I have a new milling machine and my milling machine has a new
operator. That is to say I am very new to the machine tools.

Now before I purchased a milling machine I did some research and read
a lot about specifications, spindle run out, accuracy, backlash, etc.
Some smart people said don't worry about the machine so much as a good
machinist will overcome the machines shortcomings... (What a mouthful
that sentence was) Of course I'm not a good machinist. Yet.

I want to do a practical test with my new machine. Assuming that I
have the mill trammed correctly, I thought a practical test would be
to put a block of 6061 in the vice and use the end of a mill to mill
the top of the block flat.
Then flip the block over and proceed to the other side. Repeat until
all sides have been milled. Now I should have a sample of how
square/flat the machine is capable of, right? Measure the block with
a caliper to see what the tolerance/variance is?

Of course I'm not including the quality of the end mill, 2 or 4 flute,
the vice, etc.

So a few questions:

1) What is the correct procedure to mill a block?
2) Should I be using an end mill or a fly cutter/surface mill?
3) Is this an exercise in futility?
4) Should I clamp the stock down to the table in some crafty way to
elimate the vice as a variable?
5) What is the best way to set the index in relation to the table or
vice with a RF-31? Everyone warned me that you lose the index when
you raise the head, but nobody told me how line it up in the first
place. :-)
6) What is wrong with me? (Besides my mother dropping me on my head
as a baby. And the dent in my forhead)

Sorry if all this seems silly. Thanks for you input. Flame away.
Seriously any help would be great.

-EP

This procedure will only test your ability to setup the machine correctly
(this assumes the mill's head can be adjusted about the A and B rotary
axes), and your ability to machine a coldworked piece correctly such that it
doesn't bow due to stress. I'd be surprised if your machine was incapable of
squaring a block to within .0005". Doesn't mean it's easy, but it's almost
certainly possible.

That being said, your ability to square a block reliably is important as far
as you being a machinist is concerned. If you can't make a piece square,
you're going to have some trouble. It is the first step in machining
virtually all milled work pieces.

Regards,

Robin

"Elvis" wrote in message
om...
I have a new milling machine and my milling machine has a new
operator. That is to say I am very new to the machine tools.

Now before I purchased a milling machine I did some research and read
a lot about specifications, spindle run out, accuracy, backlash, etc.
Some smart people said don't worry about the machine so much as a good
machinist will overcome the machines shortcomings... (What a mouthful
that sentence was) Of course I'm not a good machinist. Yet.

I want to do a practical test with my new machine. Assuming that I
have the mill trammed correctly, I thought a practical test would be
to put a block of 6061 in the vice and use the end of a mill to mill
the top of the block flat.
Then flip the block over and proceed to the other side. Repeat until
all sides have been milled. Now I should have a sample of how
square/flat the machine is capable of, right? Measure the block with
a caliper to see what the tolerance/variance is?

Of course I'm not including the quality of the end mill, 2 or 4 flute,
the vice, etc.

So a few questions:

1) What is the correct procedure to mill a block?
2) Should I be using an end mill or a fly cutter/surface mill?
3) Is this an exercise in futility?
4) Should I clamp the stock down to the table in some crafty way to
elimate the vice as a variable?
5) What is the best way to set the index in relation to the table or
vice with a RF-31? Everyone warned me that you lose the index when
you raise the head, but nobody told me how line it up in the first
place. :-)
6) What is wrong with me? (Besides my mother dropping me on my head
as a baby. And the dent in my forhead)

Sorry if all this seems silly. Thanks for you input. Flame away.
Seriously any help would be great.

-EP

I have a mill, and know a couple guys who operate mills for a living.
They come over and show me how to do it.
If I mill something 6" long and get a .010" variation in thickness
copying the way they did it and got .001", it is frustrating.

So I have some cheat code:
1) run the machine fast for Aluminum and let is scream.
2) spray coolant, not cutting oil when cutting steel, and watch out for
rust under the vice. If you get cutting oil thrown on you, you will
stink and look very dirty.
3) Don't hammer and tighten like the pro's to get the work down in the
vice on the parallel bars, use the quill to push down while tightening
the vice, and the cut will be more accurate.
4) Get a small vice to put in the vice so you don't have to move the big
vice when it is all dialed in.
5) There is standard cutting and there is climb cutting. Climb cutting
could make a nicer finish, but most likely will make the machine shake
on a deep cut.
6) Don't trust a drill will start a hole where you want it to. Use a
short drill to start the hole.
7) Allot of cutting is like mowing the lawn and requires little skill,
just time. I can make a pound an hour of steel chips.

--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.

When you take a piece of raw rectangular stock and put it in the vise,
how can you assure yourself that the piece is square to a side you
just cut?

The way I learned it is to put the stock in the vise with a piece of
round rod between the stock and the front jaw of the vise. The round
rod has only it's tangent to the stock as a line of contact, so it
holds the stock aligned with the back jaw. After truing up the top of
the stock, rotate it so the newly trued edge is against the back jaw
of the vise and use the round rod again in the front. Continue this
for the four sides (well, could be OK for just the first three sides
if your vice jaws are nice and parallel).

-Bruno

(Elvis) wrote:

I have a new milling machine and my milling machine has a new
operator. That is to say I am very new to the machine tools.

Now before I purchased a milling machine I did some research and read
a lot about specifications, spindle run out, accuracy, backlash, etc.
Some smart people said don't worry about the machine so much as a good
machinist will overcome the machines shortcomings... (What a mouthful
that sentence was) Of course I'm not a good machinist. Yet.

I want to do a practical test with my new machine. Assuming that I
have the mill trammed correctly, I thought a practical test would be
to put a block of 6061 in the vice and use the end of a mill to mill
the top of the block flat.
Then flip the block over and proceed to the other side. Repeat until
all sides have been milled. Now I should have a sample of how
square/flat the machine is capable of, right? Measure the block with
a caliper to see what the tolerance/variance is?

Of course I'm not including the quality of the end mill, 2 or 4 flute,
the vice, etc.

So a few questions:

1) What is the correct procedure to mill a block?
2) Should I be using an end mill or a fly cutter/surface mill?
3) Is this an exercise in futility?
4) Should I clamp the stock down to the table in some crafty way to
elimate the vice as a variable?
5) What is the best way to set the index in relation to the table or
vice with a RF-31? Everyone warned me that you lose the index when
you raise the head, but nobody told me how line it up in the first
place. :-)
6) What is wrong with me? (Besides my mother dropping me on my head
as a baby. And the dent in my forhead)

Sorry if all this seems silly. Thanks for you input. Flame away.
Seriously any help would be great.

-EP

Elvis wrote:

I want to do a practical test with my new machine.

Just grab a large piece of aluminum and start testing, you'll soon learn
what you can and can't do soon enough...........

I expect the first thing you'll learn is that small endmills will break if
you push too hard and plug them up. If you use a larger cutter you will
learn what a bitch it is to clean melted chips out of the flutes.

Assuming that I have the mill trammed correctly, I thought a practical
test would be to put a block of 6061 in the vice and use the end of a
mill to mill
the top of the block flat. Then flip the block over and proceed to the
other side. Repeat until all sides have been milled.

See someone's round rod suggestion..............

2) Should I be using an end mill or a fly cutter/surface mill?

Yes, you will soon find out which is appropriate.
Use the end mill for removing the majority of stock, and then if like a
fly-cut appearance as much as I do, take the last few thousandths with the
fly cutter.

3) Is this an exercise in futility?

You'll think so...............

4) Should I clamp the stock down to the table in some crafty way to
elimate the vice as a variable?

Unless you intend to never use the vice for anything you'd just as well
learn to use it now.
All those fancy clampings you see in pictures are cool but an absolute PIA
unless you absolutely need them. Use the vice whenever possible.

If you want as excerise in creative clamping do as I did a couple weeks
ago, try
fixturing up a Ford 200" six head for exhaust bolt drilling/tapping. Got
to be one of the most convoluted castings in existence.

6) What is wrong with me? (Besides my mother dropping me on my head
as a baby. And the dent in my forhead)

Somewhere in your genes is a bred-in desire to make very small pieces out
of big ones...............I've got the same disease.

Tom

Thanks for the Tips, I've printed out your message for reference!

Clark Magnuson wrote in message ...
I have a mill, and know a couple guys who operate mills for a living.
They come over and show me how to do it.
If I mill something 6" long and get a .010" variation in thickness
copying the way they did it and got .001", it is frustrating.

So I have some cheat code:
1) run the machine fast for Aluminum and let is scream.
2) spray coolant, not cutting oil when cutting steel, and watch out for
rust under the vice. If you get cutting oil thrown on you, you will
stink and look very dirty.
3) Don't hammer and tighten like the pro's to get the work down in the
vice on the parallel bars, use the quill to push down while tightening
the vice, and the cut will be more accurate.
4) Get a small vice to put in the vice so you don't have to move the big
vice when it is all dialed in.
5) There is standard cutting and there is climb cutting. Climb cutting
could make a nicer finish, but most likely will make the machine shake
on a deep cut.
6) Don't trust a drill will start a hole where you want it to. Use a
short drill to start the hole.
7) Allot of cutting is like mowing the lawn and requires little skill,
just time. I can make a pound an hour of steel chips.

Thanks for the tip, I'll giving this a try this weekend!

Bruno wrote in message . ..
When you take a piece of raw rectangular stock and put it in the vise,
how can you assure yourself that the piece is square to a side you
just cut?

The way I learned it is to put the stock in the vise with a piece of
round rod between the stock and the front jaw of the vise. The round
rod has only it's tangent to the stock as a line of contact, so it
holds the stock aligned with the back jaw. After truing up the top of
the stock, rotate it so the newly trued edge is against the back jaw
of the vise and use the round rod again in the front. Continue this
for the four sides (well, could be OK for just the first three sides
if your vice jaws are nice and parallel).

-Bruno

(Elvis) wrote:

I have a new milling machine and my milling machine has a new
operator. That is to say I am very new to the machine tools.

Now before I purchased a milling machine I did some research and read
a lot about specifications, spindle run out, accuracy, backlash, etc.
Some smart people said don't worry about the machine so much as a good
machinist will overcome the machines shortcomings... (What a mouthful
that sentence was) Of course I'm not a good machinist. Yet.

I want to do a practical test with my new machine. Assuming that I
have the mill trammed correctly, I thought a practical test would be
to put a block of 6061 in the vice and use the end of a mill to mill
the top of the block flat.
Then flip the block over and proceed to the other side. Repeat until
all sides have been milled. Now I should have a sample of how
square/flat the machine is capable of, right? Measure the block with
a caliper to see what the tolerance/variance is?

Of course I'm not including the quality of the end mill, 2 or 4 flute,
the vice, etc.

So a few questions:

1) What is the correct procedure to mill a block?
2) Should I be using an end mill or a fly cutter/surface mill?
3) Is this an exercise in futility?
4) Should I clamp the stock down to the table in some crafty way to
elimate the vice as a variable?
5) What is the best way to set the index in relation to the table or
vice with a RF-31? Everyone warned me that you lose the index when
you raise the head, but nobody told me how line it up in the first
place. :-)
6) What is wrong with me? (Besides my mother dropping me on my head
as a baby. And the dent in my forhead)

Sorry if all this seems silly. Thanks for you input. Flame away.
Seriously any help would be great.

-EP

Tom wrote in message ...

6) What is wrong with me? (Besides my mother dropping me on my head
as a baby. And the dent in my forhead)

Somewhere in your genes is a bred-in desire to make very small pieces out
of big ones...............I've got the same disease.

Tom

Hey, at least I've found the support group!