Getting more done!

[geneb]

That's a picture of the new left sub-panel for my Me-109F/X project.  I'm going to be cutting the main instrument panel today!

More pics here: http://www.simpits.org/geneb

g.

[Trevor Hale]

Brilliant Gene!  They look so real, fantastic, you must be quite happy seeing this come together.

Trev

[when acting as a wave]

Five cautious hours that've indeed been well spent. Beautiful work! Nice engraving too.

Dean.

[geneb]

Trev:  "looks real"?  It's control panel sonny, not a silicone implant. If COURSE it looks real! 

Dean: Thanks.  I need to order more .125" cutters today too. *laughs*

With any luck I'll be able to cut the acrylic edge-lit panel for it today as well.

g.

[Trevor Hale]

LOL... Sorry right, where is my head!     As for the .125" cutters..  you should always have a spare supply, and if you would treat them all like you did that "Golden" one you had taking only .001 " / pass they would all last you longer.. although at a 4 hour cutting rate the sim might be ready for your Great Great Great Grand kids

Trev

[when acting as a wave]

Aye, there's always a balance. We did a large job a while back with some crazy material that would scorch and smell horrendous during cutting and it absolutely destroyed our tools (good quality ones at that). If we'd had the luxury of time we would've made sure to better organise ourselves and protect our equipment but we instead had to just run through it and manage the best we could. By the end, however, we'd developed an efficient system incorporating as much coolant as we could run without the trays overflowing everywhere, an array of various filters to stop the swarf getting back into the coolant system, and a modified vacuum cleaner which piped the stench from one end of the workshop to the other and out the door ... and the fumes still made my face numb!

Dean

[geneb]

I carved up a block of UHMW today - holy crap does that make a mess.

Here's a pic of today's work:


More detail on the blog - http://www.simpits.org/geneb

You can see the mess I made with the UHMW at http://www.f15sim.com

g.

[phil744]

I thought UHMW was an airport in russia lol, nah i know the stuff myself, we use a variant of it here for injection moulding, my god, the smell is enough to strip paint from the wall....

Nice work Gene, did you say your building one for somwhere in the UK??

[Aerosim Solutions]

Nice work Gene, always top quality from you!

I buy my CNC cutters from http://www.virtual-village.com.au/cnc-bits they are reasonably well priced...

Regards Gwyn

[XOrionFE]

Hey all

I have experimented cutting aluminum using a special bit from Precise Bits found here:
http://www.precisebits.com/products/carbidebits/precisebit-stub.asp

This worked really well even at a moderate feed rate taking .5 mm passes.  I was really impressed with the bit as it did not clog or melt the aluminum.    I believe it is the zRN coated style that is designed by them for cutting non-ferrous metals.

These guys are also great to deal with and really take great care in packaging and labeling their bits.   I also use their endmills for cutting cast acrylic (you must use cast instead of extruded when cutting on a cnc or you will melt the plastic and destroy bits).   

They also have a precision collet which I purchased which greatly improved the accuracy of my cnc.

Best Regards,
Scott

PS- Gene, you pit is looking incredible!  Nice work.   Can't wait to see more.

[Trevor Hale]

I have to agree with these guys, Gene it looks amazing.  Keep up the great work. 

Trev

[geneb]

Phil744 - Milling UHMW doesn't emit any odor at all fortunately.  I'm not making anything for someone in the UK - a friend of mine over there is developing a 100% emulation of the Garmin G1000 PFD.  I'm going to be beta testing it in the '109F/X.

Aerosim - Thanks!  I buy most of my cutters from Centurion Tools (http://www.centuriontools.com)

XOrionFE - I use a four flute .125" cutter from BWBTool on eBay.  As long as I pay attention and set the feed rate for inches/minute instead of inches/second, I'm ok. *laughs*  FYI, if you use an "O" flute cutter, you can cut pretty much any kind of plastic you like.  The knobs for the throttle quadrant were cut at 1 inch/sec @ 10,000 RPM using a .250" O flute cutter from Centurion Tools.  Onsrud also makes a very good O flute cutter with both up and down shear geometries.

Trev - Thanks!



g.

[XOrionFE]

if you use an "O" flute cutter, you can cut pretty much any kind of plastic you like.  The knobs for the throttle quadrant were cut at 1 inch/sec @ 10,000 RPM using a .250" O flute cutter from Centurion Tools.  Onsrud also makes a very good O flute cutter with both up and down shear geometries.

I have to get one of those then!  I have a whole 8'x4' sheet of 1/4" thick extruded acrylic that I thought was good for garbage now.

TX!