Machining a Two-Ops Aluminum Part! | How We Do It Ep.1

[@bobwas4066]

Great Job!! can't wait for the series!

[@chrisyboy666]

Good on PM bringing this guy in…very engaging

[@Houcnc]

Aint no wayyy , glad they brought him in .love the last video

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thanks man! 🤙

[@brianwaayenberg3099]

Jist yesterday I just re watched your shop tour from a year ago. Happy to see you’ll be making more. Love any small shop efficiency gains learned as I work in a 22’x22’ shop (with storage in my basement for the inevitable overflow)’

[@SBSOLOCO]

I love making videos so Its a great partnership I think. 🙂

[@ShayeC3]

Yes! I was so hoping you would go this direction with your channel. You are definitely top tier, and i look forward to being able to pick your brain! 🤙

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thank you! 🤙🏻

[@misupercooner]

Really looking forward to this series!

[@scottchordas1287]

Looking forward to this series as well.

[@DonJg-uk8vh]

Just found this channel and really enjoying it. I'm a machinist in Scotland and use haas mills daily. I like the cool tip on the soft jaws ! Will use this from now on

[@SBSOLOCO]

Glad I could add some value!

[@feendos]

Hey Shawn, I would really love to see how you make your aluminum sub-plates. I think a lot of people would be stoked on this!

[@SBSOLOCO]

I wish I had footage of making my sub-plates to share. I will have an episode on how I use my subplates for different fixturing. Maybe I can come up with something that can touch on making them as-well. Thanks for your input! 🤙

[@metalillness5951]

Thank you for taking the time and effort to share with us as we all sharpen one another in the trade. You're a natural in front of the camera and I too, look forward to your series. And BONUS... you even know which way your hat is supposed to be worn on your head.

[@iansandusky417]

I resemble this comment.

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thank you. My hat isn't always on straight but if you ever see it flipped back you know something serious is about to happen. 😆

[@jeremypryor1665]

...We use a 90 degree spot drills on almost all of our 118 degree drills, in steel, no issues with hole locations.

[@Root_Armament]

This is going to be an awesome series! Glad to see they brought you back on 👍

[@SBSOLOCO]

Will see how she goes! 🤜🤛

[@pokeyboy1]

Op1 I use 1018 CRS steel jaws cut with a .200 step. I use mitee byte jaws for thinner "hat" like your gripper jaws. The jaws that bite are the way to go but I hate to accidentally skim those special jaws.

[@jamess9420]

This is good stuff! Yes, pls make one one of the thread gauge!

[@SBSOLOCO]

👍

[@Machiningiscool]

Great video Shawn. Lots of good tips in there.

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thanks Cameron! 🤜🤛

[@viliusr6974]

Brilliant video! Thank you very much. Much better than those superficial product placement videos.

[@regalcnc2438]

Excellent!!

[@edgarpadilla158]

Thank You For Sharing Your Work

[@SBSOLOCO]

You're welcome!

[@valliappanchockalingam534]

Great video! Very informative. Thanks

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thank you!

[@roncournoyer7794]

Looks good. A few suggestions for saving time. 1. first tool, drill the minor diameter undersized. quicker than ramping with an endmill. 2. there isn't a need to face the entire top with the endmill. start from the minor diameter and work out and up. by the time you get to the highest face, you just need one cut around the diameter. 3. not sure what type of corner round you used, but I use a flared corner round if I can. makes it easier to get right without "digging into" the part. 4. when milling a round part from square stock, especially with aluminum, you can make a tool path that clips the 4 corners one corner at a time while staying in the part. Again, great job and great video.

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thanks man. Some good points and even caught that top surface roughing routine. lol Since this will be kind of a learning series I would like to address those good points you brought up so others can understand why I made those choices. I think it will help upcoming machinist in the trade. Thanks for chiming in! Drilling the center hole - There are a few reason I prefer ramping vs a drilling in this instance. If I don't already have a drill I'm using on another feature I wont call another one up. The toolchange time takes longer than this specific ramping time on this machine. I also try and minimize how many tools I use, do to only 20 pockets since they fill up fast. If I'm doing low quantity parts I try and use tools I have pre-assembled so I can program and prove out fairly fast without building other tools. However as you mentioned, drilling is super fast for clearing. If I had a higher quantity of parts to do and really needed to knock runtime down, I would gang up more parts on the table and then really fine tune the program for speed and add a drill at that point. Facing the top - Its funny you caught that one. long story short this toolpath was added later after a design change making the part .125 thinner than the material needed to be. For this run of parts I just decked the top, but for the next run with proper material thickness, that operation is fully eliminated and already deleted that toolpath. Nice catch on that as I definitely didn't need to go to center. Corner rounder - I use to use flared corner rounders and indeed they are easier to tweak in. I now default to not using the flared style for a couple reasons. The main reason is since I keep my tools assembled as a assembly number, I want that assembly to work for a variety of scenarios. Feathered corner rounders have an issue of the tip to long and the diameter to big not allowing me to get closer to the walls and used in shallower floors. I throw cutter comp on that toolpath for easier tweaking and works well. I actually had to slow that tool down after I shot the video as it didn't look that great since it was going to fast being a 2 flute. Roughing the corners first - This is a great observation and I pretty much did just that after I proved the first couple parts out. For those wondering, I typically default to jumping over the part since my parts are usually bigger with different profiles. Its faster to jump vs staying down on this machine. However on this part being round and had an equal 4 corners, I ended up doing zigzag cutting. Climb cut then conventional cutting always engaging the tool pretty much. That basically kept the tool down finishing each corner in a more efficient manner. Thanks again for the comment. Its hard to explain everything making videos but I encourage these types of comments to let others see how things can be done from others! Shawn🍻

[@themonkeyproject]

It's aluminum. When you factor in the time for tool change, plus the cost of the tool, ramping is definitely the smart choice here.

[@kylei6216]

Why wouldn’t you want coolant through the entire op? Thanks for the video!

[@SBSOLOCO]

You definitely want coolant on at all times in aluminum. It’s just really difficult to film anything worth watching with it on. Gets a tad sketchy for sure. I should probably mention that next time. 🤙

[@tomvu1073]

Love this

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thank you

[@isaackollenkark1457]

I love this video !

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thank you

[@shaunybonny688]

Anyone know where that tool tag holder thats on the machine is from?

[@damientoomey1194]

No edge break chamfer of small holes in op2? How would u locate a part radially in ur round soft jaws if op2 had more important features to be milled?

[@SBSOLOCO]

I actually explained this scenario but my audio wasn't on so I had to leave the footage out. Glad you brought it up! There are a couple ways I could handle that. If you have features you could probe, you could do that and use a G68 rotation alignment. I dont like doing that since it takes a bit longer on cycle time to check each part and you would need to add the G68 code in your program for each specific part.. For this part specifically I could bore a hole in the dead jaw that lines up with one of the thru holes and stick a gage pin thru to line the part up before clamping. Another way and my preferred way would be to leave a boss that would fit in the C.Bore on the backside to time it. Like a diamond pin shape. That way i dont have to have a gage pin laying around and not waste time probing. I just hand debured them this time around. Hope that make sense.

[@peoplepower1272]

Mostly agree with how you did this part, but If you keep a 3-jaw chuck bolted to your table for round parts, it eliminates having to make soft jaws and you can run both ops concurrently, giving you a longer cycle time so you can tend your other machines between cycles.

[@VictorHernandez-nt3tw]

Great video. Where is your GF? Your energy and hers worked great together!

[@SBSOLOCO]

Thanks man! I’m sure she will make an appearance at some point! She was unfortunately at her day job while I filmed this episode. 😬

[@gredangeo]

Pretty neat video. But those soft jaws look mighty big. I think I'd rather just use boltable jaws through the existing ones of the vise. I'd still use the soft center one though. That looks good to use.

[@SBSOLOCO]

They are beefy for sure! Little overkill for this job tbh, but they do have advantages. I can use the set for two jobs flipping them around to the other side. Also they require no bolts to remove or install, by snapping in place without the need to indicate/lineup to the dead jaw. change over times are crazy fast.

[@Muny]

Thanks for showing us your process, and thanks for including your mistake. Everybody makes them.

[@SBSOLOCO]

🍻

[@iamtherockstar]

I’ve been trying to get to think about the best way to a much simpler but similar part to this. I could probably get away with superglue, but this was exactly the kind of content I’m looking for.

[@RSPFactory]

Only complaint is putting the 1st Op stock all the way over in the vise can cause jaw rock that only grips the centered corner. You got away with it because it's aluminum in serrated jaws, but for the newer/younger audience it would be something to point out.

[@SBSOLOCO]

Definitely something I should bring up in a future vid! Thanks!

[@cgpmachining]

You beat me to it, that really made my cringe. I have found out the hard way too many times just how risky it is. If you have to then put a similar sized part on the other side to keep the jaw from cocking.

[@danielczoller3395]

One question. Why not both OP in one machine with two vise? Have to make not so much?

[@SBSOLOCO]

I’m actually going to make a video entailing all the different ways I can load my table up depending on the circumstance. For this little project, I was trying to get thru filming fairly fast. Later I utilized more vices off camera. 🤙🏻

[@danielczoller3395]

@@SBSOLOCO thanks. Few years ago i made a lot of alu jaws for my vices…

[@SBSOLOCO]

@@danielczoller3395Me too. I’m almost out though. Burning thru them fast. Need to do another run here soon!

[@gimmehalo1]

That transition in depth from the first depth cut to the next was sketchy.

[@SBSOLOCO]

Super sketchy without coolant. Almost had to throw in how to change a tool in this first video. lol

[@JSmith19858]

Why machine the outside profile first. Machine the holes and counterbores, then machine the profile around the outside. Then you're not gripping it on the thin material you've just machined away, that can sing and rattle, while you machine the rest of the part

[@SBSOLOCO]

This part was so small, it’s not necessary. No issues of vibration and was able to hold .0007” parallel and .0015” flat. Also i use a roughing tool and then a finisher. Sectioning up the part how you mentioned would had more runtime due to tool changes when it doesn’t really benefit me much. That’s pretty much my thought on that. ✌🏻

[@JSmith19858]

@@SBSOLOCO It would have a longer run time with less risk of scrap parts. The longer run time would be a couple of tool changes, so seconds, vs scrapping parts. You could have saved money and run time by using round bar stock and using the vice setup for the second op, for the first op, so you would have saved setup time there too

[@VictorHernandez-nt3tw]

Opening and closing the vise is much faster than screwing on bolts to hold down part. Plus if a bolt falls you got to go looking for it. It all depends on the situation though.

[@ratman76]

Awfully expensive soft jaws 🥲🥲🤣🤣🤣

[@geemeff]

Yo, ain't it easier and cheaper to just cast them???

[@VolodymyrTorkalo]

This CNC shop has no casting production