Rear Wheel Hubs
The rear wheel hubs for the miniature traction engine that I’m making need to be indexed with eight spokes each side of a single wheel. The trick is that the spokes are out of “phase” and [more…]
Milling Machine
Rear Wheel Tread Pair
My first go at machining a rear wheel tread pair for my miniature traction engine was not that successful. That meant I needed another go. The rear wheel tread pair are handed and the tread [more…]
Rear Wheel Treads
The rear wheel treads on these 97mm diameter wheels are just 0.75mm thick and so after some consideration were designed as a machined feature rather than a riveted tread. The rim itself is just 2.75mm [more…]
Milling Machine Z-Axis Accuracy
Someone asked me how accurate my Sieg SX2.7 milling machine was in Z-axis. There problem was the head moving when you lock the travel. My method for measuring this was to lightly clamp an engineers [more…]
Centering and Aligning
I thought I would write an article around Centering and Aligning workpieces on the milling machine. These tappet covers were rather damaged after a number of years of use and what looks like some rough [more…]
Milling Machine Stiffness
So, here I am in the workshop with a dial gauge in the spindle and weights on the top of the milling machine, trying to measure the Milling Machine Stiffness. The head was locked in [more…]
Mill X Y Axis Accuracy Check
I received an email from Ian asking if I had measured the X Y axis accuracy on my milling machine. The issue he had found was that the X and Y axes were not at [more…]
Aligning a Rotary Table
Aligning a rotary table or more importantly aligning a part on the rotary table can be tricky and this is just a simple rough and ready approach to aligning a part. What I’m actually trying [more…]
Milling Cutters
As per the title, milling cutters are used in milling machines as the working end of material removal. There are a number of different types of cutter depending on material and the type of application. [more…]
Reduce any Overhangs
Reduce any Overhangs is all about increasing the stiffness of the workpiece, the machine and the tool. An overhang equals flexibility. One key parameter with regards to any tools is to reduce the overhang and [more…]