other things I never even considered. I knabbed a nice white oak growing out of the side of a bank. Deep gulley forced the tree to grow way up to reach sunlight, so it had a longer than usual log before the limbs started. Thought I was really on to something. Started cutting it and the boards were curling off like peeling a potato skin. Internal stresses in the wood fibers due to growing out of the side of a bank vs straight up out of flat ground. Once released from the log the wood just went every which way. Who knew? Not me 😁

Stopped and studied the bark on the offcuts and you could see the twist in the log. Lessons learned.

Later that summer a buddy brought a load of logs to have cut and I saw that twisted bark pattern. Told him what happened before and he said cut it anyway. Cut one board off and it curled. Stopped meeting board and cut it in to large posts instead. So far, they've been stable, but it's only been a year.
 
The mill owner has two same model 70 series woodmizers. The 25ft have been all sizes. I guess a 24x24 beam would be possible. We cut a 14x14x16 in the order. Last week we cut 175 count of12x12x12 in a few days. The planks to get to beam sized get edged. Then stacked with spacer sticks for drying. So there is alot of lumber from beam cutting. We turned out 3 beams 12×12×21 late Thurs and it took 4 logs. One beam was cut to boards from a split. Plus a breakdown. 30 mins left we cut the last 2 logs to get one beam and a stack of 1x12x10. The length is actually longer. The finished stack is trimmed to about 3" over. Everything should be over sized

Yes cutting relieves internal stress. Oak will curl more than cypress. The stacking helps to keep the boards flat. The oak is for mats and is bolted together. And heartwood is different than outer wood. I find this stuff very interesting but it can be crazy.
 
Whoa, Danno. Kant's that big and long came from big trees! I'm pretty sure I've never even seen a cypress around here. Vast majority of the trees at my place are red, white and chestnut oak. Lots of tulip poplar. Pines and cedars are few and far between.

Productive evening in the shop. Cutting down box tubing and rewelding it in to smaller pieces of box tubing is so much fun....that's a lie. Telescoping adjustments for the bead breaker to account for different widths and diameters. Half past midnight, so final measurements will wait till I have a fresh brain. Looking like it might actually work, though. 😁 Being able to simply mill a slot in tubing is a joy. So far, got $24 invested in a duck head from eBay. 
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