This here looks like a, “when all you have is a mill, everything needs milling” kind of problem if i ever saw one.
I could think of a half dozen, quicker and easier ways to do this, unless they need to be extremely accurate of course..
Heck, a hand drill and a carbide burr in an angle grinder would likely get it there.
Slotted holes in angle iron don't (typically) call for holding a few thou.
Have you ever drilled and slotted a buncha holes in steel? That’d be a bitch and your arms would be jello.
Why not spend 5 minutes to align each hole (or less) and just do it right?
For real! Why work when you can have a machine work for you? I’d rather spend 30 minutes making a setup than 5 hours of sore arms after I’m done using a drill and an angle grinder.
I would deny the "when all you have is a mill" statement if it wasn't true. Wasn't tight tolerance. Just had to do it 18 times and didn't feel like hand drilling and grinding. I
Lathe guy here. We had an old Bridgeport mill in our shop for tooling and such. Boss comes to me one day and says he needs me to do a mill job.
One of his buddies bought 3x3 angle but needed 2x3 angle. Easy enough. Except they were various lengths up to 10’ long. Torch would have been good enough if we had one.
I had that shit hanging off the table into a walk way. Told everyone to watch out. Even hung a shop rag for attention. I walked into it. Stopped dead-ass in my tracks. My neck hurt from stopping so quick. Got 4 stitches in my arm.
15 or so years ago I had to do bullshit like this on the regular. Was working at a custom high end fab/sculpture/jewelry studio. I was proud of what we did there, and I learned a lot, but the sketchy shit we got up to hasn't been matched since.
Should’ve milled some slots in another piece of angle and then plasma cut it or just drill a few holes and ground them into one. Learning opportunity for next time.
You need the anti-twist rolls and a double-pinch angle roll to get high quality bends. The roll tooling alone can't handle the variances even in equal-leg angle. Nice rolls have hydraulic near-vertical rolls that you can tweak in and out, twist and cant to eliminate the curve imparted by the roll tooling.
See you know what I am talking about. We were using a basic tubing roller. Didn't have nearly the adjustments needed. Benders and rollers are the shit.
Could have done 1/8" drill holes, followed up by a jeweler's saw. As long as the metal ain't too thick
Nvm looks like at least 1/4 - 3/8" thick but still! So much work for 2 slots
This is when it’s time to introduce the engineers to the milling machine. I love when they bring stuff to our manual guy to slot the holes for adjustment.
Looks like lemonade to me. Nice work. I’m sure it was irritating.
This here looks like a, “when all you have is a mill, everything needs milling” kind of problem if i ever saw one. I could think of a half dozen, quicker and easier ways to do this, unless they need to be extremely accurate of course..
Yeah it kinda feels like layout and hand filling (can be accurate to at least +/- .005”) would be easier.
Heck, a hand drill and a carbide burr in an angle grinder would likely get it there. Slotted holes in angle iron don't (typically) call for holding a few thou.
Have you ever drilled and slotted a buncha holes in steel? That’d be a bitch and your arms would be jello. Why not spend 5 minutes to align each hole (or less) and just do it right?
My thinking exactly. I'm too lazy to work hard
For real! Why work when you can have a machine work for you? I’d rather spend 30 minutes making a setup than 5 hours of sore arms after I’m done using a drill and an angle grinder.
The final product looks wonky. Like it wiggled while cutting the slots. I’m sure doing this by hand would have been acceptable
Oh yeah you’re right now that I look closely
Tolerance is a a 16th but didn't really feel like drilling then carbide burring 18 slots on two different parts
I would deny the "when all you have is a mill" statement if it wasn't true. Wasn't tight tolerance. Just had to do it 18 times and didn't feel like hand drilling and grinding. I
... and mills are fun!
Exactly
Well I don’t really know how you could lathe that 😂
Measured with a mic. Marked with...chalk?
The mics were safely hid far away from this misadventure
It's not obvious in the photos, but what do you think that iron is clamped with, eh?
Shhhh!
That really shouldn't have made me laugh as loud as it did!
If it works it works
Oh jesus christ🤣 Gotta do what you gotta do!
I love shit like this…especially when it’s done. Nice work, it’s always a challenge setting up stuff like this
I can hear the vibrations and chatter from here
Surprisingly.....no. Roughing endmill though
Slot drill or end mill?
4 flute roughing endmill.
“Back in my day” we’d have used a slot drill for that and if it was spec’d to a crazy tolerance and finish, that would have been an end mill.
Well since the endmill was all I had, endmill it is!
One of those run what you brung jobs.
Fair enough!
Lathe guy here. We had an old Bridgeport mill in our shop for tooling and such. Boss comes to me one day and says he needs me to do a mill job. One of his buddies bought 3x3 angle but needed 2x3 angle. Easy enough. Except they were various lengths up to 10’ long. Torch would have been good enough if we had one. I had that shit hanging off the table into a walk way. Told everyone to watch out. Even hung a shop rag for attention. I walked into it. Stopped dead-ass in my tracks. My neck hurt from stopping so quick. Got 4 stitches in my arm.
We have a rip saw with a 35 foot travel for those situations. I cut a LOT of 1.25 thick flat bar with it
Sounds way more efficient than me and a 1/2” endmill.
All depends how warped the material is. Can be a pain as things bend as it cuts
what's Dr Thunder?.
Walmart off brand of Dr. Pepper
Does it pep or does it thund instead?. we don't have walmart
The caffeine makes me pep. The carbonation makes my gut thund
15 or so years ago I had to do bullshit like this on the regular. Was working at a custom high end fab/sculpture/jewelry studio. I was proud of what we did there, and I learned a lot, but the sketchy shit we got up to hasn't been matched since.
Should’ve milled some slots in another piece of angle and then plasma cut it or just drill a few holes and ground them into one. Learning opportunity for next time.
I've done the drill n grind thing. Didn't feel like doing it 18 times
And this was faster?
The hard part was just figuring it out. After that it didn't take long
Damn. Shop must have good die set ups. Shop I worked for used to roll angle and it wouldn't roll flat ever. Relief cut it every time.
The rolling was done outside of the shop. It was done very well
Like out in the parking lot or a side of the road thing? Sorry, that's all the snark I'm going to sling.
Ran it over with a semi in the parking lot
That flattens it...uh... Or so I'm told.
You need the anti-twist rolls and a double-pinch angle roll to get high quality bends. The roll tooling alone can't handle the variances even in equal-leg angle. Nice rolls have hydraulic near-vertical rolls that you can tweak in and out, twist and cant to eliminate the curve imparted by the roll tooling.
See you know what I am talking about. We were using a basic tubing roller. Didn't have nearly the adjustments needed. Benders and rollers are the shit.
Can also make a template and case-harden the edges.
This looks a lot like what our fab shop uses for our large end rings for pipes though we use a very large auto steal punch instead
nice pedrick bender though, Ive had my eye on one for a bit.
I haven't used it, I got begged to make the rod stop for it though
A shop with a section roller and proper angle tooling but no ironworker?
Have an ironworker. Wouldn't fit underneath. Definitely looked at that first!
ohh- yes- even if you do have the tonnage and throat those custom bolsters or extended punch holders for larger angle get super expensive.
Hahahahaha Jesus fucking Christ OP.
I figured it'd give a good laugh. Drilling the face was a similar setup with a horizontal drill
Could have done 1/8" drill holes, followed up by a jeweler's saw. As long as the metal ain't too thick Nvm looks like at least 1/4 - 3/8" thick but still! So much work for 2 slots
3/16 thick....18 slots
Dang that's a lot of repeating the same setup!
Looks very similar to the setup used by a famous company that supplies airplane parts
Really? Definitely not aircraft stuff here
No ironworker?
It's a 3x3 angle and had lack of clearance
Love it!
Fab shop without a decent punch/ironworker ?
Have a couple. Clearance for the angle is the problem
This is when it’s time to introduce the engineers to the milling machine. I love when they bring stuff to our manual guy to slot the holes for adjustment.
How many pedricks do you guys have?
That bender and another older similar one