Aussie Mike's machine shop

[DaveW]

Great video Mike, your a natural, very fluent.
Used up my monthly satellite data allowance in one hit, so don't post part 2 til after 1st April.

Dave

[Clois Harlan]

Good for you Mike, I am doing the same thing the end of June or July. But to be honest I am more than ready. Jumping through hurdles have became common place in my industry and it's time to let the younger guys and gals do the jumping. I have spent the better part of 40 years in the oil and gas business and it has been bitter sweet but it has afforded me the opportunity to put my three children through college, watch them get married, and the best of the best is enjoy my seven grand children. Now I will be able to actually finish projects and teach my grandchildren all about Cobra's and Coupes.

Hopefully, I can instill some pride (in doing a job right) into their digital world of games and make believe.

Post some pictures of your T56 shifter if you have the time.

Clois Harlan

[Modena]

Awesome

[Shootnride]

Nice work Mike

Ted

[stephen low]

Nice work Mike.

Keep at it , I only took nine years, what's your count now?

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by stephen low

Nice work Mike.

Keep at it , I only took nine years, what's your count now?

Stopped counting, I don't care anymore. I just enjoy tinkering with it.

Cheers

[albanycobra]

Love it Mate....sensational update....well done. The bar has been set now....Thank you.

[750hp]

I have none of the skills that you're referencing in the video, but if dry chips make you happy, I'm happy

Seriously though Mike, great stuff. It's interesting to watch.

[Tengu]

Great stuff Mike

[Jaydee]

I have spent 25 years on and of building a hovercraft. Life seems to get in the way of your goals.
JD

[leroy17]

Just awesome. From someone who sits behind a desk all day, I never get tired of these.

My work with a hacksaw, a file, a drill and a milk crate 'workbench' comes a very very distant second, or perhaps third, or forth.

Your 'journey' is being well documented, and whenever it's on the road, this will be great to look back on at all the things that you have accomplished.

Awesome.

[Zedn]

Nice work.
Will the handbrake lever move around much with the engine revving?

[Cobra72]

Great video Mike, look forward to the next installment!��������

[Aussie Mike]

I'm glad some folks are finding this interesting. It's hard to know if it's going to be a boring video.

I'm loving your Arntz rebuild Leroy. Waiting for the next installment.

Zedn, Yes the handbrake lever will move but it's pretty close to the axis the whole thing rotates around so won't move much.

Cheers

[gjkrv8]

Keep those videos coming Mike. I learn how much more that I don't know each time. Very interesting.

[Aussie Mike]

Uploaded part 2 of the handbrake machining project.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6J8wXg2BRI[/ame]

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

If anyone is interested in a great milling machine my old BM-30A manual mill is on the market.

Hafco BM30A Milling Machine in VIC | eBay

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

I love it when goodies turn up in the post.

These are solid carbide end mills in 10mm, 8mm and 6mm diameters

The plain silver ones with the high helix are a 3 flute design with geometry specifically for aluminium. The flutes are also set so you can plunge cut down like a drill.

There are 2 Ball nosed 2 flute end mills. These are great for machining a pocket with a nice radius on the corner. The other two end mills are 4 flute and designed for machining steel and harder materials.

The darker colored coating on some of them is an Aluminum Titanium Nitride (ALTiN) coating. It's a very abrasion resistant coating which makes them ideal for harder steels like 4140



Using this CNC mill is changing my mindset around tooling as I work more with it. Previously I would have a selection of different sized cutters from about 3mm up to 20mm or more. Mainly for getting the inside corner radius I want on a particular part. With the CNC machine you can program whatever radius you want so that’s meant I’ve been doing most of my milling with 8mm and 10mm end mills. So now I'm collecting a variety of styles and geometries around these sizes that should be able to do most jobs I need.

Cheers

[renovationinnov]

sorry to be ' dumb' but what are the 3rd from the left & 4th from the right
they are different so what milling do they do different to the others
as I don't know I'm a chippy
rob

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by renovationinnov

sorry to be ' dumb' but what are the 3rd from the left & 4th from the right
they are different so what milling do they do different to the others
as I don't know I'm a chippy
rob

Not a dumb question at all Rob. As a chippy just think of end mills as fancy precision ground router bits. The materials and geometry used are just to suit metals rather than wood and they are run at much slower speeds than a router bit. I'm typically running around 2000 RPM instead of 20,000 for a router bit.

These end mills are also ground from solid pieces of super hard Tungsten carbide which is the material braised onto the tips of your wood working circular saw or masonry drill bits. Most are usually made from tool steel which is the same as most regular drill bits

The odd looking end mills you referred to are the ball nosed type. Instead of having a square shoulder and cutting a square slot or rabbet they cut a slot with a radius bottom. This pic comparing a square and ball nose might make it a bit more obvious



End mills unlike drill bits cut on both the end and the side of the tool. They typically have from 2 to 5 flutes. Generally the harder the material the more flutes you want to spread the load across. Higher numbers of flutes usually means a lot stronger tool for the loads applied to it. You want the tool cutting and not flexing and rubbing across the surface.

Here's a 2 flute ball nose end mill on the left, A 3 flute aluminium cut in the middle and a 4 flute conventional on the right.



The aluminium cut endmill has different geometry to suit the softer material. It's designed to run at higher speeds and the higher helix is better at clearing chips away from the cut. One of the issues you have with aluminium is chips getting dragged back into the cut and messing up the surface finish or welding themselves to the tool. The higher helix also means there is more cutting edge in contact with the material which reduces chatter. Before one edge is leaving the cut the next one is starting. Chatter is a harmonic vibration that causes the tool to flex and bounce over the surface which can lead to tool breakages and also leaves a poor surface finish.

Looking at the close up of this aluminum cut end mill you can see how the ends of the 3 flutes have been ground to cut the bottom of the slot. If you look close you will see the left side flute has been ground so the cutting edge extends right to the middle of the cutting circle. This is what allows it to plunge cut. The 3 edges cover the whole area of the circle where most 4 and 5 flute end mills will have a hollow in the middle where it won't cut. They need to start at an edge or a pilot hole to get going.



Sorry to bore you all with this but I find the design and geometry of these tools quite interesting. Especially the developments in recent years.

Cheers