Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT CNCs and Hot Rods, a Sydney Garage

[Beelzeboss]

It's together! I tried getting the ring gear on at room temperature but there was no chance, so 20 minutes at 250c in the oven and it slipped right on.



I'll still put a few tig welds around the edge to make sure it stays put but I'm pretty happy with the fit. The centre bore is also measuring 42.02mm which is spot on what I was aiming for to fit over the 42mm crank spigot.

 

[Geoff289]

Wow! Just Wow!

 

[Coolabah]

Wow! Just Wow!

I know, right ? Pure talent is as pure talent does !!

 

[hewey]

Yeh that's a great piece of work right there.

 

[Beelzeboss]

Thanks everyone, I'm really happy with how it came out

The more I play with my 3D printer the more I'm wondering how I ever got away without it! I've started to design the remote oil filter adapter in CAD, first step was to take an impression of the original with a ruler for scale.



Then, from that picture, model the pattern in CAD and print out a test piece.





Amazing how quick that can come together, I'll finish it when the CNC is up and running.

I've also been tinkering and adjusting the CNC which is a tedious and fiddly process. Access isn't great for many of the bolts.



But I've managed to get the air assist and oiling lines installed on the Z and X axes.





I also picked up this lincoln compressor for $50 to run the Z assist. Once I changed the quick connect fitting for a push connect it seems to work really well, though there is a leak somewhere as it won't hold pressure overnight. At least the regulator does a good job of keeping a constant pressure.



After initial shimming and alignment I cut a test piece.



This made it clear I needed to tram the spindle more accurately, so I bent up some 12mm bar and welded a bolt to the end to create this tramming tool.



Now it's just about ready to flatten the table which appears to be out by 0,25mm in places. I'm honestly quite surprised that a 32mm solid plate of aluminium is that far out, but no matter.



Once it's flat I'll look at the clamp down holes. I think I want a 50mm grid of M12 holes so I can use the clamp down kit from the milling machine, but I also want to add a shallow 16mm counterbore to each so I can repeatably install fixtures into the grid.

 

[Beelzeboss]

The plate appears to be bowed in the middle along the X axis. I machined a 200mm strip down this side but really should have done both sides before doing the final pass.







The finish was pretty good





Not perfect but good enough to use until my 32mm carbide insert cutter arrives and I can do a really light skim to finish it off.

Next up is the grid of M12 holes; I'll need to do some test cuts to work out the thread milling cutter and settings, but after that I should be off to the races.

I have no idea why I made the table bigger than the travel of the machine, in hindsight I should have ordered it ~50mm narrower and saved some money.

 

[Coolabah]

The plate appears to be bowed in the middle along the X axis. I machined a 200mm strip down this side but really should have done both sides before doing the final pass.







The finish was pretty good





Not perfect but good enough to use until my 32mm carbide insert cutter arrives and I can do a really light skim to finish it off.

Next up is the grid of M12 holes; I'll need to do some test cuts to work out the thread milling cutter and settings, but after that I should be off to the races.

I have no idea why I made the table bigger than the travel of the machine, in hindsight I should have ordered it ~50mm narrower and saved some money.

I know, right ? A can of beer is around ~60mm diameter, pretty sure you could have cut 10 mm off that table and still be OK for balance. No idea where that 50mm idea came from- did you measure twice ?

 

[Terrick down Under]

Love the work and detail on your car and great work on the table, do you have a single tooth fly cutter to skim over the entire surface in a few passes?

 

[Beelzeboss]

I know, right ? A can of beer is around ~60mm diameter, pretty sure you could have cut 10 mm off that table and still be OK for balance. No idea where that 50mm idea came from- did you measure twice ?

Love the work and detail on your car and great work on the table, do you have a single tooth fly cutter to skim over the entire surface in a few passes?

Thanks mate, unfortunately I don't have a fly cutter but I've ordered a 35mm diameter face mill which should do the trick.

The test thread milling went OK but the machine seems to have significant vibration when cutting.





I've narrowed the issue down to this Y axis ballscrew mount, which I always knew was on the flimsy side but measuring with a dial indicator really highlighted how bad it is.



I'm making some brackets to reinforce it and tie it back into the frame in a much more rigid way.

I also bought 2 catch cans for much cheaper than I can make them. I think with a little modification they'll be perfect.

 

[Beelzeboss]

These should help with the flex in the mount. It's still only 2mm wall where the ballscrew attaches but it's a very short distance to flex that I'm hoping this will work out.

The backup plan is to get a piece of 32mm aluminium and make a solid one with the additional brackets.

 

[Beelzeboss]

I started milling the table holes out with a carbide cutter but still it was incredibly noisy so I decided to pre-drill all the holes with a 6mm drill. This will decrease the load on the milling cutter when it comes down in a spiral and hopefully make it go a bit smoother.



After this I ran out of WD40 for cutting fluid and my aquarium pump spindle cooling pump packed up, so I decided to move on to the hot rod. First up: fixing a slight interference between the rear guards and the new roll bar position.







Much better, I'll trim the aluminium cover closer so it looks alright.

Next I made and bent up the rear lights from 2mm aluminium.



They sit on the angled portion of the rear guards.





And all welded up!

 

[Beelzeboss]

I think I have the CNC back to being useful, I cut the remaining clamp down holes out to 10.2mm



Thread milling the M12 threads was quick and easy



I chamfered all the mounting holes (no photo) and then used my new 35mm insert cutter with aluminium specific inserts to take a final skim off the table.



The gantry must have a very slight twist to it which I've been unable to shim out, so it's ever so slightly out of tram on on end of the X axis travel, but it's something I'm going to have to live with. The gantry tube is far too stiff to try to pull the twist out of it with shims and I don't have the equipment to machine it flat again. Ah well, it's very close, definitely close enough for what I'll be using the machine for.

 

[Beelzeboss]

So, the short list for CNC'd hot rod bits is mostly various adapters:
- Idle air valve, as I can't drive the 1UZ one with my current ECU
- Remote oil filter, which I can machine when my 2.5mm end mill arrives
- Turbo oil drain, which replaces the oil level sensor with a 10AN fitting

I started with the idle valve adapter



As soon as the cutter hit the material I realised that stick out wasn't going to work, so I cut 40mm off the back of the tool to allow it to seat further into the collet chuck and started again.





I was pretty scared of marking up my new table so I left too much material at the base, but a quick hacksaw and file got rid of it.



I chucked it in the lathe to finish the barb shape as I don't have any sort of undercut cutter to machine it from the top, but yeah, first hot rod part done!

 

[zanyad]

first hot rod part done!

 

[Terrick down Under]

hey, look up "Shrupenfrasser" end mills, I used to use them on the cnc mills back in the early 90's, very clean rapid removal with very low vibration.

 

[zanyad]

hey, look up "Shrupenfrasser" end mills, I used to use them on the cnc mills back in the early 90's, very clean rapid removal with very low vibration.

Not sure what those are. Never heard of 'em, and Google isn't much help, either.

Did you maybe mean a "corncob" roughing end mill? Those are great in low-power/low-rigidity situations where surface finish isn't that important, or if you can go clean up afterwards with a regular end mill.



Roughing/Finishing end mills are a good compromise. The chipbreaker allows quick material removal and prevents the needle-like chips from a regular endmill while leaving an acceptable finish.

 

[Terrick down Under]

Not sure what those are. Never heard of 'em, and Google isn't much help, either.

Did you maybe mean a "corncob" roughing end mill? Those are great in low-power/low-rigidity situations where surface finish isn't that important, or if you can go clean up afterwards with a regular end mill.



Roughing/Finishing end mills are a good compromise. The chipbreaker allows quick material removal and prevents the needle-like chips from a regular endmill while leaving an acceptable finish.

yes, corn cob is a generic term for them, schruppen frasser is the german ones we used at the Royal Australian Mint (1985-1993) on the cnc milling machine. They were fast...e.g. 10mm cobolt end mill running at 4500 rpm and 10m/min. The coolant had to flood the work surface to keep cool and to wash the swarf away....or it bogged! They worked on Lexan ( bullet proof grade) and then straight into mild steel. It took a bit of getting used to the speed and accuracy they held.

 

[Beelzeboss]

Thanks guys, I need to get some of those, I've heard of them referred to as roughing end mills or corncobs, I'll see if I can find some for a reasonable price.

Nothing massive to report on the hot rod but I did manage to manhandle the body frame off the chassis and onto the truck so I can finish the fuel/vent lines, make new gearbox mounts and driveshaft, and then disassemble to go over the welds on the frame.





It's very exciting that after that I'll be able to paint and do final assembly! Still lots of little bits to do but they can be done after paint.