Todays Project - What did you do today?

[PixMan]

Spent about 6 hours in the shop, finished the 3rd go-around on the quill feed trip bracket part for Darren's Kondia milling machine.

Typical of a part with so many operations and features to machine, two little mistakes. Neither will affect it's function, fortunately, but minor cosmetic blemishes.

Here's a shot of the 3 parts. From left to right, my first (2nd actually, never got beyond the first setup with the first before finding a fatal mistake.) In the middle is the one I finished today. You can see one of the "oops" as a slight overcut on the Ø38mm counterbore where the machine was giving me fits with error codes as it went to the first (plunge) position for the circular milling. The first position looked correct, but it alarmed out with a Y axis error. I had already plunged the center-cutting Ø1/2" 4-flute solid carbide end mill before I noticed. The other error is hard to see in the top view. I had miscalculated the depth of the surface with the Ø5mm pivot pin hole is located. I drove over to my friend Jennifer who TIG welded the surface back up so it would clean at the correct height. Very little evidence of my screw-up, thanks Jenn! On the right is the original part from the machine. It's probably hard to see in the photo, but the counterbored holes for the M6x1 mounting screws are 2mm higher and 1mm further apart from those on the part on the leftm which was made to the print sent to Darren by Kondia. The new(est) part is also overall 1mm wider than the one on the left.



I will try to ship it out to Darren tomorrow, but it may be Wednesday at the rate I'm going. Darren, do you want either or both of the junk parts sent?