Sterling Dump

[Bigrigger]

You should have changed your name to Grille Man!

[ihbuilder]

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 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 BTW , from where I'm sitting , the grill look great

IHSteve

[will916691]

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

[Blender]

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

[Heavy Metal]

Originally Posted by Blender

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

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

Originally Posted by ihbuilder

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 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 BTW , from where I'm sitting , the grill look great
IHSteve

Originally Posted by will916691

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

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

[Juganought]

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?

[tc1cat]

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

[bucshott]

impressive build! doing a fine job on this one!

[Heavy Metal]

Originally Posted by tc1cat

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

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

[Heavy Metal]

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

[Heavy Metal]

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

[ihbuilder]

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 well you couldn't even mill a piece of paper without the whole mill walking off the table 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 after

Steve

[Dreamweaver]

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~

[FreddyGearDrive]

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!
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

[Juganought]

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.

[Roadmasters]

Im almost positive wed take atleast 1

[ihbuilder]

watch these guys Joe

[Heavy Metal]

Originally Posted by Dreamweaver

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~

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.

Originally Posted by Juganought

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.

Originally Posted by FreddyGearDrive

Now Joe,you said little defects? Where? I keep lookin at the pics,& can't see these little defects your talkin about? ...If you get to makin them for sale,Please put my name on a couple.
Keep up the good work!
FGD

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

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

[Heavy Metal]

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.



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.



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.



Thanks for looking. Joe

[Izzy]

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