D Selfridge
Aluminum
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2004
- Location
- Western Kansas
As will become more obvious as you read this post, I'm new to the vertical mill - have had mine for a whole three weeks now, and just finished installing a Newall 3-axis DRO (Z-axis on the quill) a couple of days ago. Which brings up a question - one of the guys here posted a photo of a nice saddle block he machined to fit atop the ram of his B'port. It's sitting right over the hole the machine lift eye threaded into, and is the base he used to mount the arm that holds the DRO control head/console. He did a very nice job of finishing it, even machined a radius or bevel (couldn't tell which in the photo) around the top edge of the block. My question is how you would set up to machine the radius into the bottom of such a block to match the radius of the top of the ram? I'd like to make a copy of his saddle block out of 6061, and am also looking at machining a one piece scope base (also of 6061) to fit rifle actions that have different radii on the front & rear receiver rings.
I've seen a vidio clip of cutting an outside radius by turning the workpiece by hand online, but don't think that's going to cut it with either of these projects. I guess I could try to figure out how to keller the radius with multiple passes with a ball end mill, but would sure prefer a quicker, less complicated method, even if it required the construction of a jig or fixture - if it worked well enough, I'd like to make scope bases for sale. I'm starting to wonder if you'd need a CNC machining center to do what I have in mind.
I've seen a vidio clip of cutting an outside radius by turning the workpiece by hand online, but don't think that's going to cut it with either of these projects. I guess I could try to figure out how to keller the radius with multiple passes with a ball end mill, but would sure prefer a quicker, less complicated method, even if it required the construction of a jig or fixture - if it worked well enough, I'd like to make scope bases for sale. I'm starting to wonder if you'd need a CNC machining center to do what I have in mind.