aekis projects

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Project account of @aekis
Electronics, metalworking, machine building.
Sometimes videos about these things.
Nonbinary queer person. Pronouns: [en & de] they
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Hashtags#InTheShop
aekis projectsFeb 24, 2024
Playing around with the #FreeCAD path workbench for generating milling toolpaths. It's definitively one of the rougher, less polished parts of FreeCAD, but to my surprise it's actually quite easy to get some decent toolpaths done, and also without hitting any problems, just a few inconveniences in the UI.
(Note how that says some (as in any) toolpaths, I'm sure as soon as I start to program real parts and need specific toolpaths I'll hit the bugs :D)
aekis projectsOct 16, 2023
Oops :D That one seems to have slipped through.
aekis projectsSep 17, 2023

Well, probably not a good sign, but I'm getting fast at taking the head off the mill and disassembling it so I can swap out the pastic gears (destroyed by a crash) inside. It seems daunting before you start, but actually it's a fairly easy procedure and takes less than a hour. Also this time I got the new gear to mesh a bit better than last time, yay.

Still hope it will be a while before I have to do it again :D

#InTheShop

Show threadaekis projectsJul 16, 2023
Well, progress these last few months turned out to be extremely slow or nonexistent due to a bunch extenal factors, but in another month or two I should finally be able to start building this thing and then I'll also have something to post about again :D
aekis projectsJul 13, 2023
Dieser Lüfter hat die schlimmste Kombination an Aderfarben die ich bislang gesehen hab :D
Show threadaekis projectsMay 22, 2023
Coldblued the parts and mounted them. These are mounts for adjustment screws for tramming the mill head's swivel. This was pretty much impossible to get precise without such adjusters, because the register diameter of the head on the slide is a pretty sloppy fit & clamping it down moves the whole thing again. With these I hope I can make the adjustment with the head already clamped partways and importantly by smoothly turning a hex key instead of tapping on the head with a mallet :D
#InTheShop
Show threadaekis projectsMay 14, 2023

Continued today with the parts that I crashed the facemill into last time, switched to a 6mm endmill instead and used the opportunity for some speeds and feeds testing. Got some decent metal removal rate for this wimpy desktop mill and lots of pretty coloured chips :D

After that on to the bandsaw to split the parts into two and then went over them (half-assed, these are functional and don't need to look pretty) with files and the sanding plate & sponges to smooth them out a bit.
#InTheShop

aekis projectsApr 24, 2023

Remember how a while ago I had to disassemble the whole head of my milling machine to replace a gear (deliberately made out of plastic so it fails far before any expensive components get damage) I destroyed with a crash?

Well yeah, oops...

Probably the final reminder I needed to never ever again touch off in Z with the axis instead of the quill. The axis slide is sticky, which means sometimes it accumulates and then "jumps" down the screw backlash while moving downwards.
#InTheShop

Show threadaekis projectsApr 22, 2023

Finished the adapter sleeve with a slightly creative setup on the mill for adding the clamping slot. Note the piece of round inside the sleeve: that prevents the holddown clamp from collapsing the newly formed slot, which would pinch the sawblade and lead to a horrible crash. Also showing how I touch of the sawblade using a small scale, this method has become a favorite of mine, also for parting blades in the lathe.

#InTheShop #machining

aekis projectsApr 16, 2023

Been far too long since I've been in the shop for just making a little thing and nothing else. Today I made this adapter sleeve so I can use this nice boring bar with a 16mm shank in the boring head which takes 18mm. Still needs a clamping slot, that's for next time.

The steel I used (1.7131) is terrible, the surface after turning always looks & feels like I've ripped pieces out of it instead of cutting it and it doesn't even get much better with polishing. But I have a bunch, so using that up.