The cutter is 1" diameter, and the cutting surfaces are modular and can be rotated around to a fresh edge when you wish, or entirely replaced when worn all around.

The spindle will turn the cutter at 15,000 RPM. It will travel through the aluminum at a speed of 270 inches per minute while cutting .25" deep. It will cut its full slot width of 1" with each pass.

While toolpath specs sound pretty simple when translated... it is an art to decide on these specs. It will have dramatic effects on the lifespan of the cutters which are very expensive, the quality of the surface finish left behind, and how long the part is in the CNC for.

It is IMHO that the hardest part of running a CNC, is picking these specs. Choose poorly, and you can snap off a $200 tool in seconds.

cycle time on this part is estimated at 23.5 minutes. should take this big ol block of aluminum and machine it down to roughly 10% of its starting weight.

no finish pass on the inside or outside. whatever finish is left with indexable tooling is the final finish it gets. (still pretty darn good)

Ya I have been letting the roughing tools leave zero stock on the Z... they seems to leave as nice a bottom finish as any of my "finishers".

As for the vise jaw conversation... I think I will order up a batch of stock to build myself some. I need to get in the habit of more jaws and less bolt up fixturing. Hell.. would have saved me last night when I brain fart and didnt retract my 7/8 rougher enough to clear the fixturing hardware. It cut through it but chipped the heck out of the bottom 1/4" of the tool. $125 bye bye.

heh i think work holding is the hardest part of machining! ive managed to figure out speeds and feeds easily..its never about rpm and ipm, its 100% about the IPT!!!! soon as you can figure out how to convert rpm and ipt to ipm...breaking tools will be a thing of the past...that and making sure your Z clearance is high enough...Z WILL ALWAYS SCREW YOU!!


But i have mastered work holding ;)

https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...21775216_n.jpg

to hold this

https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...30077253_n.jpg

That is definitely some work holding. And I agree on the Z. I have only broken tools before due to Z screw-ups. Although my speeds and feeds might not be getting me the best life span... I am a little conservative. Too conservative. Any new tools I run through my speed/feed calculator to see what it says. That way I make sure I start off in the right ballpark.

edit: if i ran toolpaths as aggressive as you, work holding would probably be a larger concern for me. My feeds are so weak I could probably double side tape the part to the table.

i use gibbscam, i just punch in 15000rpm, it knows the tool size, put in the ipt (i use only niagra solids and mitsubishi and korloy indexable) and have quick charts that show material, surface feet per minute ranges, and ipt's super easy....

The last 2 months I have been trying out HSMworks plug-in. The 2D paths are free... havent decided yet if I want to pay the big bucks and use it for 3D. For now, 3D is mastercam (which i f'n hate).

But for 2D, I love HSM. Its FAST. I mean the interface. Setting up the stock and job plane takes seconds and the toolpaths are just easy and intuitive as solidworks is. I will look into the Gibbscam.

i tried hsmworks...seems WAY fast...but not enough ways to customize the tool paths


gibbscam is a little slower, but dude you can customize every aspect every toolpath

What I have done when I wanted a custom toolpath... I just went back to the main SW tab and drew the toolpath in a new sketch. Then back to the HSM tab and use that line as a trace path. If my line wasnt on the proper plane, I just used the stock to leave offsets to get it there. Sounds like a hassle at first but you know how easy it is to draw an offset sketch in SW... i mean, within reason. I dont try and draw crazy adaptive style paths or anything, just simple trace stuff when I am being picky about where the lead in starts etc.

My favorite is Mcam's dynamic paths in aluminum, solid 3 flute standard length, 95% axial depth, 40% radial depth, and an apropriate feed and speed, so with a YG1 1/2" it is about a .2 x 1.2" cut, and i only have 10k so feed is about 150. The constant chip load gives me about 30-50% better life than a traditional path and it's fast enough, if i had more R's It would match your 1" index-able for sure. When i really want to move material then i bust out the 3/4" which takes a .4x 1.5" cut at 190ipm. Aluminum you can get away with murder, a slight difference in feed or speed doing die work in D2 and you'll be changing inserts all F'ing day.

those blocks i posted above are pt110 stainless steel..bout as tough as inconel

im using volumill which is slightly more advanced than the mcam dynamic paths.

i tear it up with a 3 flute niagra 1/2 endmill... 210ipm and .25 woc, im slightly conservtive but not much heh. im sure the neighbors hate us when the machine is running full on.

and we are making chips! loud as a mofo in the shop right now

yeah you know its a good day when you add 60 gallons of coolant to the machine

could you make a bigger oil pan, one like the greddy pan but without the oil return ports, i hate the fact that thats the only aftermarket oil pan available, and the only thing close to an oil pan is a pan spacer

Of course we can...and we will be glad to....ill add it to the whiteboard right now.

If the market is there, yes. If he's making 1-2. Better mortgage your home. The other thing with an oil pan would be the astronomical cost to make it billet, it would have to be cast first. Then machined.
If AZ wants to take it from here, I'll leave the next response to him.

i definitely am looking forward to this

i dont see why there wouldnt be a market for a part like this, more oil means better cooling and right now the only thing available to all non turbo 370zs is a pan spacer, the greddy oil pan is really only for turbo kits unless you block off the oil return ports which would mean added costs on top of the bigger oil pan

i know you guys want something affordable...how about we do something thats waterjet cut, press broke, welded, with a cnc milled flange for the oil pan....i could even double layer it and use 5052 grade aluminum.

as for testing..you already know andrew has taken that spot ;)

This is serious sh!t! I love it. :D Been awhile since I worked in a fab/machine shop. Brings back memories. :tup:

thanks!!

in translation that means a welded sheet metal pan but with thicker sheets.

not just thicker sheets, double sheets

yeah i know what you meant just explaining the parts most people don't get unless they do manufacturing.

in for a 7at shift knob and replacement trim around the shifter

Sounds good so far. Add in a baffle and I'm sold. There's a lot of guys who want a larger capacity oil pan that doesn't sit lower than stock. There's this one vendor who claims to have one, but they can't seem to get any parts out the door and no one has seen anything but a release thread about it.

of course we would add some awesome baffling!

I told him about baffling, and I said 2 qts more than stock is plenty, no? the 3 qt add on is a bit too bulky

2 qts is plenty. For those of us with an oil cooler, we'd be looking at 8.25 qts capacity with a +2qt pan. I'm ok with 8 qts. If 8 isn't enough, 9 isn't going to be. :rofl2:

Yeah, exactly my thinking. if we want more oil for cooling, we already have a 25 or 34 row oil cooler. So 2 MORE quarts would give 99% of us all the cooling we'd need

i will make this oil pan a reality. We are officially purchasing a Maxiem waterjet today.

MAXIEM 1530 Waterjet | MAXIEM

You need a new free loading employee right? Because I'm driving to AZ right now.

you're going to stop by right?

This is shaping up to be the fastest idea-to-execution I've seen from people who make 370 parts. :rofl2:

Some people out there should take a few notes.

Thanks! I'm working hard over here getting cad files in line. It's a little tough doing it on my own right now but things will get better in time. idea-to-execution times will get faster over the next few months.

I am sorry if this was mentioned earlier. I am on browsing on the phone and gigantic pictures make it hard to read lol. What is the status on the rad overflow tank? I think I saw oil caps too?

May I make a suggestion? How about power steering reservoirs to match the overflow tank? Again, sorry if it was mentioned before. I am just now seeing this thread, beautiful work!!

No worries Ron. We have a power steering reservoir in the works to match the coolant tank. The prototype tank has been cut and will be test fitted in a 370z tonight hopefully (the top half anyways)

Music to my ears, thank you! If there's a list for those parts, put me in it! I have an SS overflow tank that I bought from UA Motorsports a while back. They obviously didn't think it through because it vents from the top and spits coolant all over the tank and my engine bay... -_-

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps235c631e.jpg