07-07-2014, 01:39 PM
Not really a How to but How I did it.
I am just showing how I did it, I am not saying it is the right way or the only way just my way.
These are the parts with an open slot. The material is 25mm x 5mm thick steel (actually it is key steel). The slot is 6mm wide.
I cut a closed slot with an ordinary slot mill (drill) with centre cutting. As you can see it is twice as long (plus a bit extra), so I can cut it in half.
It is then cut in half and trimmed to the required length.
This shows one half set in the vice
It can be very temping especially if only one is required to cut it like in the set up shown. One of the main problems occurs when the slot mill breaks through the end of the part. As the slot mill breaks through the work piece, we now have a tuning fork which can vibrate with enough force to loosen the work piece, break the slot mill and generally mess everything up.
So beware of cutting open slots in thin materials.
Sometimes it is better to cut a closed slot and trim the material to size thus ending up with an open slot.
DaveH
I am just showing how I did it, I am not saying it is the right way or the only way just my way.
These are the parts with an open slot. The material is 25mm x 5mm thick steel (actually it is key steel). The slot is 6mm wide.
I cut a closed slot with an ordinary slot mill (drill) with centre cutting. As you can see it is twice as long (plus a bit extra), so I can cut it in half.
It is then cut in half and trimmed to the required length.
This shows one half set in the vice
It can be very temping especially if only one is required to cut it like in the set up shown. One of the main problems occurs when the slot mill breaks through the end of the part. As the slot mill breaks through the work piece, we now have a tuning fork which can vibrate with enough force to loosen the work piece, break the slot mill and generally mess everything up.
So beware of cutting open slots in thin materials.
Sometimes it is better to cut a closed slot and trim the material to size thus ending up with an open slot.
DaveH