First Milling project

[BMW Rider]

Having recently purchased a benchtop milling maching and equipping it with a DRO, I was looking for a good first project. This one presented itself as neccessary when I got a new steering damper for my BMW F800GS. The dampers design replaced the original bar mounts with a piece that holds the damper. Unfortunatly, it placed the bars lower and further forward than I wnated them. I had installed bar risers before, but they would not work with the new damper. So I set out to solve this problem.

I came up with a design to add the riser blocks on top of the damper mount, then cap that with a new single piece top clamp. The design of the risers ended up being higher than I wanted due to the need to have one of the cap screws under the new par position, so I simply milled the damper mount down to account for that extra material. The end result has the bars a bit higher and further back than where I had them before which should make the bike more comfortable when standing upright on rough terrain and the new damper should ease the wobbles. Looking forward to spring and some testing.

Comparing the new bar mount to the original, note the mounting hole location imoves the bars forward.

New bar mount versus the original with risers.

7075 aluminum milled to base dimensions.

Riser blocks drilled and countersunk and tapped.

Top clamp drilled and milled to shape.

Bored for the bars.

Relief milled for clamping.

Comparing the factory and the factroy with risers to the new risers.

Edges radiuses to soften the look and eliminate sharp corners.

Test fitting on the bike.

The test fitting was perfect, no interferences at full rotation of the bars and the position seems right. I will take them off again to finish up with some buffing and finishing. haven't decided between paint, powdercoat or anodizing yet.

 

[A_Pmech]

Very nicely made first project! You should give yourself a big pat on the back for that.

 

[Steevo]

Very impressive for a first project. Those turned out fantastic.

 

[PA-Buckeye]

Beautiful!

 

[larry_g]

Ya done well grasshopper. If you want to match the old finish try sanding with a 200-400 grit paper. The last shop I was in used PSA paper stuck to a granite to remove milling marks from the surface of parts.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Rusty Musket]

Well done! Since you are living my dream of making your own motorcycle parts on your new mill can I ask what mill you bought and how you like it?

 

[BMW Rider]

Ya done well grasshopper. If you want to match the old finish try sanding with a 200-400 grit paper. The last shop I was in used PSA paper stuck to a granite to remove milling marks from the surface of parts.

lg
no neat sig line

That's what I had in mind to start with, then to follow up with some buffing with a buffer wheel.

Well done! Since you are living my dream of making your own motorcycle parts on your new mill can I ask what mill you bought and how you like it?

The mill is a Craftex CX-601 from Busy Bee Tools and I installed a 2 axis DRO from DRO Pros. I've seen very similar machines from Grizzly and others.

So far I'm pretty pleased with the mill, though I have no previous experience with milling machines so I can't draw much of a comparisson to anything. It does seem to do a good job especially in aluminum. I haven't tried any harder metals yet.

 

[PA-Buckeye]

Having recently purchased a benchtop milling maching and equipping it with a DRO, I was looking for a good first project.

So far I'm pretty pleased with the mill, though I have no previous experience with milling machines so I can't draw much of a comparisson to anything.

I was under the impression that this was the first project on your new mill, but it sounds like this was your first milling project ever?

If it is the latter and not the former, then that's an even more impressive job than I originally thought! Kudos to you, sir!

 

[1953mercury]

Very nice. My first mill job was merely truing up a master cylinder reservoir, but it still brought a smile to my face. Mike

 

[tdkkart]

Nice job.....
No, you don't have to tell us how many hours that took.

BTW, I tend not to polish my projects. Polishing a nice lathe turned or milled finish is kinda like grinding a nice weld. If you can do nice work, why do you need to dress it up??

 

[BMW Rider]

I was under the impression that this was the first project on your new mill, but it sounds like this was your first milling project ever?

If it is the latter and not the former, then that's an even more impressive job than I originally thought! Kudos to you, sir!

Yes, first ever. I'm no stranger to machining though having done lathe work and I did spend five years working in an engine rebuilding shop back in my mechanic days.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

 

[Nealcrenshaw]

Very nice you're on your way!
Wish i owned a mill

 

[Jimmy_B]

Very nice indeed!

 

[930dreamer]

After seeing this I probably won't post my first milling project. Just kidding, great work on the risers.

 

[Kevin54]

Nice job on your first project. It makes one feel proud, doesn't it? You've got the bug now.

You can pop them back off and put a piece of sandpaper down on a flat hard surface and sand the sides and it will take out all of your mill marks. After sanding, you can go over them with a piece of Scotch-Brite to give it a satin finish. Doing so leaves some fingerprints, so just wipe it back down with a little WD-40.

So what's the next project in line?

 

[StumpXJ]

Ive got the same mill (different branding), and converted it to CNC. Its a great little unit.

Nice work on the part!

Before: (in my old shop)

After/during:

 

[Josh_C]

Nice job! Now go get yourself a couple of AR-15 lower receiver billets That's where the money is at right now, man. That. Would be fun.

 

[StumpXJ]

Forgot to ask, how did you do the radius edges on a manual mill? what tool? (assuming you did it on the mill...)

 

[Big-Foot]

Doggoned nice job! I can only imagine the quality of your projects 5 years from now!

 

[BMW Rider]

Forgot to ask, how did you do the radius edges on a manual mill? what tool? (assuming you did it on the mill...)

I just used a router bit chucked in a collet and lined it up by eye to the edges. The carbide bit cut very nicely in the aluminum in a single pass on each edge.

 

[StumpXJ]

ahh... never thought of that. I will give it a shot!

 

[Kevin54]

Forgot to ask, how did you do the radius edges on a manual mill? what tool? (assuming you did it on the mill...)

You can put radii on parts with a corner rounding cutter.

 

[Kevin54]

Stump.....what sort of table travel do you have on the small mill? Or better yet, how big of a piece can you cut on it? Any idea how much you have in that including the CNC conversion?

I did some trading yesterday and swapped a 6" x 18" Craftsman lathe and table for two rotary tables for my mill, but I am wanting to work my way up to a CNC retrofit for my Lagun mill, or if I ever run across a CNC mil for a decent price, I'll have to get one. Even a 2 axis CNC would help me out as far as some projects.

 

[BMW Rider]

You can put radii on parts with a corner rounding cutter.

I got the router bit idea from a machining forum and since I had the router bit on hand, I figured it was worth a try. It worked very well and was better than spending for the rounding mills. If I needed to do the same for steel, the mills would likely be the better choice.

 

[StumpXJ]

Stump.....what sort of table travel do you have on the small mill? Or better yet, how big of a piece can you cut on it? Any idea how much you have in that including the CNC conversion?

I did some trading yesterday and swapped a 6" x 18" Craftsman lathe and table for two rotary tables for my mill, but I am wanting to work my way up to a CNC retrofit for my Lagun mill, or if I ever run across a CNC mil for a decent price, I'll have to get one. Even a 2 axis CNC would help me out as far as some projects.

Its about the same as what you mentioned if I remember right. I think its around 20x8? Ive got about 16 inches of Z travel.

I have around $1000 bucks in the conversion, including steppers, controllers, three ball screws, computer, and various other tidbits. My buddy has a larger CNC mill, and was able to help out with bracketry for the steppers and ball screw nut mounts.

Works great!

 

[BMW Rider]

I thought that someday I might do a CNC conversion on my mill too, but for now I'm pretty happy with just the DRO on it. CNC would really blow open the design possibilities for projects.

I'd be interested in the sources for the parts you used should I ever decide to give it a go.