AlexO35

iTrader: (7)

Just finished making a few more parts. I lost a fuel rail spacer, so that's whats on the left. Aluminum for the new ones. The set of four are stainless injector lower spacers with o-ring groves. The top piece is a SS turbo oil fitting with a .060" restrictor.
--Alex

Reverend Greg

iTrader: (3)

Not that I dont love Diy stuff,Next time You need more speed when you turn The ragged finish will go away.If you use brazed carbide on a manual lathe,spin the hell out of it.If you are on a CNC,man you got problems!

AlexO35

iTrader: (7)

I was a bit nervous on those. Usually when I part stainless I break tooling. I've gotten better about that, but yea, the finish has a bit to be desired. What speeds do you use to part SS? I know the guys in our shop typically use slower surface speeds that optimal. I had to post a chart for mill tool speed to get 'em up to where they should be. I haven't done that for the lathe yet as I'm not as familiar with it yet. On the other hand, that's how I get to do these little practice projects at work. Thanks for the advice.
--Alex

Reverend Greg

iTrader: (3)

Man Im sorry I often sound rude and I think I sounded rude.I Use the formula Of 4Xcutting speed /Diameter.I use 100 sfm for stainless.So if Im turning 1" it works out to be 400 Rpm to turn and bore that diameter,If I parting then much slower 200 or lower with a feed in the range of .002" to .004" per rev.This is how I make parts:
It is so much easier than you think But you can really mess up some tools when you get started.
-G-

AlexO35

iTrader: (7)

Don't worry. I didn't take it as rude, just constructive criticism. All we used at my old shop was aluminum, and I mostly used the mill. Now its almost all stainless and I use the lathe more.

Not bad for someone hired as a programmer though, eh?
--Alex

UrbanSoot

iTrader: (24)

programmers ftw!

Reverend Greg

iTrader: (3)

I love programming but I will never give up working in the shop!Most of the programs I write take about ten minutes and I can have parts on the table in under 20 Min.But It often takes alot longer 'cause Im making shifter *****,velocity stacks and all manner of misc. hop up parts.Im working on a turbo manifold w/ some interesting features ,and a Fourth order tuned intake manifold to go with it.If I had to just program all day I would flip.
-Greg-

curly

iTrader: (25)

I <3 programming! A little something I threw together to interpolate a thermostat groove on my reroute spacer. I'm proud of it cause the machine is fairly old (70's Cincinnati) so it doesn't like crossing quadrants, and won't accept a G02 with an R word, you have to use IJK coordinates like I did. We usually only use it for linear milling, drilling, and tapping, so this was pretty "crazy".

%
(MSG, PROGRAM NO. Thermo groove MACH 2360 PROGRAMMER JC)
(MSG, PART NO. Thermo groove REV A DATE=6-2-09 TIME=6:31)
(MSG, X0, Y0 CENTER OF PART)
(MSG, T14 1" 4-FLUTE END MILL)
N10G90
N20G70
O225T14M06
N30M03S1000
N40G00X0Y0
N50Z-450
N60G01Y5380F30
N70G02X5380Y0I0J0F30
N80G02X0Y-5380I0J0F30
N90G02X-5380Y0I0J0F30
N100G02X0Y5380I0J0F30
N110G00Z50000
N120X-100000Y100000
N130Z-20000
N140M05
N150M02
%

I don't have a ton of experience with lathes, but parting tools rarely give you a very nice finish. With tiny little parts like that, the higher the rpm and slower the feed the better, obviously with a very small cut. I'd probably leave .005-.010 for finish, then again it doesn't really matter for a fuel rail spacer. Are you using a new insert with TiN coating? That kind of finish is what I see at work when inserts are dull or chipped.

Reverend Greg

iTrader: (3)

I am so glad I never had to learn that language!I program the easy way,Mazak conversational,and solidworks/mastercam.I know its kindalike cheating but I am very efficient and by the time most programs are keyed in I have a part in the works.
My reroute spacer was a simple 5 line program ,bore 2 diamters and part off with parts catcher.I truly respect the vigilance required to manual program.I hear you on the take it easy onthe part off,though a nicely settled part off insert at a short tool offset CAN give a good finish.Notice I didnt say will. this plug for my water pump was pretty difficult to program because of the 4 lead 3 inch to the turn threading cycle.
-G-

curly

iTrader: (25)

I had an old BEGI spacer with no thermostate groove, so unless I had a tool of exactly the right diameter, I had to do this. I only have 5-6 programs, I just copy and paste from one or more programs and then modify the coordinates and sizes to match whatever I'm making. Whats even worse is that old Cincinnati doesn't have canned cycles, so if I'm drilling a deep hole I need to manually program the peck cycle. Feed down, rapid up, rapid down, feed down, repeat. I've done enough programming with G&M that it's like reading a book, I hardly notice it's "code".

I also do all my programming offline on a computer, so that helps speed up a process. I'll program my part while I run company parts, then once they're done, I simply load my part, set my X, Y, and Z0, load my program, and go.

The programmers at my work use mastercam X2, very fast, especially for more complicated parts. The one Mazak my company has is awesomely fast, but I don't like the conversational programming you have to do. Plus it's hard and expensive to setup an offline programming station. We paid a couple grand for the software we use, when we already has invested the money for a few X2 licenses, which doesn't work for Mazaks.

Why'd you make that plug? I see the 4 thread starts, but do you have a pic of the side of it? That would seem hard to program. We had a part come through the shop that was about 12" in diameter, with a compressing thread. So it started off with about 4" spacing between the threads, and at the end of the 5' part, it was more like .5". Its meant to press moisture out of chips at a paper mill apparently. Our programmer almost went postal programming that part, it was a bitch.

Reverend Greg

iTrader: (3)

true but if you have a mazak you can get free factory training.I make parts of all sizes and tolerences on our 2 mazaks and woulndt want use Master cam for it.The Lathe I run has live tooling and I make complete reroute spacers in about 2 mins. drilled tapped and slotted.On a mill that is 3 setups-top ,bottom & drilling and tapping for fitting.the way I see it.I know if we could all just get our hands on the latest equipment,the Turbo Miata would be the car of the year!I will have to admit though I made a shifter **** for the car last week totally manual.Its made of aluminum bronze and I used a form tool I made in college,took about three hours,meaning according to our shop rates its worth about $330!
-G -

curly

iTrader: (25)

Yup, I had a program for the groove, then I flipped it and drilled tapped the top with another, and that's starting with a fairly complete spacer already. It's not that I'm doing anything remotely complicated, or anything where I could say "wow guys look how good of a machinist I am!" Its just that I'm so proud that I can make this old, crappy machine do anything. It say unused for 5-6 years at one point, then they dragged it back into production a while ago. Everyone hates it, but I love it for some reason. It has an 65" travel in X, so I can keep multiple setups bolted up at a time.


very handy for when you're doing a lot of G-jobs in today's slow economy.

I'd love to spend a lot of time making incredibly pretty, complex parts for my car, bike, and quad. Unfortunately since I need to stay under the radar, setups are rushed, older tools are often used, and I make a part nice enough that it'll work, which usually means it's not the prettiest. Sounds like you have a little more freedom at your work. And $110 an hour?!? Holy crap you need to look at your overhead, our CNC only shop is at $83.

Reverend Greg

iTrader: (3)

$85/Hr +$75 in material...Yeah I said it!I have a little leeway because the boss likes me but if I get caught, it could be bad.I start my spacer with 3.250 stock with a 1" hole and go from there.Now these things were ahoot to make ..

but they took about 20 hrs of programming to get right,lots of points to measure.how fast they are made now is a secret.
-G-
BTW not my pic.,not my design-just my material & skill.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Any pics of it or of the reroute spacer?