RE: [TCML] Machining Question - Techniques for Cut-Off Sawing

[William Noble <william_b_noble@xxxxxxx>]

harbor freight sells a cheap metal cutting circular saw that is nice if you don't need to cut over about an inch thick steel.  beyond that a bandsaw is good.
 
with your vertical mill, you will need to make sure the head is properly trammed or you can't be assured of cutting square - but with it trammed you ought to be able to get .001 or so - but you can't really depend you your mill for "perfect" square, just pretty good.
 
A facemill is really handy for cleaning up a cut, but what you get depends on what your mill can handle - my mill has a 6 hp motor, so I can use relatively larger stuff than the small bridgeports, and if you get the mill/drill type, you are limited to pretty small facemills before you run out of rigidy (it's not so much horsepower as stiffness)
> Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 19:08:52 +0100> From: f-h@xxxx> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [TCML] Machining Question - Techniques for Cut-Off Sawing> CC: > > Dan,> > A band saw is the best, a reciprocating power jig saw the next choice.> > YMMV, but where I come from, it is usual practice to cut the raw blocks > 2mm or 80thou bigger than the finished object.> > First you machine one face, next, you clamp this face against the fixed > jaw of the vice, and machine another face.> To make sure that the machined face is orientated against the fixed jaw, > you should press against it with one single point, instead of the whole > moving jaw. A small block of phenolic, placed btwn. the moving jaw and > the workpiece, is a good choice.> > You now have 2 faces that are square to each other.> > Clamping one of these faces against the fixed jaw (with phenolic between > the moving jaw and the workpiece), and aligning the other machined face > to be vertical, with a machinists angle, you machine the 3rd face.> > After this you have 3 faces each perpendicular, and these faces can > serve as reference to the milling operation that brings the block to > it`s desired dimension.> > On properly finished parts, all faces are machined.> > Hope this helps.> > Cheers, Finn Hammer> > > Mccauley, Daniel H skrev:> > > > Just getting around to finally investing in a vertical mill, and am> > looking at what options there are for a cut-off saw.> > Do you typically just make a rough cut and then use the mill to> > "perfect" the cut, or get the best possible cut right off the bat> > using a cut-off saw?> > > > Dewalt and Milwaukee (as well as others) sell some inexpensive metal> > chop-saws, but not sure how well they work for soft metals like> > aluminum, brass, etc... and plastics.> > > > Any help appreciated!> > Thanks!> > _______________________________________________> > Tesla mailing list> > Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla> > > > > > _______________________________________________> Tesla mailing list> Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla_______________________________________________
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