Sterling Dump

[Bigrigger]

This build just keeps getting better and better!!!

[MACK Daddy]

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


Alfy

[Mustang]

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

[Spliffy]

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

[Heavy Metal]

(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....



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.




Thanks for looking! Joe

[RCTech9]

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

[sneaky-pete]

Nice work on the grill....WOW!

[SmallHaul]

Wow, nice finished product!

[Izzy]

Fabulous!

[Dreamweaver]

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

-Mike

[MACK Daddy]

Spot On !


Alfy

[Snochaser]

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

[Brian in PA]

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

Brian

[Cossett]

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

Cheers Tracy

[chaseracer]

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

[RAIDERS]

WOW great work on the grill!!!!

[will916691]

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?

[ddc333]

The finished product looks outstanding

[td9clyde]

awsome work like the sterling

[Heavy Metal]

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!

Originally Posted by will916691

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?

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