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Turner's Cube - Part 1

26/10/2012

6 Comments

 
It was a fun morning in the shop today with Terence coming by to do some work together.  We have been discussing on doing some projects together and wanted to start with the Touch Probe for the CNC mill he drawn up.  As he has no experience in turning (not after leaving Secondary School many many years ago), we settled for the Turner's Cube as the starting project.

This is how a completed Turner's Cube looks like, taken from Bob Warfield's CNC Cookbook:
Picture
Click on the pic to go to CNC Cookbook. Bob has many interesting articles on machining and is the author of GWizard Calculator - a really helpful tool to have even for home machining.
It is a simple beginning project, I read online, for most people.  There are many videos and pictures on the net showing different versions being made, not just on the lathe, but also on the mill.  This project will be a good one for Terence to gain some hands on with the lathe and for me to learn the entire process from planning to completion and to build up the required confidence.

We started with a square bar of 1" aluminium I've in the box.  To keep things simple, a smaller cube was agreed upon.  Some time was spent facing the sides to bring the cube down to 24.5mm.  Keying that in the GWizard Turner's Cube calculator, the other dimensions were given.

We didn't get to finish the project in one session as I ran out of shop time (meeting my parents to visit my grandmother).  Hope to finish it up in our next session.

Not many pics this session.  We were chatting away while I show the big guy some basic lathe work, which is all that I know... We hope to learn together, motivating and teaching each other up the learning curve of machining.
Picture
The 1" square aluminium bar stock of unknown grade being cut in the bandsaw.  It was a quick cut with feed set at 'M'.

Picture
The workpiece was then cleaned up in the lathe using the automatic 4 jaw chuck.  I really love this Rohm chuck - very good in precision despite being a scroll chuck.

Picture
Couple of sides done.

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All sides done and ready for the next stage.

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The first drill called for in the GWizard Calculator is a 3.5mm drill.  Terence suggested drilling each side till half the depth so that if the cube is not in alignment with the centre line during chucking, we'll still have the holes in the middle of each face.  It is a very good idea and makes lots of sense!  I would have drill all the way through on 3 sides to save time.  But the result proved the added step to be unnecessary as all the halves lines up very nicely with each other!  I was surprise with the result, adding to my confident with the lathe and the Rohm chuck.

This was where we stopped.  A total of slightly less than 4 hours was spent in the shop, including chit chatting, introducing the lathe and parts, deciding if the mill or the lathe should be used for the ops, and the actual work. 

Before Terence left, I took the opportunity to show off how deep the Wabeco F1200 can cut in aluminium in one pass.  But being a "chicken", I dialed in only slightly more than 4mm depth and did the cut with a 10mm HSS endmill.  Some chatter was felt (and heard) when I was feeding slowing (chicken enough?).  As I increase the feed with the handwheel, I realised that the mill can in fact be used more aggressively given its rigidity.  I read from Wabeco's instruction manual that it can take, without any problem, cuts up to 10mm deep in steel with a 10mm endmill.  Wow....  But I wonder if that is possible with my MT2 spindle bore.  On hindsight, I should have pay for the ISO30 tool holding option, which is another EUR 158.82...
Picture

A video of the cut, taken by Terence.
6 Comments
Gene King
28/10/2012 12:09:49 am

Wong, one suggestion, if you want to hog out lots of metal shorten up the bit so it is as close to the spindle as possible. Your bit has a lot of distance from the spindle to the material being cut. Remember the rules about cutting close the the head stock in the lathe is the same here only it is the tool sticking out too far. This is why I have cutters in different lengths and length of cut.

GeneK

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
28/10/2012 01:42:09 am

GeneK,

Noted that. That's the only piece of 10mm endmill in my toolbox. I'll spice for shorter ones.

I bought the MT2-ER32 collet chuck but didn't want to use it because of the long extension. The MT2 collets are more expensive and inconvenient but the cut has less or no chatter due to its closeness to the spindle. To accommodate the use of the MT collets, I removed the acrylic guard to allow the tool to reach the stock. Otherwise, the guard will hit the vise before the tool in the MT collet.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the mill. Will want to do more on it to justify its present in the shop ;-)

Wong

Reply
Gene King
28/10/2012 01:48:38 am

Wong That is a nice mill, quite a bit more than a Sherline! In power, size and price.

GeneK

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
28/10/2012 03:17:45 am

Yes sir, burnt a hole in my pocket to get it. I intend to install magnetic scales to ease work with it. The trouble is, I've yet the courage to drill and tap mounting holes on it...

Reply
Gene King
28/10/2012 06:56:42 am

Wong, my friend Gordon bought a set of scales for his knee mill and also got cold feet on drilling and mounting the scales. He has about $500.00 sitting on the shelf waiting for the courage to drill those holes. He could pull the table again and use the Wabeco.

GeneK

Reply
CNC Router for Sale link
3/6/2013 11:11:37 am

good post

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