MetalworkingFun Forum
Todays Project - What did you do today? - Printable Version

+- MetalworkingFun Forum (http://www.metalworkingfun.com)
+-- Forum: Machining (http://www.metalworkingfun.com/forum-5.html)
+--- Forum: Projects (http://www.metalworkingfun.com/forum-7.html)
+--- Thread: Todays Project - What did you do today? (/thread-727.html)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - PixMan - 10-20-2013

Invited a new friend from one of the motorcycling forums I'm on to come over to the shop with his Frankenbike project. Neil is an "ex-pat" from the UK (Manchester area, IIRC) and is building a custom bike from several. He's got a "Smithy" 3-in-1 type machine at home, but it's too small for this part of his project.

Today he brought over the rear swinging arm from an Aprilia 250 GP bike, to be fitted to the frame of another bike. I think it's a Yamaha RZ350 frame, but I am sure that twin-cylinder two stroke motor is the one he'll be using. We had to take 4.5mm off each side of the swingarm, at the pivot points. This will allow the Aprilia part to fit between the other frame. There are NO square or straight surfaces to reference from, so we first turned a plug out of 6061 aluminium and bolted it to a plate of the same. This Ø32mm plug just fit into the bores for the needle bearings which the swingarm pivots upon. It gets the pivot axis somewhat square and perpendicular to the table, aligned with the spindle of the machine.

[Image: IMG_20131020_143107805_zpsb5051fc9.jpg]

We used lots of clamping, including use of two of my Starrett No.190 & 191 "Little Giant" Jack Screws and one of the machinist jacks that I made as a freshman in vocational school in 1973 (and had never actually used before today.)

[Image: IMG_20131020_143122798_zps2fe41ac1.jpg]
[Image: IMG_20131020_143114957_zps10dc4c44.jpg]

Here's Neil doing the flycutting on one side:
[Image: IMG_20131020_142940393_zpse2afcfde.jpg]

Then the other:
[Image: IMG_20131020_150443550_zps94e7f90a.jpg]

Neil reported that when he got back to his shop, the part "fit like factory parts". This made me happy, and well worth the 3-1/2 hours we worked together on it. He didn't have to, but he brought me a round (casting?) of some naval grade of bronze that's about 2-1/2" in diameter and about 30 inches long as "barter." I don't know when I'll have an application for such a material, but you know how we all are about "stock". Big Grin

Thanks Neil!

I've asked him to join up here, though I know he's got limited time. He works for a large volume casting company out of Spain, and travels an awful lot. When home he also likes to ride motorbikes, but mostly on the track.

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - TomG - 10-20-2013

A nice creative set-up Ken. Parts like that can be quite a challenge to get well aligned and rigid enough to machine without an unwelcome surprise. Yikes

I once spent nearly an entire day fixturing a large weldement to a CNC mill and hardly slept a wink that night thinking about machining it the next day. It turned out well but with all the time I had invested in it, it was a nerve racking experience.

Tom

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - Mayhem - 10-21-2013

Nice job! I'm glad there is someone else who drags you into your shop and makes you play Big Grin

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - DaveH - 10-21-2013

Nicely done, Smiley-signs107 some times it takes hours to set up and 20 minutes to actually do the job.
Smiley-eatdrink004
DaveH

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - EdK - 10-21-2013

(10-21-2013, 08:29 AM)DaveH Wrote: ... some times it takes hours to set up and 20 minutes to actually do the job.
Smiley-eatdrink004
DaveH

That's usually my SOP. Chin

Ed

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - PixMan - 10-21-2013

That's just about what it was in this case too. First we discussed options such as tilting the head 90º. I dismissed that because although the head can spin 360º, I don't like to run the higher speeds with the oils in the head seeping around inside.

Nine passes of 0.5mm on each side didn't take long at all, and the part was rigid enough that I probably could have used a good face mill in one pass.

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - sasquatch - 10-21-2013

Customers that drop off a job at shops don't realize the amount of setup times to get the job done properly. Any properly run shop owner cannot spend hours on the setup and only charge for the actual machining time.

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - stevec - 10-22-2013

Any time I've ever asked a quote of a machine shop, it always seemed to me they put in set-up time (done by the slowest one armed machinist they had.) In fact I think one even figured in set-down time. Rotfl

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - awemawson - 10-23-2013

Having changed the curtain drops on my Beaver Partsmaster to better contain the cutting fluid, the new clean pvc drops made everything else seem dim and dingy! The polycarbonate windows were yellowed with age - not sure if they were originally amber, or if it's just oil and sunlight - certainly there were several different shades, and the bits covered by the fixings were almost clear but not entirely. I'd ordered replacement cut sheets a few weeks back and was awaiting 'the right time' which came today. I wanted to do a 'soak test' of my Traub cnc lathe to see if I'd cleared an intermittent axis drive fault, so had a couple of hours when I was just baby sitting it, so fitted the windows.

Thumbsup Ever so slightly better Thumbsup

RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - Mayhem - 10-23-2013

Wow - that is quite the difference. I'd love to see some video of these machines in action.