Re: Sterling Dump
 

This build just keeps getting better and better!!! :D

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Very Very Nice Joe......that came out awesome


Alfy

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Awesome build and very nice machine work! Now everytime I walk by my Aeromax it tries to hide! :D

Re: Sterling Dump
 

very nice machine work you got going there, had to pick my chin up off the desk!!

Re: Sterling Dump
 

(Note:I changed my screen name from jbothell to Heavy Metal. Thought it was time for proper screen name. I dropped a note in Welcome section too. Joe).

Okay, you might be tired of hearing about the grill for this truck so good news, I think we got a winner and can move on. This thing gave me a real a$$ kicking last night but somehow I saved it. Broken end mills. Circuit breaker tripped in middle of job (don't ask....it was dumb). When this thing finally emerged from the mill it required serious hand work attention. I really should have taken a picture of it...it was a mess. Anyone that thinks you buy a CNC machine and it just makes parts...man...it can test your patience. There's a defect in the S on the grill...and the whole S relief was actually cut with a broken emd mill (again, don't ask). I think you will agree it was worth it though.

I'll make a batch of these in a few weeks but need to work on some things with the mill files. Thinner grill slats look a lot better but were a problem. Also thinking I was taking too big a bite and burned up and broke a couple end mills. The bottom piece has been easy. Already made a few of those and they are cranking right out.


So here's how we got here...all the prototypes and mistakes...learned a lot about CNC milling along the way....

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...d/DSC03666.jpg

And here's the final top and bottom grill set....got the S emblem and made the slats a lot thinner. Did a styrene piece for below bottom grill that will be painted same as cab body. Filled in background of relief milling w/ Sharpie marker for now.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...d/DSC03683.jpg


Thanks for looking! Joe

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Looking good jbothell wait oops...Heavy MEEETAL!!!

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Nice work on the grill....WOW!

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Wow, nice finished product!:eek:

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Fabulous!

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Joe that grill, specially the Sterling and the S came out great.

-Mike

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Spot On !


Alfy

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Real nice! I bet you will have a few inquires on those if you haven't already.

Re: Sterling Dump
 

WOW!!!!!!!! That is insane detail!

Brian

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Hi Heavy Metal, they are fabulous as they improver the front end alot you might have broken a few bits and and done some stressing but the grills look like they were worth the trouble :D

Cheers Tracy:D

Re: Sterling Dump
 

those grill pieces are awesome. very nice work. this is going to be a nice build

Re: Sterling Dump
 

WOW great work on the grill!!!!

Re: Sterling Dump
 

for a .015 endmill you want to try and stay around .0075 depth of cut a good rule is half the dia of you endmill smaller depth of cut will be less stress on the endmill what did you work out with your speed and feeds?

Re: Sterling Dump
 

The finished product looks outstanding

Re: Sterling Dump
 

awsome work like the sterling

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Thanks all for comments. Looking forward to doing some more work on this but will be another week or two before I have any more to show...business travel coming up right thru weekend. At least I'm headed to Orlando where it's a bit warmer!

Will - Thanks. I did finally find a good source for these calculations and that's pretty much what I learned...no more than 1/2 endmill width for DOC. For the bottom grill plate with STERLING letters I had no problems. I used a .037 2 flute endmill w/ .01 DOC at 3IPM w/ 10,500 RPM spindle. I have since read that I should have been running about 10 IPM to keep from burning up the bit. I was hesitant to run that fast for fear of bit snapping. ?? On S relief pocket for the main grill I was going with the .015 endmill and went for same .01 DOC and the bit snapped almost immediately. Having not learned my lesson I loaded a .025 EM (not what the CAM file called for but figured it would be fine for test) and...same thing. Wha?? I ended resetting the Z axis height and cutting the S relief with the broken .025. LOL. As it turns out I had accidentally ordered standard length mini bits instead of stub. I think stub might have handled the .01 DOC but I'm staying under 1/2 endmill width for DOC from now on!! The correct miniature stub endmills have been ordered so I have high hopes for next set of parts.

Any thoughts on this next issue would be appreciated as well. I also had problems with slightly bigger end mills (more rookie stuff). Cutting the slots for the main grill with a .0625 2 flute EM (still at 10,500) w/ DOC .03 and Feed at 3IPM things looked real nice for about two or three slots then started looking rough...then real rough, then SNAP. I actually did the same thing with a .125 EM the night before cutting profiles out. After digging in to some metal cutting reading I'm pretty sure the issue was that I was actually running too slow on feed rate and overheated the bit causing it to clog w/ melted chips...calculations I have since found say at least 10 to 15 IPM at these spindle RPMs to keep from overheating or dulling. I kept slowing the feed rates down when I had problems and I think that was opposite of what I should have been doing. Looking forward to testing this theory and will probably slow the spindle down for .0625 and larger endmills. Thoughts?

Joe

Re: Sterling Dump
 

You should have changed your name to Grille Man!:D

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Joe , I got better results slowing the spindle down and a light spray of wd-40 . I know your doing it by way of cnc and I'm in the cave yet by hand :p but I think the principle would be the same . no ? my issue is getting my big mill going so I can play with it and see how it works with my amateur programing skills :confused: BTW , from where I'm sitting , the grill look great :eek:

IHSteve

Re: Sterling Dump
 

running at 10,500 rpm that endmill is going to heat up fast you really need some coolant the math for speeds and feeds is tricky it may look good on paper but not work so well in the real world I would try and cut your spindle down and your feed down as well and see what that does for you also some oil to keep your work cool would sure help also how well is you part clamped down? if you tap on it in the center does it sound hollow? did the sound of the cutting change before it snaped? just want to make sure its not a issue with chatter

Will

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Nice grille. What did you use to bend the grille after it was cut out?

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Blender - I have a little 24" box and pan brake. Just have to finesse the curve into it. Takes some time.

Steve/Will - Snuck in some time to mill an alum part tonight. Using a .125 flat endmill, slowed down the spindle to 6500, increased the feed to 8IPM and reduced DOC to .02. Cut was looking not-so-clean but not looking like trouble. It was just on the verge of chatter at 10IPM so I think I had everything just about right at 8IPM. I hit it w/ some WD40 and **** if the cut didn't clean right up nice. Rest of the part cut real clean...just hit it w/ some WD40 every now and then. Makes a **** of a mess and doesn't clear away with my cold air chip blower...but sure cleans up the cut. Hoping a mist coolant system will have same effect as the WD40. Ordered one last week. They are pretty cheap. Thanks guys for tips.

Joe

Re: Sterling Dump
 

I love the Aeromax, it's a sexy truck. You have made it sexier, I now definitetly have to aquire one. Can I have a grille made please?:cool:

Re: Sterling Dump
 

With the speeds and feeds you are trying to run, you really need some form of coolant/lubricant on the endmill and part. 10K rpm on any type of end mill in metal needs to be cooled. If the aluminum doesn't heat up and grab the tool, the endmill will fill up with metal and then break. Must cool the metal and endmill and try to remove the metal chips from the tool and tool path. Coolant does make a mess but it is the only way to do high speed machining. You should actually flood the end mill with coolant for these speeds and feeds.

Lynn

Re: Sterling Dump
 

impressive build! doing a fine job on this one!

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Thanks Lynn. I keep reading that these miniature endmills need high RPM but I think I was having the exact problem you are describing w/ grabbing and flutes filling, etc. Particularly w/ 4 flute. I am now running around 4300 RPM even w/ .0625 end mill and I installed the cool mist system which I think is helping too. I did run 10,500 with mist coolant on the super miniature .015 and that went really well for cutting another Sterling S logo. Had some decent results all around cutting another grill today but still ended up chipping flutes off the .0625 which I think was due to feed rate too fast when plunging to next level on pockets. I thought my CAM software had the feeds slowed down for plunging to next level but it was same as horizontal cut so pretty confident I can finally have some clean passes on this part if I figure that out. Thanks again for taking time to share your thoughts on this stuff....helps a lot. Joe

Re: Sterling Dump
 

OK guys and girls. LONG stretch of business travel starting last Thursday in sunny FL but finally home and the slowest-build-ever resumes. Here's the front bumper - turned out pretty good so went ahead and polished her up for the pics. Up next I think will be the front fender flares. Thanks for looking. Joe

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...d/DSC03699.jpg

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Oh and thanks bucshott and juganought for the kind words.

Juganought (and others that have requested Sterling grills) - I am still planning to make a batch of these grill sets...just don't know when. When I have them ready I will post on buy & sell. Just need to work out some kinks and make sure they are coming out good quality wise. So far they all have annoying little defects. These might be the only parts I ever sell...I really wasn't planning to make parts for hire - no time to work on my own projects! Joe

Re: Sterling Dump
 

really looks nice Joe , On the tiag I found you can't push it It just does not have the mass . when I got mine It came with a fly cutter . OK lets give it a shot :p well you couldn't even mill a piece of paper without the whole mill walking off the table :eek: needless to say the fly cutter been in the box since . I cut my 5900 grill by hand with mine my eyes looked like this :eek: after

Steve

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Joe that grill just looks B@#chin... Sorry if you said this already but all the Greek you guys were talking about mills, I might have missed it. Did you make the front bumper to?

~Mike~

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Now Joe,you said little defects? Where? I keep lookin at the pics,& can't see these little defects your talkin about? Now if your not happy w/the defected pieces you have,I'll be glad to give you my address.& you can drop those babies right in a box,& send them to me. I can live w/those defects!:D
From what I can see,it looks FANTASTIC! NICE JOB!
If you get to makin them for sale,Please put my name on a couple.
Keep up the good work!
FGD

Re: Sterling Dump
 

So thats me, FGD, Dreamweaver, and all the the others, you should just give up your day job. That's a right little earner there.:D

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Im almost positive wed take atleast 1

Re: Sterling Dump
 

watch these guys Joe :p

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Mike - Thanks man! And yes sir...the bumper is the latest. Kind of my favorite so far because it's 90% hand worked...only used the mill for the slots and mounting holes.


Thanks guys...OK, I'm convinced...one of these weekends coming up will be dedicated to running off parts for sale. :D

FGD - Pics always show the good side. ;) LOL. Yea, I think I could have a pretty well stocked defect store front at this point! Everything takes me two or three tries!

Joe

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Put in a little more time today on the Sterling and got the fender flares done. (Is there a more correct name for these things?) They turned out pretty good. Milled from black ABS plastic. Will probably just leave these raw black...looks kind of authentic. Guess I'm gonna have to strip this paint and start on some Styrene work pretty soon. :(

Here's what it looked like with the alum wheels and tires that came with the Aeromax when I got it from Vince. To me the tires don't look quite wide enough now that flares are on the fender. Also had to put a block of wood under the frame to get the ride height looking correct now that flares are on. Should be able to fix that with some helper springs of some sort.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...d/DSC03718.jpg

So then I took these wheels and tires off a tow truck I bought from Vince to eye it up and, although I don't like the rim style, I almost like the tire width better. Agree? Disagree? Seems like the 1:1 is somewhere inbetween. What are these wider tires/rims anyway? Super singles? Sorry...but I don't mind showing my ingnorance. Gotta learn somehow. :o:D

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...d/DSC03720.jpg

Here again are some pics so you see what I was going for on the fenders and maybe see what I'm saying on the tire/rim size. Let me know what you think.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...ld/collage.jpg

Thanks for looking. Joe

Re: Sterling Dump
 

Joe -absolutely a great bit of work added -the bumper is a beauty and I really like those flares

As for the fronts I like the wider tires -especially if you want to drive in the dirt

Travis had explained to me that there are like 3 or 4 width
- standard
-wide
- super single
-flotation

Flotation's are nearly as wide a STD set of duals

And hey -I still have dubs too -minor flaws are accepted....LOL