[AUSTINMACHINING]

~120 parts/pieces and fixtures resulting in ~36 gallons of chips.
Materials:
304 stainless steel. Machining perimeter down of a forged threaded rod end to meet my needs.
6061-T6 aluminum for parts and associated fixtures/soft jaws. Two of the parts require machining on all 6 sides aligning holes from two different sides, so fixtures required.
360 brass with thread milled 1/4-28 threads.

Everything went pretty good except for a few user malfunctions and a re-boot of Mach a couple times.
I noticed a couple of parts with wavy walls during finishing. Turns out I had ~.004" tail wag in the table. Adjusted the gibs and problem solved.

Picture of the parts after they have been through the vibratory finisher using the 1/4" green pyramids. Does really well at removing all the tool marks,rounding sharp edges and providing a consistent finish before anodizing.

A little video of some of the machining.





Attachment 250350

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Very nice!

Regards,
Ray L.

[CROSSHATCH]

First off, very nice!

Secondly, how long did it take to run all 120 pieces?

-Jason

[mklotz70]

Watched the vid again here. lol
Nice to see the finished parts! They look great!
Thanks!

[kvom]

Did you use the vibratory finisher on the SS parts? How do those pyramids work on steel?

[AUSTINMACHINING]

First off, very nice!

Secondly, how long did it take to run all 120 pieces?

-Jason

According to the CAM system ~27 hours of machine time not including the fixtures. My actual time was way longer with changing tool paths/mistakes etc. Didn't really keep track. This was my first attempt to run 2 parts at a time using the stock "carrier" to maintain position through the many part rotations in a single vise. The operations were ordered in such a way as to machine off the carrier in the last operation, maintaining position in the vice jaws. Doing it this way gave me two parts instead of one, and reduce the number of tool changes. This method was an immediate need to get 20 units out for magazine reviews etc. The next step will be a proper tooling plate fixture where I could do 10 at a time using the whole work envelope. That would also allow me to work on many other things while the parts ran a single tool. On the longer operations I would only have a tool change every couple hours instead of having to hang out by the machine. My shop dog is not much help as you can see in the video :-).

[AUSTINMACHINING]

Did you use the vibratory finisher on the SS parts? How do those pyramids work on steel?

I did use the finisher on the 304 SS tabs and they came out great. The pyramids do a nice job IF it's the type of finish you are looking for. there are a multitude of finishing media available. I've only tried walnut shells and the pyramids. I really don't care so much what the finish looks like other than being consistent. Like the anodizers say.. "garbage in = garbage out". The pyramids are aggressive enough to not only provide a consistent finish, but round off/debur sharp edges and remove tool paths. About 4-6 hours in the finisher was all that was needed on my parts. The anodized parts come out a professional looking as anything I've purchased.

I did learn that having a continuous trickle of water during finishing saves a lot of part clean up time afterwards. Without the water a grey sludge will build up on the parts that is a PITA to get off, especially in threaded holes.

[mklotz70]

Do you have any info/vids of the vibratory tumbler up somewhere? I'm wondering how big, loud, brand etc. I know the welded brackets I make are too big for a rotary tumbler, but I'm sure there's a size a vibratory that will work.......they've got them big enough to do airplane wings!

[AUSTINMACHINING]

Do you have any info/vids of the vibratory tumbler up somewhere? I'm wondering how big, loud, brand etc. I know the welded brackets I make are too big for a rotary tumbler, but I'm sure there's a size a vibratory that will work.......they've got them big enough to do airplane wings!

It's that Harbor Freight 18lb unit ~$160.00. Loud is relative I guess. Depends on what's in it.

[mklotz70]

thanks! Still too small for my brackets

[engnerdan]

My shop dog is not much help as you can see in the video :-).

My dog is always in the garage with me, except when the mill is running. I am not sure if its is the carrier frequency of the spindle motor VFD or something else I can't hear but she is terribly afraid of coming in when the mill is running.

[AUSTINMACHINING]

My dog is always in the garage with me, except when the mill is running. I am not sure if its is the carrier frequency of the spindle motor VFD or something else I can't hear but she is terribly afraid of coming in when the mill is running.

I actually took that video of Chip (the Chihuahua) for my wife. He was a rescue dog we got 10 years ago. Still very neurotic/scarred of everything EXCEPT the mill. When ever I run the mill he goes into a very content sleep. Cracks me up !!