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T&C (D-Bit) Grinder.
Its starting to pay for itself. It wasn't super expensive, but it wasn't dirt cheap either. I had plans to make real tools with it, and I will when I need them, but its useful for simple tools and recycling tools as well. Yesterday and today I recyclced about $70 (retail) worth of broken end mills and made them useful again, while simultaneously running other machines in the shop.
Broken End Mills.
Like a lot of people who do a fair amount of 3D milling (not 2.5D using 3D methods) I wear out and break down the first part of the mill leaving the sides mostly untouched. If cheaper I often buy mills with shorter flutes. Today I needed to square some 1" thick blanks and trim them to final length. I needed to put a new endmill in a holder for the mill I was using. Instead I went over to my carbide scrap bucket and pullet out a half inch AluPower (or maybe AlumaCut) with chowdered tips. Then I walked it back to the TC grinder and cut the end off. A slight hollow grind on the end and it was good to go for side milling. Over an inch of nearly unused flute. I'm glad I got a thin diamond cut off wheel for that machine. I coudl have used it for that without cutting off, but it would have been less useful over all and I would have had to guess depth instead of touching off. Obviously it won't plunge for a slot, but I bet it would ramp. (ok maybe at half a degree LOL) The mill generated 2-1/2 gallons of chips today.
Tolerances...
I used that recycled end mill on the Hurco for roughing blanks. Yes. The one with a country mile of backlash because something failed. I just conventional cut and flipped the blanks to finish to length. Every blank came out within a couple thousandths. Good enough. A broken down old machine that needs major work is still useful if you know how. (I will fix it someday if I ever have time.)
ZRN / Radius / Rougher Finisher
On the little high speed mills I surface mold plates with a 1/4" end mill. They work ok, and while they aren't as fast as a fly cutter or a face mill on one of the bigger mills they get it done. I also do a lot of roughing with that same mill. It hogs material out of mold cavities pretty quick. I just never liked the screech when plunging or the time wasted ramping. Yes it is significant. Recently I picked up a couple 1/4" 3Flute ZRN coated rougher finishers with a .02 radius. Straight plunge. Some speed as before. No screech. Also a lot better finish for surfacing. I don't know which change exactly made the difference, but I'll be using that exact mill for a long time to come.
Speaking of Roughers.
I switched to a rougher for prepping hinged blanks on the Tormach. One of the first things I do is remove .24 inches of material from most of the plate leaving a ridge along one end to radius for the hinge boss. I went back to my original calculated speeds with a pretty healthy step over with no chatter, no pull out, a much better rough surface than I expected, and amazingly a lot smaller pile of chips building up against the door of the machine. The smaller chips just wash right off into the chip tray instead of piling up.
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
A couple weeks ago I was playing around on Facebook on the weekend. Had several people tell me I should make a mold for this or that, but I just took it with a grain of salt. Plenty of people in this world will tell you what you should do if it doesn't cost them any money. Usually I start talking dollars and people suddenly disappear. I started calling their bluff, putting numbers on things, and telling them if they bought one upfront I'd add it to my short term new stock molds list and get them in line to cut. 16 new molds and 7 new designs later I found out most of those folks weren't bluffing. I put real numbers on them and they paid it.
Somedays You Just Have to Stop and Catch Up.
I've stacks of completed molds and other parts with the all the primary machining done. They just need hinge pins, alignment pins, deburring, washed off, other misc minor stuff, and of course they all need to be packed and shipped. My next day in the shop I'm not going to turn on a single machine until that is all done. (The office computer and label printer stay turned on all the time.) If I finish and there is still daylight left I'm going fishing.
I'm not seeking any advice. I am sure somebody wants tell me how I am doing something or possibly everything wrong. Please don't. I just had a good week, and a good day today and I am sharing. If you find something useful to you great. That's part of why I shared it. If you think its all a load of hogwash that's fine to, but please just keep it to yourself and move along to the next post down the way.
Its starting to pay for itself. It wasn't super expensive, but it wasn't dirt cheap either. I had plans to make real tools with it, and I will when I need them, but its useful for simple tools and recycling tools as well. Yesterday and today I recyclced about $70 (retail) worth of broken end mills and made them useful again, while simultaneously running other machines in the shop.
Broken End Mills.
Like a lot of people who do a fair amount of 3D milling (not 2.5D using 3D methods) I wear out and break down the first part of the mill leaving the sides mostly untouched. If cheaper I often buy mills with shorter flutes. Today I needed to square some 1" thick blanks and trim them to final length. I needed to put a new endmill in a holder for the mill I was using. Instead I went over to my carbide scrap bucket and pullet out a half inch AluPower (or maybe AlumaCut) with chowdered tips. Then I walked it back to the TC grinder and cut the end off. A slight hollow grind on the end and it was good to go for side milling. Over an inch of nearly unused flute. I'm glad I got a thin diamond cut off wheel for that machine. I coudl have used it for that without cutting off, but it would have been less useful over all and I would have had to guess depth instead of touching off. Obviously it won't plunge for a slot, but I bet it would ramp. (ok maybe at half a degree LOL) The mill generated 2-1/2 gallons of chips today.
Tolerances...
I used that recycled end mill on the Hurco for roughing blanks. Yes. The one with a country mile of backlash because something failed. I just conventional cut and flipped the blanks to finish to length. Every blank came out within a couple thousandths. Good enough. A broken down old machine that needs major work is still useful if you know how. (I will fix it someday if I ever have time.)
ZRN / Radius / Rougher Finisher
On the little high speed mills I surface mold plates with a 1/4" end mill. They work ok, and while they aren't as fast as a fly cutter or a face mill on one of the bigger mills they get it done. I also do a lot of roughing with that same mill. It hogs material out of mold cavities pretty quick. I just never liked the screech when plunging or the time wasted ramping. Yes it is significant. Recently I picked up a couple 1/4" 3Flute ZRN coated rougher finishers with a .02 radius. Straight plunge. Some speed as before. No screech. Also a lot better finish for surfacing. I don't know which change exactly made the difference, but I'll be using that exact mill for a long time to come.
Speaking of Roughers.
I switched to a rougher for prepping hinged blanks on the Tormach. One of the first things I do is remove .24 inches of material from most of the plate leaving a ridge along one end to radius for the hinge boss. I went back to my original calculated speeds with a pretty healthy step over with no chatter, no pull out, a much better rough surface than I expected, and amazingly a lot smaller pile of chips building up against the door of the machine. The smaller chips just wash right off into the chip tray instead of piling up.
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
A couple weeks ago I was playing around on Facebook on the weekend. Had several people tell me I should make a mold for this or that, but I just took it with a grain of salt. Plenty of people in this world will tell you what you should do if it doesn't cost them any money. Usually I start talking dollars and people suddenly disappear. I started calling their bluff, putting numbers on things, and telling them if they bought one upfront I'd add it to my short term new stock molds list and get them in line to cut. 16 new molds and 7 new designs later I found out most of those folks weren't bluffing. I put real numbers on them and they paid it.
Somedays You Just Have to Stop and Catch Up.
I've stacks of completed molds and other parts with the all the primary machining done. They just need hinge pins, alignment pins, deburring, washed off, other misc minor stuff, and of course they all need to be packed and shipped. My next day in the shop I'm not going to turn on a single machine until that is all done. (The office computer and label printer stay turned on all the time.) If I finish and there is still daylight left I'm going fishing.
I'm not seeking any advice. I am sure somebody wants tell me how I am doing something or possibly everything wrong. Please don't. I just had a good week, and a good day today and I am sharing. If you find something useful to you great. That's part of why I shared it. If you think its all a load of hogwash that's fine to, but please just keep it to yourself and move along to the next post down the way.
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