Aluminum bar stock rotary milling test
This was a later test to see if I could mill a tube, kinda like a little bullet casing. The answer is a resounding "kinda." It still suffers from the grain problem mentioned in the previous pic, wherein bars formed with crappy aluminum don't mill evenly as spun around beneath the end mill. Certain edges mill cleanly, while others seem to flake away, leaving lost, unsharp edges.
In the background you can see the DIN cable plug into a simple board I made that connects to a BASIC Stamp BS2p40, which is on the stamp dev board (with the green power LED). All it does it kick out a steady stream of rotation commands to slowly rotate the rotary table. In this pic, the table sits on the angle plate, which is just there to raise it up enough to give the rotary table's CNC motor (foreground right) clearance over the Y axis handwheel (out of frame bottom). On the rotary table is a 4-jaw independent chuck, which is holding the 0.25"x0.75" stock vertically for the milling. Using the rotary table, I cleared away the space around a little bar shaped piece, and then began milling the tube into the center of it. Obviously, I can't get much depth with that tiny 1/8" end mill, and moreover, this operation is far more suited to both a lathe (almost next on my wishlist), and better grades of aluminum, or other metals entirely.
Again, just another test. Note also the white copy paper and black electrical tape way-guards. I don't like getting shavings around the exposed Y-axis threaded rod, and I haven't made a fancier system yet. This works quite well for now.
Aluminum bar stock rotary milling test
This was a later test to see if I could mill a tube, kinda like a little bullet casing. The answer is a resounding "kinda." It still suffers from the grain problem mentioned in the previous pic, wherein bars formed with crappy aluminum don't mill evenly as spun around beneath the end mill. Certain edges mill cleanly, while others seem to flake away, leaving lost, unsharp edges.
In the background you can see the DIN cable plug into a simple board I made that connects to a BASIC Stamp BS2p40, which is on the stamp dev board (with the green power LED). All it does it kick out a steady stream of rotation commands to slowly rotate the rotary table. In this pic, the table sits on the angle plate, which is just there to raise it up enough to give the rotary table's CNC motor (foreground right) clearance over the Y axis handwheel (out of frame bottom). On the rotary table is a 4-jaw independent chuck, which is holding the 0.25"x0.75" stock vertically for the milling. Using the rotary table, I cleared away the space around a little bar shaped piece, and then began milling the tube into the center of it. Obviously, I can't get much depth with that tiny 1/8" end mill, and moreover, this operation is far more suited to both a lathe (almost next on my wishlist), and better grades of aluminum, or other metals entirely.
Again, just another test. Note also the white copy paper and black electrical tape way-guards. I don't like getting shavings around the exposed Y-axis threaded rod, and I haven't made a fancier system yet. This works quite well for now.