Question for MPWR-How did you make these?

[hakkfan]

Hey Andy, I need to make a few parts very similar to these below you did for your Ferrari exhausts and am lost at how to go about doing it.





Can you kind of give me a step by step as to the order you went in to make those? I mean I can see starting with round stock, getting the center hole in them, but when you make the outer, sort of rounded diamond shape, that's where I get lost.

Can you help me out?

Thanks.....
Clay

[MPWR]

No problem. I'll describe it as best as I can, but if anything's unclear just ask.

I started with 1/4" alu rod in the 3 jaw self centering chuck. On the lathe I center drilled it to 1/16" (to fit 1.5" pipes), and then turned it down to whatever the long dimension of the diamond shape is- off hand I don't know it, but I'd guess it's about 0.200". I turned a half inch or so of the rod, so I could make several at once.

I then converted from lathe to mill mode, leaving the workpiece held in the 3 jaw. The rotary table was centered under the spindle, the handwheels zeroed, rotary table set to zero, and the 3 jaw mounted on the RT. The bolt holes were then drilled (maybe 0.075" from the center?), 0.031" dia to take 1/32" rod.

To cut the diamond shape, I moved the RT 0.060" + (1/2 the end mill dia) off in on the Y axis. I did the cutting moving the workpiece along the X axis (leaving the Y axis locked). The RT was turned to 330 deg, and the workpiece was fed in the positive X direction until it came to the zeroed X position (even with the cutter). Then with the cutter still turning, I turned the RT 60 deg to 030 deg (for the nice radiused 'corner'), and then fed the workpiece the rest of the way through on the X axis. Then it was simply turned around so the other side could be cut (enter at 150 deg, exit at 210 deg).

Then to cut the gap between the diamond flanges (and cut the individual pieces apart) I want back to the lathe and used the parting tool- but this could just as easily be done with a slitting saw on the mill/rotary table. Each part is 0.100" tall- the individual diamond flanges are 0.030, and the gap between them is 0.040"- the width of the cutoff blade. The gap was cut to a dia of 0.100".

Once they were all cut apart, I radiused the corners on the 'pointy ends' with a sanding stick- quick and easy. Make sense? The measurements and angles I quoted may not be exact, but they should get the method across.

[p9o1r1sche]

Nice looking parts there, MPWR. And I could actually follow your description of how you made them.

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by p9o1r1sche

And I could actually follow your description of how you made them.

Glad it made sense. It's not easy to describe this sort of thing in text alone. Hopefully we'll all learn to take pics while we're making stuff, so we can better share how we go about it....