"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...

*** Some of you may recall when I started down this path nearly ten years
ago I asked for a lot of advise on this group about high speed small cutter
machining in aluminum. I got some good advise, but a lot of it was not
really specialized enough for what I was pushing for. Some of it was ok
for
very limited jobs, but not ok for jobs that took days. That was faster
more
efficient finished products. One person said, right here on this group,
"You may be the only one here who is an expert at what you are trying to
do." At first I took it as a slap in the face, because I was very much a
neophyte seeking advise. Then I realized that what I am doing is not a
major portion of machining as a whole. Many people here with decades more
experience than me might not have the best answers for me and the goals I
was trying to achieve. I would have to take the advise I could get,
experiment, break tools, destroy machines, and make my own best
compromises.
For now, relatively cheap high speed spindles and a lot of hand finish work
is the best compromise. As the work comes in the compromises shift more
towards machinery investment with less hand finish work.

P.S. I just quoted my biggest price ticket job ever (as a mold maker)
yesterday. The customer said yes. They haven't sent me any money yet, but
if they do I'll probably be upgrading atleast one of my machines to an ATC
spindle unless I decide something else will give me a greater immediate
gain
in productivity.

Congrats, if and when.


P.P.S Yes I have destroyed machines. Well maybe abused them to the point
where I had to completely rebuild them might be more accurate. Thank
goodness I started as a hack know nothing hobbiest repairing and rebuilding
my own machines or they would have been "functionally" destroyed.

Abused or just flat wore out? Maybe a combo?

**** Oddly enough I don't think so. I wore out some components of course.
My first and second machines both had V-leads with pinch nuts. I definitely
work those out. One is on the shelf with brand new v-leads. The other was
converted to acme with spring loaded anti-backlash nuts, and ultimately
given away to a close friend.

And almost everyone
starts out as a hack hobbyist. Time and experience temper that, if
you keep your hand in long enough and frequently enough. I swear, I
have to learn to TIG every time I turn the machine on. I just don't
use it very often, and I haven't practiced as I should to really learn
it well in the first place. That should change shortly, as I finish
the harder of the items on the gazillion page project list now that
I'm retired.

**** I'm the same way with MIG welding aluminum. I have to remember how,
and for anything important I get some scrap and make some practice welds.
Often you have to weld so fast its hard to control. I don't know diddly
about TIG.


P.P.P.S Yes, I had jobs that took days to machine. No those aren't Star
Trek days. LOL. One mold I made early on took 30hrs of machine time PER
SIDE. I slept on my shop floor with the machine running. The least little
change in pitch woke me instantly. I had to cut it twice because I screwed
up on design the first time.

Oh, ouch! But at least it wasn't a crash from a screwed up line of
code and you put a spinning mill bit through your chest.

**** Well, that little Taig wasn't really capable of that much energy.
Atleast not with an 1/8 ball mill. Even spinning at 10K. Broken mills that
size land within inches of the crash usually.


I spent a week in the shop to get that one
done. A job like that would now take me only a few hours per side. That
job was 1.3 million lines of code per side. I recently did a job that was
over 5.6 million lines of code (2.3 per side). I ran the two halves on two
machines simultaneously, and it came off the machines for hand finish work
in just under 8 hrs.

Perhaps I could ask you a couple questions once I get the Green
Monster finished and start learning/writing G code. That's a healthy
sized programming task.

**** You are welcome to ask, but the simple answer is its not possible
without CAM.