Tube Notcher Mods

Rughed Stock:

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What is the cutting tool?

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Oops. here is the partially finished clamp:

That is a 2 flute indexable face mill that uses SEHT1204 insert. Its stiffer than a lot of other options, but it still sees some flex under heavy cutting loads.

Oops. here is the partially finished clamp:

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Nice work! I suppose it needs to be clamped in an angled swivel vise so long tubes can clear the table. I used square tubing to build my tractor's bucket loader attachment which made the angle cuts simple on the bandsaw.

The two compared:

"The drivers compartment and the requirement to use "round" tubing is because the loads that that part of the car may see and the direction they may come from can't be predicted since most of those loads will come when "things go bad" such as an "off" or contact with another car or guard rail."

Nice Notchers aren't cheap ($246). And you still need to buy cutters to use it😬

That is a 2 flute indexable face mill that uses SEHT1204 insert. Its stiffer than a lot of other options, but it still sees some flex under heavy cutting loads.

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I regrind an old end mill that way for roughing unknown scrap or auction steel, which is most of my stock, by tilting the grinder fixture onto the relief grind angle. The bevel is around 0.020" high, and lasts longer than a sharp tip. Also it doesn't create as sharp of a stress concentration on milled wrench flats. After several regrinds it needs to be sharpened the usual way to widen the central flat. It's one of a batch of dull name brand end mills bought second-hand.

Those are a square insert mounted at 45 degrees with a "flat" contact edge. Its insanely good in aluminum with aluminum inserts, but for most steels with steel or alloy inserts its only good for roughing in my opinion.

Those are a square insert mounted at 45 degrees with a "flat" contact edge. Its insanely good in aluminum with aluminum inserts, but for most steels with steel or alloy inserts its only good for roughing in my opinion. Bob La Londe CNC Molds N Stuff

------------------------- A few minutes ago I experimented with turning down more of the reduced size shank of a long PH 1 hex bit. A brazed carbide bit of unknown type, lowered to give negative rake, took off a blue-black chip without ruining the carbide. I expected turning to fail and to have to grind the hard hex bit.

That carbide bit had previously chipped and been ground back to a larger radius.

Its not perfect, but its better.

Easier Angle Adjust:

Assembled:

Not perfect, but it looks like it lines up better:

The sad part is it will likely only ever get used for one project. The next class won't have my personal instruction on how to use it, and they will likely throw it away and buy another cheap piece of crap with instructions.

That's very nice and professional, you are definitely a real machinist. I was thinking an in-shop mill fixture but of course yours has to go to the school. What did you paint it with, to stand up to student abuse (like my lathe)?

I began painting my projects after buying the 2" RA air sander that cleans up steel well and quickly. I'm using Rustoleum 2X Paint & Primer which stands up to metal banging together reasonably well, after a day in the sun to cure hard.

After being a high school student for the 3D CAD class I think I understand the concepts, choosing the best 2D surface to extrude was easy and I've worked as a paper and CAD 2D designer. I'm sort of persuaded to buy a Bambu A1 but haven't thought of anything I really need that can't be made as good or better from machined metal or Teflon/Delrin. I don't intentionally create monsters.

The class dwindled until I was the last, so the instructor gave me a fast tour of the advanced professional features like creating a magnified detail of a small area, the characteristics of various filaments and deflection vs moments of inertia, and I showed him what I've found for small affordable load cells and crane scales that could test student bridge models.

The school welding shop is set up pretty well to practice real-world structures the night instructor has built in his business. Each bench has rotary chucks for welding tubing. I took the class before the upgrades and had to jig up the practice tubing cluster on scrap and firebricks after fishmouthing the pieces at home.

Thank you. It looks decent. Even I think so, but I know its a hodge podge of "I hope that's good enough." I was surprised at how close the cutter "looks" to the tube when it was done. When I make one for myself I'll make it a little differently, and set up a spindle to use annular cutters.

One of my thoughts was my son could CNC notch all of their tube. He is the lab tech in charge of the NAU Yuma campus machine shop where they have, not one, but two HAAS Super Mini Mills and a HAAS TL1 CNC lathe. (he's a bit afraid of the lathe) On a manual mill it could be a chore to notch anything but 90 degree joints, but on a CNC mill it would be just be some grunt work in CAD/CAM. I could do it on a manual mill, but just running the solutions in my head makes my neck hurt from staring up into space.

I'm not going to paint it. I thought about degreasing it, blackening it, and then soaking it in oil, but paint changes all my simple math. The simple answer. If I had some I'd probably just spray it with Boshield T-9. I considered spraying it with WD-40 and engraving a note on top that says to prevent rust coat with oil. Nah, I probably will just spray it with WD40 and let it rust when the WD wears off. Its not going to rust fast in this climate. Sure some times of year you can get some very minor flash rust, but growth takes years not months.

I can't get paint to work worth s*it. Perfectly clean. Sprayed primer and paint per all the instructions. Left to cure in the son for weeks (who has time for that) and the first little brush against anything and it scratches.

Highs school was pretty much hell for me. I learned basic geometry and algebra, but a sister in a Catholic school ruined algebra for me. (my second year of algebra) She failed me on a major exam because I answered all the equations in more dimensions than she was looking for. My answeres were correct, and did provide the basic information she wanted. I think she just didn't understand anything that wasn't in her answer key. Turned an A into a C for the class. I had a math instructor my other three years in public school that was pretty sharp. He was an asshole, but he was fair. He kicked me out of his class 13 times in one semester, but still gave me the A I earned. Once he kicked me out of class, because I told him, "Call on somebody else for once. I'm not the only one here who knows how to do the work." LOL. He always called on me when he wanted a student to show the right work. He would call two or three people to give them a chance, and then he would call me.

One year (my year in Catholic school) I took a class called mechanical drawing. I was not the star pupil, but the instructor actually spent his time teaching. I got Bs and Cs, but I learned a lot. Mostly I had no money and I was often doing things like trying to complete complex drawings with one number 2 pencil. A small pad of sand paper was my friend. I eventually learned to print clear enough I didn't have to use a lettering guide, and I learned to create construction lines with a light touch and a hand sanded lead in my one number 2 pencil. LOL.

Other than those two things the only other thing I learned is you generally can't trust people in authority. Actually I learned that in grade school, but I learned it was universal in high school.

I'm sort of

I'm still struggling to find real world uses for 3D printing other than gadgets. I can machine almost anything faster and better, and I don't even have a very good machine shop. Admittedly 3D printing can create shapes that are difficult or nearly impossible to machine.

Apparently I was lucky. The two NH towns whose schools I attended had well known prep schools and a fair number of faculty brats in the public system, one is the school John Irving dissed in "Garp", though it was good enough for his sister. The result of them plus the children of WW2 vets who became self-made professionals (me) was enough kids who knew the value of education to drown out the losers and maintain a friendly competition to do well. The friend I competed with for top grades in Drafting was the son of an architect, in wood shop it was the son of a surgeon who was building a sailboat.

The towns hired inspiring teachers to match. When my history teacher was promoted to vice principal his replacement was Christa McAuliffe. The introductory English and History classes in college were below the levels from high school.

At the first school I ate lunch at the large central table with the class officers, all supposedly respectable. I made and sold them little folding pocket catapults that could silently launch a pea or bit of Jello half way across the room, limited by ceiling height. We would sit quietly eating with our arms down while provoking food fights among the troublemakers along the back wall. Coming down the stairs I could see the silhouette of a faint ring of dried whipped cream (which flew higher) protruding below the textured ceiling around our table.

That wasn't all, I also flew model flying saucers over Exeter NH. They were parachutes made from dry cleaner bag film with the bare minimum weight to keep them open, a bit of twig. The film was pinched together at the edges to tie the shrouds, which created a mushroom cap shape. In the right weather our grassy field generated thermals that carried them up and away. They were clear and nearly invisible from below but reflective like a windshield at some low angles. "Silver" color is just a distorted reflection of the surroundings

I had nothing to do with the famous incident but I made similar hot air balloons which were like Japanese paper lanterns light enough to float. "Boy's Life" magazine had printed a scalable pattern for the panels.

Your definition of who the trouble makers were may be faulty.

Coming down the stairs I could see

Not me, Born to be Mild.