I was working on some of my hand forged Settlers of Catan pieces on my UNiMAT mini lathe tonight. I mainly wanted to flatten the bottom of the pieces so they would sit flat on the board. I also tried to machine the roof of one just to see if I could do it.
I will be machining all the bottoms it looks like. I think I will leave the roofs alone. More work than it's worth. It takes longer to machine the bottoms than to forge the pieces – never mind machining the roof!
A stack of rough forged game pieces. These are pretty bad.
Trying to use the 4 jaw chuck on the lathe to mill one of the game piece ‘roof’ faces.
Roof was machined flat.
More importantly, the base is machined flat. Now the piece can sit on the board.
The 4 jaw chuck allows me to grab this 4 sided piece and machine the bottom flat.
I think I like the blacksmithed roof building better that the machined roofed building.
Hard to say. One, it's a small machine and a small piece. Two, forging hardens the metal, so it's harder to machine. Three, you don't really have the best tooling right now 🙂
Also, did you turn that old cutter on its side? It wasn't ground to cut correctly that way.
Hard to say. One, it's a small machine and a small piece. Two, forging hardens the metal, so it's harder to machine. Three, you don't really have the best tooling right now 🙂
Also, did you turn that old cutter on its side? It wasn't ground to cut correctly that way.
I used the thicker cut one, and pointed the 'tip' up if that makes any sense. I am assuming that just the tip is what does the cutting, the rest is just support material so you don't break the tip off.
I used the thicker cut one, and pointed the 'tip' up if that makes any sense. I am assuming that just the tip is what does the cutting, the rest is just support material so you don't break the tip off.
Pretty much. Read up on cutter rake, too. If you think about how the cutter hits the metal, you have the front (top) surface, and the rake (rear) surface. Both affect how aggressively the cutter tries to remove metal, and how well chips form. In some cases, changing these angles can improve how the cutter performs on the cut. Modern machine ground tooling provides identical performance each time, but even now a lot of machinists will hand grind their tooling, to keep it sharp and to modify it for specific cuts.
Pretty much. Read up on cutter rake, too. If you think about how the cutter hits the metal, you have the front (top) surface, and the rake (rear) surface. Both affect how aggressively the cutter tries to remove metal, and how well chips form. In some cases, changing these angles can improve how the cutter performs on the cut. Modern machine ground tooling provides identical performance each time, but even now a lot of machinists will hand grind their tooling, to keep it sharp and to modify it for specific cuts.
Lots to learn lots to learn. I figured out last night after nearly finishing the 4th cut that I was being to aggressive with it. I figured that those little marks where a good increment to try for depth cuts. Half that is MUCH better for what I was doing.
I want to put 2 servos on it now and make a poor man's CNC. It's tedious to cut off an 1/8 inch of material with this.
Lots to learn lots to learn. I figured out last night after nearly finishing the 4th cut that I was being to aggressive with it. I figured that those little marks where a good increment to try for depth cuts. Half that is MUCH better for what I was doing.
I want to put 2 servos on it now and make a poor man's CNC. It's tedious to cut off an 1/8 inch of material with this.
Something like that. Maybe a half CNC "power feed" with a stepper motor and a speed control pot may work, too.
Something like that. Maybe a half CNC "power feed" with a stepper motor and a speed control pot may work, too.