For some of you this is old hat. I thought I would show others what a common 3 axis CNC horizontal machining center can do with a little programming.
The item shown was milled from a block of 6AL4V titanium alloy. It is approximately the size of a rifle bolt. Most of the surface you see was cut with a 1/2" ball nose end mill. Given a 4th and or 5th axis you can see that most anything is possible with a little programming.
With a programmer instructed to provide a better finish on a bolt or receiver drawing you can see that only a few finishing operations would be required.

A thing of beauty. Exactly what is it? What will it do once implemented?

looks like an artificial hip?

quote:

Originally posted by 724wd:

looks like an artificial hip?

Now that you mention it...

golf club part

That's my new bolt handle.
Butch

quote:

Originally posted by 724wd:
looks like an artificial hip?

Yes it is a prototype.

Nope... looks like the wrong angle for a golf club.

That has to be a replacement bone joint.

But great stuff none the less.
I wish my feeble little mill had a servo driven 3rd axis. Oh well after I buy my house then I'll buy some new toys.

What Cam software are you using? I've got master cam but it's an old hand me down version.

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
Nope... looks like the wrong angle for a golf club.

That has to be a replacement bone joint.

But great stuff none the less.
I wish my feeble little mill had a servo driven 3rd axis. Oh well after I buy my house then I'll buy some new toys.

What Cam software are you using? I've got master cam but it's an old hand me down version.

I don't have any idea since I am not one of the programmers. If you have 2 axis interpolation you can still do something by stepping the Z down manually in small increments and make the tool paths run length ways.

I've always wanted to do something like that on our 4 axis Hurco!

now dats a nica door handle

It's not so much a question of "What can be done?" but a question of "At what PRICE can it be done?"

I've been to a very capable machine shop and have seen the products they turn out for the oil, aerospace and medical industry. Some of these parts are much less complicated than an integral box magazine bottom metal unit for a M98 but these parts often sell for multiples of what we pay for the bottom metal.

quote:

Originally posted by ForrestB:
It's not so much a question of "What can be done?" but a question of "At what PRICE can it be done?"

I've been to a very capable machine shop and have seen the products they turn out for the oil, aerospace and medical industry. Some of these parts are much less complicated than an integral box magazine bottom metal unit for a M98 but these parts often sell for multiples of what we pay for the bottom metal.

That makes me feel better.

quote:

Originally posted by ForrestB:
It's not so much a question of "What can be done?" but a question of "At what PRICE can it be done?"

I've been to a very capable machine shop and have seen the products they turn out for the oil, aerospace and medical industry. Some of these parts are much less complicated than an integral box magazine bottom metal unit for a M98 but these parts often sell for multiples of what we pay for the bottom metal.

That's true.
It also has a lot to do with the material to. Everyone knows Titanium is expensive but few know why. and it's not the cost of the material which is a good portion of the expense.

It's what it takes to machine it. Titanium is tough gummy material that will move away from the cutter rather then cut. and it doesn't conduct heat well at all so all the heat goes back into you cutter. Those two thing right there mean you need either very light high speed cuts of a very rigid fixure. and high temp cutters.
And that's what make the cost so damn high.

The thing with machines shops is you are not really paying for the most part is their experience with the tools they have and the materials they have played with.

Below are Commonly available Titanium Grades Sold . Material expense is relative to type and grade .

As the companies I have worked for use enormous amounts of it and buy as such , I really have no Idea as to

it's actual cost . I do know it isn't inexpensive as with most composite materials , cost are relative

to performance capabilities . I do know that Titanium which contains Hafnium is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE .

As Hafnium is the most expensive substance I know of personally . There are other substances such as

Antimatter an Aerogel which are more expensive . However their far beyond my areas of knowledge an financial

reach .

6AL-4V
(grade 5)


6AL-4V ELI
(grade 23)

6AL-2SN-4ZR-2MO


CP GRADE 2

CP GRADE 4


6AL-6V-2SN

10V-2FE-3AL





Sizes:

• Titanium Round Bar from 1/8” to 16”
• Titanium Plate 3/16” to 4”
• Titanium Rolled Rectangles 3/8” thick to 1.75” thick
• Titanium Forged Rectangles 2” thick to 10” thick, widths up to 24”
• Titanium billet & ingot

Just in case anyone was curious ; I borrowed this .

Creating Antimatter:
At present, antimatter costs $62.5 trillionUSD per gram. Projected improvements could bring this cost down to $5 billion per gram and the production level up ten times from 1.5*10^-9 to 1.5*10^-8 grams (from 1.5 to 15 nanograms).

The hog out part was made from a brick of titanium alloy because most implants are either titanium or a cobalt-chrome alloy due to their bio-compatibility. I don't consider either alloy necessary or even desirable for use in a rifle action. Last I knew the titanium was about $7.00 per lb. The cobalt alloy is also expensive and is relatively heavy.
The most expensive stuff that I ever machined was a piece of tantalum. It was about .250 thk X 3" X 3" and cost $250 ......in 1970.

The hog out was shown to demonstrate the capability of sculpturing a part using minimum tooling and set up. You just cut away everything that doesn't look like your bolt, receiver or bottom metal. The larger the radius on the ball nose and the smaller the step over on the last cuts the smoother the surface. Some hand finishing will always be desirable.

I'm hoping to add a rotary to my 3 axis VMC for fully machined rifle barrels. Picked up a copy of autocad and am making the pattern barrel now. Figure another year or so.

This thread is somewhat close to what I've been playing with the past week or so. I'll see if it pans out over the next couple months. It's a 2 setup wire EDM and/or abrasive waterjet cut to get it to this point. Still a couple of refinements to do on this model, and then draw up the extractor, hammer, mainspring and small parts.

Some of the parts will be more economical to cast, but the receiver and breechblock will probably be worth the cost of wire EDM and/or waterjet to get better precision.

It's stretched me a bit to teach myself 3d CAD, I'm really a 2D guy.

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by ssdave:
This thread is somewhat close to what I've been playing with the past week or so. I'll see if it pans out over the next couple months. It's a 2 setup wire EDM and/or abrasive waterjet cut to get it to this point. Still a couple of refinements to do on this model, and then draw up the extractor, hammer, mainspring and small parts.

Some of the parts will be more economical to cast, but the receiver and breechblock will probably be worth the cost of wire EDM and/or waterjet to get better precision.

It's stretched me a bit to teach myself 3d CAD, I'm really a 2D guy.

Dave

Naw
You were really a 3D guy stuck with old 2D software. It is sort of a one way trip.
2D makes a good trig machine though.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:

Naw
You were really a 3D guy stuck with old 2D software. It is sort of a one way trip.
2D makes a good trig machine though.

Boy if that ain't the truth.

So much for trig tables just draw it an measure between points.