What are you machining?

[Rrobson]

I’ve been doing a bit of aluminium work too recently, just finished. More or a display of what can be done with a manual mill and some basic calcs in cad. These are some adjustable lapping / polishing tools for a big job later this year (I’ll post pics of that when it happens) but basically they’re to polish a valve seat once machined. One has been finished with a flap wheel the others been left. Probably won’t bother flapping the other, see how it performs.

Are they classed as a compound curve? Anyway they’re curved in two planes to accommodate the shape of the valve seat.

Finished mounted on their tool holders, below shows the full range of movement should it be needed

A vast improvement on the previous design which wasn’t much more than a formed piece of wood…

 

[Paulbarrett]

Nothing like the talent of a lot of you guys but faced off a cut down cylinder head today to tidy the cut up before welding and then re-machining. Was just nice to be a in a workshop of my own again, despite the cold lol.

 

[tigdlo]

Nothing like the talent of a lot of you guys but faced off a cut down cylinder head today to tidy the cut up before welding and then re-machining. Was just nice to be a in a workshop of my own again, despite the cold lol.

What's going on here? I've never seen someone skim an entire cylinder or 2 of the end of a cylinder head.

Straight 6 or v12 head onto a 4 cylinder? If so, what engine?

 

[Paulbarrett]

What's going on here? I've never seen someone skim an entire cylinder or 2 of the end of a cylinder head.

Straight 6 or v12 head onto a 4 cylinder? If so, what engine?

It’s a Vauxhall Carlton 24v head. You are correct. Lopping two cylinders off and mating to an omega A 2.4 bottom end to create a 16v CIH aka manta 400 incarnation. They were cast strictly as a 16v but this is a way of doing it on a moderately better budget. Still not cheap by any stretch but I’ve wanted to have a go for some time.

 

[6ply]

I had an old and totally knackered swivel base vice under the work bench. The moving jaw was cracked through and the rest looked like it had been through ww3. The swivel base was still good

Wanting a swivel grinding jig /base for my spin indexer I decided to repurpose the vice by milling it down flat to which I'm now mounting the indexer. Seems to be going fine so far.

 

[Wedg1e]

It’s a Vauxhall Carlton 24v head. You are correct. Lopping two cylinders off and mating to an omega A 2.4 bottom end to create a 16v CIH aka manta 400 incarnation. They were cast strictly as a 16v but this is a way of doing it on a moderately better budget. Still not cheap by any stretch but I’ve wanted to have a go for some time.

That reminds me of a job we did for a certain UK/EU subsidiary of a US car maker about 20 years ago.
Their latest series of engine was just about to start full casting production but in a high number of the early casts they'd discovered an area at the front of the cylinder heads where the alloy wasn't fully melded before it cooled. Effectively they'd created a dead end in the die and the molten metal had nowhere to go, it needed more runners and risers I guess.
They asked if we could show them a technique other than x-ray which could detect the cavities within the head prior to taking a datum skim off the front (which usually revealed the cavities).
So we did, at which point they asked how much it would cost to hire the equipment for say 6 months, and costs to have two operators working 12 hour shifts to scan every head as they came out of the dies.
We costed it all up and it was £££, so we suggested that surely the way forward would be to alter the dies.
"We've already costed that, your way is cheaper", they said.
So for the 6 months or so that it took to cast every head they'd ever need, two guys sat and waved a probe over every hot cylinder head as it came off the die-caster, and any that failed were chucked back in the pot and remelted. Despite that, I have heard tales of cyl heads cracking at the front as presumably they didn't spot every cavity.
Accountants have replaced engineers (althugh you have to wonder who failed to spot the error in the design to start with ).

 

[6ply]

I had an old and totally knackered swivel base vice under the work bench. The moving jaw was cracked through and the rest looked like it had been through ww3. The swivel base was still good

Wanting a swivel grinding jig /base for my spin indexer I decided to repurpose the vice by milling it down flat to which I'm now mounting the indexer. Seems to be going fine so far.

View attachment 381735View attachment 381736

 

[Agroshield]

...Spindexy thing...

A couple of suggestions:

Bore and ream the hole at the rotational centre of the swivel base. That will be useful as a reference.

Perhaps tidy up the rectangular hole under the spindex. Then add a key to the bottom of the spindex so it slides in that slot. You can then adjust the position of whatever is held in it relative to the rotational centre established above.

This one is a cheap shot: turn the base 180 degrees on the grinder bed so the degree scale faces you.

 

[6ply]

A couple of suggestions:

Bore and ream the hole at the rotational centre of the swivel base. That will be useful as a reference.

Perhaps tidy up the rectangular hole under the spindex. Then add a key to the bottom of the spindex so it slides in that slot. You can then adjust the position of whatever is held in it relative to the rotational centre established above.

This one is a cheap shot: turn the base 180 degrees on the grinder bed so the degree scale faces you.

The swivel point is already on my list to do.

I considered modifying the rectangular hole and add a key but will be adding a tilting platform in the near future.

Base is the correct way round for the job I just used it for, but you are correct in that it is wrong for the staged photo

 

[Pete.]

View attachment 381891View attachment 381893

That's cool. I would add a setting block to that so you can grind exact radius on things.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Bored this split shaft collar out from 45mm to 49mm to fit scaff bar. Not a bad finish for an old triumph!

It got welded to this spool which will be used on a roll up curtain in a theatre, they needed a bit more mechanical advantage over just wrapped round the scaff bar. Plus the rope kept wandering along the bar so a spool seemed the best option.

 

[striker]

Made this adapter and push pad for my upside down jack, hydraulic press project.
Need to make some push pins now from 25mm stock in various diameters.

I really enjoy machining, still loads to learn but I'm getting there! I hate cleaning up swarf though!

 

[Hood]

Had some spare time this afternoon so made a new insert for the fin I made and this time it doesn't have the chatter at the corner like the last one did.

 

[Kram]

I hate cleaning up swarf though!

Make a magnet wand!
Tho that assumes nice chips. It greatly helps if your making short curlers rather than long stringy worms. Much easier to clear away.

 

[striker]

Make a magnet wand!
Tho that assumes nice chips. It greatly helps if your making short curlers rather than long stringy worms. Much easier to clear away.

I struggle with chips, mine seem to be long continuous lengths. Sometimes I can get them to break but I don't know why!
Have you a pic of a homemade magnet wand?

 

[Turbo]

Made this adapter and push pad for my upside down jack, hydraulic press project.
Need to make some push pins now from 25mm stock in various diameters.View attachment 383594View attachment 383595View attachment 383596
I really enjoy machining, still loads to learn but I'm getting there! I hate cleaning up swarf though!

Make up adapters to take 1/2" & 3/4" sockets & that will give you a full range of press tooling in all sizes!

 

[Hood]

First time 3D milling, usually just 2.5D, came out ok. Still have to flip and do the other side but waiting on a 6mm ball nose coming for that.

Still lots of time to screw it up

 

[Hood]

Got the 6mm ball nose cutters yesterday, they did the job but not overly impressed with them. If I was going to make more I would invest in some decent ball nose cutters but for a one off they are ok I suppose.

Finished milling.

Quick polish.

Still waiting on the dye arriving but will give it a clean in soapy water then etch and anodise/dye when it arrives.

 

[ukracer]

Got the 6mm ball nose cutters yesterday, they did the job but not overly impressed with them. If I was going to make more I would invest in some decent ball nose cutters but for a one off they are ok I suppose.

Finished milling.

View attachment 384121


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Quick polish.


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Still waiting on the dye arriving but will give it a clean in soapy water then etch and anodise/dye when it arrives.

What do you use to polish it with.
That's the sort of stuff I would love to make.. .no reason other than just because I "could" lol

What's it actually for?

 

[MCKDAVID]

looks like a handle bar riser