Show off your machining!

[Mk.32]

This was our bot the 2nd week.

http://ultimate3647.tumblr.com/post/...kend-machining

Was done by myself on an CNC bridgeport and Tormach mill.

[Gregor]

Well I saw this beautifully machined ratcheting PTO winch gearbox at IRI with pretty tool paths and beautiful attention to detail. You can see the really nice toolpaths on the gearbox plate in the background.

And oh yeh, it's 696's.

[MrBasse]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Unfortunately I don't have a better picture, but these were pieces done for our 2013 competition chassis. All sparring was no-contact.

http://i.imgur.com/egUATAB.jpg

I give up. This whole image thing really isn't working out.

Is that an Electrathon car on the wall in the background? Good to see another group involved in electric car racing out there. We do NECA (National Electric Cart Association) here in Michigan but borrow a lot of Electrathon rules.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by MrBasse

Is that an Electrathon car on the wall in the background? Good to see another group involved in electric car racing out there. We do NECA (National Electric Cart Association) here in Michigan but borrow a lot of Electrathon rules.

Supermileage, actually. And sadly we don't compete any more-- many of the students who used to compete in Supermileage moved over to FRC when the team started in 2007. Due to a lack of funds (and shop time), for better or for worse, the Supermileage team faded and eventually folded into our FRC team.

[Garrett.d.w]

I present to you Kyle in his natural environment:


I'll see if I can dig up our arm transmission from Rebound Rumble. It was manufactured using the gears out of a Harbor Freight worm gear winch, which were lightened and placed in a custom aluminum housing.

[Adrian Clark]

Here's some shots of our drivetrain siderails and our new intake we built for champs. The intake was made my me on a cnc controled bridgeport and the siderails were cut at a mori seiki rnd facility on a prototype machine.

Sorry for the poor image quality.

-Adrian

[Adrian Clark]

Originally Posted by Cory

Pictures Here

The first is of the majority of our 2010 drivetrain components. Impressive just because of sheer quantity.

The bearing mounts are cool because we 3D surfaced them in the machine. Previously we were hanging a long bar out the side of the vise, machined the contour in from the side, then sending a kid to chop the semi finished part off the raw bar so that the backside could be machined. Switching to the 3D surfaced part eliminated all secondary handling and allowed the parts to get done way faster.

The rest of the pictures are of my favorite part I've ever machined. It was the yoke that held the wheels for our grabber onto the end of the grabber arm in 2011. It was a pretty subtle part when looked at on the robot, but it required a ton of machining and looks really cool on it's own. I like it so much because everything about it came out perfectly, when I was worried that some features wouldn't match, that there would be chatter on the inside walls of the part, etc.

Could you elaborate on how you did the surfacing on the bearing mounts?

Also, I love that yoke. I wish I had a chance to make something that complex. It looks like you chose to pre-drill your bearing bores with a twist drill then finish with and end mill. If that's what you did, why'd you chose to do it that way instead of just milling the hole?

Thanks,
-Adrian

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by Adrian Clark

Also, I love that yoke. I wish I had a chance to make something that complex. It looks like you chose to pre-drill your bearing bores with a twist drill then finish with and end mill. If that's what you did, why'd you chose to do it that way instead of just milling the hole?

It puts a lot of load on a end mill to dive or spiral into a part, even for center cutting end mills.

For teams with ATCs, it's generally faster to just drill a quick hole and dive your cutter into the part rather than taking a while to spiral down through the part. Of course, if you have to manually change tools, its probably faster just to spiral in.

[Adrian Clark]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

It puts a lot of load on a end mill to dive or spiral into a part, even for center cutting end mills.

For teams with ATCs, it's generally faster to just drill a quick hole and dive your cutter into the part rather than taking a while to spiral down through the part. Of course, if you have to manually change tools, its probably faster just to spiral in.

True. I'm used to using a cnc controlled bridgeport so predrilling isn't as fast as milling and with a helical ramp spindle load is minimal when you plunge (I use a super slow z feed). But with an ATC I can see the advantage of predrilling. Makes sense.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Adrian Clark

Could you elaborate on how you did the surfacing on the bearing mounts?

Was going to ask this as well. It looked as if they were tumbled afterwards.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Was going to ask this as well. It looked as if they were tumbled afterwards.

I doubt they are tumbled (finish isn't dull), I'd go with a really nice face mill (2" or larger) with a very light pass for surfacing.

But Cory would know!

-RC

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by R.C.

I doubt they are tumbled (finish isn't dull), I'd go with a really nice face mill (2" or larger) with a very light pass for surfacing.

But Cory would know!

-RC

Same. We've had some parts come off after using a 2in face mill with a similar finish.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Adrian Clark

Could you elaborate on how you did the surfacing on the bearing mounts?

Also, I love that yoke. I wish I had a chance to make something that complex. It looks like you chose to pre-drill your bearing bores with a twist drill then finish with and end mill. If that's what you did, why'd you chose to do it that way instead of just milling the hole?

Thanks,
-Adrian

The surfacing was done with a ball end mill. I don't remember what specific toolpath I used, but essentially when looking at it from inline with the top "ridge" the endmill just follows the contour from the side, up and over the top, and back down to the side. It then steps over a very small amount (probably .010 to .015") and repeats the same motion until it machines the entire profile.

After machining they were hit real quick with a scotchbrite wheel.

I like to pre-drill when convenient (as long as the drill is in the machine) as it eliminates any chance of packing up the flutes or chipping the edge of a flute when plunging.

I think RC is talking about the yoke for the arm, which is shown as machined. It was scotchbrited later, but the finish you see on the outside of it is from a 3" aluminum specific face mill.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Cory

After machining they were hit real quick with a scotchbrite wheel.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

[bkahl]

This our shooter wheel this year. It weighed a little over 4lbs and had a diameter of a little over 12 inches. This started out as a 14x14 in piece of aluminum. The outer circumference was milled out, but the spokes were cut out with a wire EDM. This is very simple compared to some of the other things on this thread, but this was the first time our team had anything EDMed and it was very cool.

http://i.imgur.com/d2bTPPE.jpg