Facing stacked parts in vise?

xa-mont · Jan 26, 2017

Hey everyone,

Anyone see any issues in facing about 2mm and engraving each side on some 25*50*100 blocks (6060 Ali need to do 250 in total, machined on all sides) with then in stacks of 6 in a vise?

Like this quality representation [emoji14]

Only problem i could see is that there could be a cumulative error on the thickness of the billets, I'll ask my supplier what their tolerance is.

Cheers guys

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

Mtndew · Jan 26, 2017

No issue, I've machined parts like this many many times

broke · Jan 26, 2017

Do it all the time. You need to make an extra effort to not trap any chips between the blocks of you'll have an indent.

onecut · Jan 26, 2017

Think you worried about variations in the bar thickness-Doubt if would affect you.Where it could as the end faces are not machined is flatness thats could pose a problem as it will be compounded loading six un-machined faces against each other.Time will tell.

Ox · Jan 26, 2017

If there is any vaiance from nominal on the thickness of the EXTRUSION, it will be consistent per heat.
So you shouldn't have too much stack-up issue on 250 pcs.

----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Mtndew · Jan 26, 2017

Now if you stacked them vertically, THEN you'd have all kinds of issues :willy_nilly:

Finegrain · Jan 26, 2017

That works fine, but you have to arrange a stop for each piece to get them all to the same X.

Regards.

Mike

JNieman · Jan 26, 2017

Finegrain said:
That works fine, but you have to arrange a stop for each piece to get them all to the same X.

Regards.

Mike

Assuming it matters. Just lining them up 'by feel' with the side of one jaw, or if you want to get more repeatable: bolting a straight-enough bar to the side of a jaw could do it. Since he's just engraving, I don't know that it has to be perfectly centered.

Atomkinder · Jan 26, 2017

My experience with 6061 flat bar is it has a "dip" in the middle of up to .003" so something to consider as you squeeze them all together in a vise. Otherwise, just line them all up with a machinist's square or a parallel. I'd probably measure the average thickness and only engrave four or five at once just to keep them as similar as possible. Facing will be a non-issue, done it plenty of times like this.

Edit: just realized you said machined on all sides. If this is your last op, provide a couple for testing and try it out before committing, but I'd bet you'd be a-ok.

706jim · Jan 26, 2017

xa-mont said:
Hey everyone,

Anyone see any issues in facing about 2mm and engraving each side on some 25*50*100 blocks (6060 Ali need to do 250 in total, machined on all sides) with then in stacks of 6 in a vise?

Like this quality representation [emoji14]

I have to say I just LOVE your sketch! You showed what you wanted to do without the use of a CAD system.

And I think you won't have any problem as long as you don't try to stack 20 of them.

Only problem i could see is that there could be a cumulative error on the thickness of the billets, I'll ask my supplier what their tolerance is.

Cheers guys

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

I just have to say that I LOVE your sketch. Tells us what you want to do without resorting to CAD. And I don't think you will have any problems unless you try to stack 20 of these blanks.

xa-mont · Jan 30, 2017

Thanks for the responses guys.

We're going to actually engrave after anodise now, so no stress on the cumulative error of possible tolerances on the raw material, i'll just be facing each side like that now, and i'll possibly engrave them like that after anodize, but they'll all be exactly the same then.

Cheers guys,
Trav

xa-mont · Mar 18, 2017

works beautifully.

Facing some stock with my awesome new... - Hammond Engineering

THCustoms · Mar 20, 2017

xa-mont said:
Hey everyone,

Anyone see any issues in facing about 2mm....with then in stacks of 6 in a vise?

Personally, a 2mm face-cut in a stack setup like this is something that I would avoid in my 'ninety-nine-million dollars" machining center. Heard of quite a few machines that got destroyed with similar set-up e.g. one part fly off the side and the others suck-up in the face-mill sending the Z's machine components to hell 'indefinitely'.

Unless of course those blocks are stacked air-tight(precision) in a professional vise (one that actually comes by with linear force cert) then that'd be a lot safer - but still not recommended.

If really you have no other option, my advice is best not to rush and take very (very) light face cuts.

D.D.Machine · Mar 20, 2017

I do it a lot ... the trick is grab 6 like your talking about and clamp them "THEN" mic them and divide by 6 to get the size of them ... the 2" wide alum bars I use are like +/- .020 from one run to the next ... so over 6 parts you could be off .120

But if you get all of your bars from the same mill run there all real close to size of each other ,,, Just don`t get SAPA crap ,,

xa-mont · Mar 20, 2017

THCustoms said:
Personally, a 2mm face-cut in a stack setup like this is something that I would avoid in my 'ninety-nine-million dollars" machining center. Heard of quite a few machines that got destroyed with similar set-up e.g. one part fly off the side and the others suck-up in the face-mill sending the Z's machine components to hell 'indefinitely'.

Unless of course those blocks are stacked air-tight(precision) in a professional vise (one that actually comes by with linear force cert) then that'd be a lot safer - but still not recommended.

If really you have no other option, my advice is best not to rush and take very (very) light face cuts.

Well it worked fine and i didn't have any move in the slightest.

I had them stacked in 5s and decked both sides of 250 pieces without a hitch and with a great surface finish.

thesidetalker · Mar 20, 2017

xa-mont said:
Well it worked fine and i didn't have any move in the slightest.

I had them stacked in 5s and decked both sides of 250 pieces without a hitch and with a great surface finish.

Not speaking from experience here (since I'm not in a hurry to test a sketchy setup... maybe on the old fadal if we had it still) but it is my assumption that if the part could move the slightest it would probably move much more than slightly ie potentially crash, as THCustoms suggests.

Just because it didn't move, doesn't mean it's a great idea.

xa-mont · Mar 20, 2017

thesidetalker said:
Not speaking from experience here (since I'm not in a hurry to test a sketchy setup... maybe on the old fadal if we had it still) but it is my assumption that if the part could move the slightest it would probably move much more than slightly ie potentially crash, as THCustoms suggests.

Just because it didn't move, doesn't mean it's a great idea.

honestly it didn't seem scetchy in the slightest. aluminium is soft and grips against its self really well, i had stops on the left hand side (where all of the force of the roughing cut would be pushing) and i was cutting down very close to the jaws (like .5mm above the jaws on the second vise) so i fail to see how this is a dodgey setup.

also unlike THC we're not talking about a "'ninety-nine-million dollars" machining center" we're talking about a 1986 mazak.

thesidetalker · Mar 20, 2017

xa-mont said:
honestly it didn't seem scetchy in the slightest. aluminium is soft and grips against its self really well, i had stops on the left hand side (where all of the force of the roughing cut would be pushing) and i was cutting down very close to the jaws (like .5mm above the jaws on the second vise) so i fail to see how this is a dodgey setup.

also unlike THC we're not talking about a "'ninety-nine-million dollars" machining center" we're talking about a 1986 mazak.

Well just a word of caution... flying parts are dangerous. Machines can be repaired and replaced, people.. not so much.

*queue Tom's drill-thru-controller-screen pic*

John Welden · Mar 20, 2017

THCustoms said:
Personally, a 2mm face-cut in a stack setup like this is something that I would avoid in my 'ninety-nine-million dollars" machining center. Heard of quite a few machines that got destroyed with similar set-up e.g. one part fly off the side and the others suck-up in the face-mill sending the Z's machine components to hell 'indefinitely'.

Unless of course those blocks are stacked air-tight(precision) in a professional vise (one that actually comes by with linear force cert) then that'd be a lot safer - but still not recommended.

If really you have no other option, my advice is best not to rush and take very (very) light face cuts.

Oh please... It's fine. :rolleyes5:

Shit like this has been done a zillion times.

yardbird · Mar 20, 2017

John Welden said:
Oh please... It's fine.

Shit like this has been done a zillion times.

I agree with John. Some jobs have what's called the pucker factor but imo this idn't one of them.

Brent

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