TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN
| It's fairly simple, if you want to drill and tap holes in a swaslplate inner and outer this is a good job for 4th axis programming. If you can write a drill cycle, make an index command and repeat the drill cycle you can drill the holes in a swashplate, washout base or any of dozens of 4th axis type indexing work. You don't need a programming system to do that kind of work. Where it gets tricky is when you want to design something in a flat plane and then wrap the contour around a cylinder. Your machine will only need 3 simultaneously interpolating axes for that.
Surface machining is another matter. There are so many machining techniques and approaches to creating parts, solid models, wire frame surfaces and the like that I could bore you for hours diving into the intricate details of how this works and how many thousands of dollars that you will have to spend to get software capable of driving your small mills. Steppers won't give great results and are going to move real slow on 3D, these are not real machine tools in the classical sense, they are limited.
Cutting parts is easy, holding them is hard. Larry, unless you understand fixturing and workholding my recommendation is to start on something a little less ambitious than a blade grip, even though it may look simple, there are multiple setups involved and some measuring tools that you will need. If you look in my gallery you will see a couple of miniature manual machines, the investment in these machines pales in comparison to my investment in measuring tools, gauges, hand tools, cutters and about 60,000 hours of shop experience with 3,4 and 5 axis CNC mills, multi axis turning machines and flexible machining cells with rail guided vehicles and automation. My point is, what you are wanting in the way of help is not available in a RR type of format like we have for helis. The trade is varied, specialised and the people in the know are making money on something else other than heli parts.
Here is my suggestion: Find a local tech school with some night courses, drop by and have a word with the instructor and get to know him or her. Maybe taking a class is something that might interest you. Learn as much as you can about your particular machine, how it operates, how to set tools, if it has fixture offsets, what it's G-codes and M-codes do and how they operate. Knowing how the motion controller drives the slides isn't as important as knowing what G-code commands the slide from one point to another in rapid, in this case it is probably G0 or F0, learning speeds and feeds for different materials and cutters isn't the easiest thing to do because you have no experience to tell you whether or not the sound is right and if the chip is the right color or thickness and shape. You may have to calculate the suface footage at first.
Once you get familiar with your machine, know its limitations, can it tap holes, probably not, most machines of this size don't have a spindle motor that is capable of being controlled as to speed and rotation. So you will have to learn to hand tap. There will be some things that are easier to be done manually, know your requirements there. Scrounge scrap material for making spuds, pots, vise jaws and work stops. Buy a collet block set for 5C collets. They come in handy when you want to hold something and not booger it up in a vise.
Buy some cheap indicators, get an edge finder. A small cut off saw is handy and cheap. It really sucks when you want to make something and you go and buy a 36" piece of material and get it home and realise you will have to cut the part off with a hacksaw. You will need some layout tools, Dykem blue layout fluid, scribes, center punches, transfer punches, 8X power loupe, a small bench grinder for cutting tools like for fly cutters.
The list goes on. If you have a question PM me and I will try to answer it if I can.
Terry |
