/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>486928
The "titanium" they are referring to is typically TiNi coatings. It's just that, a coating, and is actually beneficial for steel. Though for this shit, it's not likely to really make a huge difference to you. It's still HSS underneath.

Anyway, what's likely happening is that the OP is running the drill at too fast of an RPM. In general, the harder it is, the lower the speed has to be. For 7/32, I'd try around 900 rpm and a moderate amount of feed. Spray bottle some coolant (likely just water) as much as you feel like.

A fancier drill like cobalt or carbide may help. But for just one drill hole, HSS should be theoretically more than enough.

>>483790
People get strangely elitist and butthurt about WD40. While not ideal for a lot of cases, in a pinch it will work. No one said it was the best of the best for a lot of shit. And it works great as cutting fluid for aluminum. For steel (which conducts heat less well than aluminum), a soluble oil would be better because you'd want cooling that the water would give you as well as the slight lubrication the emulsified oil will give you. But WD40 is better than nothing. What I am not too sure of is whether or not it is really better than just plain old water for that application.

>>481141
Protip. Buy a brand new bit, and then drill a hole. Doesn't matter if you are using a rickety hand drill or a $1m ultra rigid CNC mill. You are going to drill oversize to some degree.

Then, with that in mind, go buy a drill grinding gauge for like, $3 at Harbor Freight, and rest assured that you can get it "close enough" and that you can plan for oversized drill holes. Drilling is a roughing operation. Bore and/or ream for some more finished and accurate surfaces.

Also, it's not the angle, but rather, the length of each edge. You have to match up the edges and match the angle. If it's not the original angle but the same angle as the other side, then it's still ok as far as accuracy goes. (then you see indexable carbide drills that take a dump on this statement.)

>>481234

You can store your tools in a fairly temperature controlled and dry area (like in your house). When things get cold, water tends to condense on the surface. Oil can only do so much in a situation like that unless you are planning on sinking it in a bucket of grease.

Hmm. Might try some chemical means to shine it up again. While zinc particles are not very good for you, especially if inadvertently ingested, so keep that in mind if you try a mechanical method like tumbling.

Or just enjoy the badass battle worn look I guess.

It's not the weld that is weak. It is the metal right next to the weld that is.

Unless it's that weld. That weld is terrible and fileld with obvious cavities.

>>477731
Don't forget about local requirements. Likely a business license and whatnot. Shit's all and expensive and time consuming process. Expect to pay thousands in fees.

>and you have not discovered that while certain regulation is necessary, they all act as huge barriers to entry for the "little guys".

>>477718
>>477707
Yeah. It's over by about a month. Also, you likely won't be very competitive. Even during the height of the shortage, you really probably wouldn't make much on each lower. Nowadays, you would likely not even be able to make sales. At least, for a normal lower. Waaaay too much competition with large joints with more efficient setups. Not to mention, 100% lowers are cheap enough there's not too much incentive for a buyer to diy other than just to do it.

So, do fancy custom billet lowers if anything. But a smarter business move would be to work on parts for guns that have a less saturated US market, yet still are pretty common. For example, there is a guy on AK files doing US made trunnions, and IIRC, he is offering 19mm trunnions, since there were a bunch of trunnionless mak90 kits here that were going pretty cheap. Shit like that. AK's are a promising bet, g3 types and FALs are likely also a decent idea.

What are you planning on drilling? Also, drilling doesn't make small powdery chip in most materials other than like, dry wall or shit that was powdery to begin with. Metal makes long stringy coiled chip, same with plastic. Wood may make some smaller particles but usually ends up in crumbly chunks. Not something I'd think would float around and get in computers. Just don't overheat the wood and burn and you won't get fine particles.

Also, a good idea would be to make an enclosure out of wood or plastic or something. Doesn't have to be fancy. Just keep stuff from flying all around. Look at retrofit CNC mills for inspiration. Though definitely doesn't have to be that fancy since you don't deal in flood coolant.

>>458885
Use a rotary table.

Also, "years of practice"? The fellow boneheads and I in manual machine classes got a pretty damn good grasp of manual machining after two quarters (about 5 months). Manual is in many ways easier than CNC. By like, a lot. The pitfalls of machining all exist still in CNC, except you have less overall control.

My advice is to get something with at least 20 inches between centers. The smaller the lathe, the less rigid in general. This means, a loss of accuracy or loss of productivity cause you have to take light cuts in order to achieve accuracy. Also, it's very frustrating to work with such a small space. Shit will be in the way. Hell, even on the 36" machines I feel like shit is in the way sometimes.

Another good idea is to hit up a local CC or Tech school with a machining program and learn some basics first. No need to get the AA, just get a semester or so of classes so you learn the beginnings. That will likely save a lot of time and money. You can learn what to look for in a machine and also not have to experiment on and possibly damage your own tools and material. It shouldn't be terribly expensive.

Also, in the same price range as HF, Grizzly is usually a bit better regarded. Still, I'd get a larger machine.

I don't understand this argument at hand. You guys do realize that generally, after forging, you do have to finish it off by machining right? What you are really seeing the difference between is CAST vs forged. Both are machined afterwards to make a crank.

In general:

Forging is a rough process

Machining is a rough to finishing process

Most of the time in production of larger parts, you forge or cast the rough shape, and then bring it to the final dimension by machining. Or more often, you bring only certain critical areas to the final dimension by machining.

Also, forging does increase strength. Don't necessarily think of it as grain like wood. Think of it as a bunch of small particles welded together. Basically, when you cast metal initially after smelting or recycling, you are left with certain defects that occur when parts of it cool before the crystalline structure can properly align in the lattice. This can be a missing crystal in a lattice, a row of crystals in a lattice pumped over one, or instead of aligning perfectly at right angles to each other, they are off slightly making it look like a wonky screw or twisted section of crystals. When you forge it, you smash out all these defect structures by forcing other crystals into the space. You also bend the lattice structure around the shape of the object you are forging.

Also, in general, other than when you start with a casting, the bar stock or whatever you start out with IS forged. Or more accurately, rolled, into that shape.

>>451960
HSS not good for aluminum? Nigga, what am I reading here. It's not ideal. But I doubt that this hobby machine is extremely rigid or has a fast spindle speed. Carbide is probably not worth it as you won't be getting any real gains out of it. F/S is fucking high with carbide in aluminum. Your machine probably won't even touch the calculated F/S for HSS especially on the smaller mills.

Anyway, with HSS, you can avoid built up edge and shit if you just spray WD40 or better yet, Tap Magic or some other aluminum cutting fluid. Really, any light oil/lube will work. And hell, that's largely superfluous for most operations. Depending on how you do your F/S and DoC, you can pretty much run a HSS mill for a fucking long time without having to worry about BUE. Also, don't get any TiNi coated stuff for aluminum. It suffers worse for BUE with that metal.

I use 1/3 the usual DoC, with the calculated F/S for your aluminum. Aluminum conducts heat very well, so the heat is leaving with the chips faster than it can build up on your cutter. The cutter should be room temp when you are done cutting even Doing this sort of "wastes" your cutter a little since you are wearing out the tips as usual, but you have to do more passes as a result of the lower DoC. But oh well. Saves on fluid and is much less messy for a non-enclosed system. It's the laziness factor in a non-production shop.

Anyway. Get a face mill. Even a smallish one would be good. Saves so much time. You'll find that you'll be using it a hell of a lot.

Also, for engraving, even a center drill works. And it's more durable than most engraving tools in case you let it touch down a little hard.

Right before I broke them free.

The material is 1018 steel.

A turners cube. Here's a pic I took right as I broke both internal cubes free, but before deburring.

>>430943
Just because the country doesn't have a social stigma or right wing message attached to displaying the flag doesn't mean it's backwards, unlike say, countries that still have a monarchy.

Hit up your local Community College. I suggest you learn manual first though, if funds allow. Manual lets you pick up the basic principles of machining, and teaches a lot of shit you'd have to look out for. Although, of course, due to increased rigidity. and usually increased HP, and also flood coolant and such, some of the speeds and feeds you can do on CNC would make your tool explode on manual.

As far as entry level positions in CNC, the entry level operators tend to only really have to worry about a few aspects: Setting work offsets, setting tool height offsets, measuring/inspection of parts as you take em out, and changing out worn inserts/tools.

So generally, in any given machine, you have multiple vises or fixtures. You load em up with the blanks/stock, and then you set zero for each blank/stock (work offsets). Then you set the tool height offset for each blank/stock (theoretically its the same height offset usually). Then you run the machine, and stop it manually when it completes the first part. You grab it out and inspect it. If it all checks out, you can pretty much trust the rest of the parts will be cut the same, barring tool breakage. So then you let it go again and it will start cutting the same part for every other work offset you set. Tool/insert replacement usually occurs on a set schedule. They can actually calculate and predict when the insert will completely fail or have an unacceptable amount of wear, depending on how much metal it's cutting per hour (that's why clocks on the CNC machines are important).

Lol. Reminds me of my old "desktop fan". I put the tower on it's side, with the open side up, and then set a big box fan over it. Sure wasn't the most quiet thing.

>>424256
Looking pretty sweet there. Machining is fucking awesome and fun (and can pay pretty damn well). Just a few bits of advice.

If you chamfer the ends of where the threads start and end before you cut the threads (or just start, the end is more for looks) it'll be easier to start it into something, and reduces the amount you have to deburr to boot.

Also, lower the depth of cut as you get close to the final depth. Basically, as you cut threads, you're actually taking a heavier and heavier cut, since more of the thread is engaging to your tool. That's what's causing the marks (that, or your threading tool needs sharpening, or you need more lubrication). On particularly deep threads, if you just keep the same DoC each pass, you pay tear your threads, and eventually risk breaking the tip off your tool.

Another possibility is, of course, the fact that your lathe is very very small, and you may be running into some rigidity issues. Firearm barrel steel is fairly resilient stuff, for the obvious reasons, and when you don't have a couple hundred pounds of cast iron backing up your machine, shit flexes a little.

>>408072
Uhh, you realize that this print was made for his own benefit right? Like, he didn't need a lot of the information, because he knew it already. It's not like he drew the print for others to make. That's like criticizing someone for having unintelligible notes. Shit wasn't meant for others in the first place.

Ah yeah. Make one of these. Mainly a mill project, but whatever. Also, you need to get two indicators I guess for it.

Here's a product vid of a similar one in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-D1gNYPi3A

Couple of guys in the shop have made mill tramming indicators like this, and it really saves a lot of time.

>>407961
Heh, one of my classmates made one of those. Just shorter. I think he cut hexes on both end too to make it look like an average bolt.

Pretty cool seeing your little projects. I may steal some of them to do when I am in between assignments for school.

So much misinformation in this thread about making guns.

IN THE USA IN A NON-SHITHOLE STATE:

You can make whatever non-NFA item you want. So, as long as it's not a short barreled rifle, short barreled shotgun, fully automatic firearm, sound suppressor, or AOW. You should look up the specific meanings as considered by the ATF for these items to make sure you aren't accidentally stepping over the bounds. It's not as clear cut as logic would dictate, especially since the ATF frequently has nonsensical definitions.

Also, yes, it is the generally receiver/frame of the firearm that is considered the "firearm". There are a couple of minor exceptions, which may not count as true exceptions like the SIG Sauer P250, whose trigger pack is considered the "gun", but I guess, it could be considered a sub frame. All other parts can be freely ordered with no paperwork, suppressors and FA trigger groups aside, who themselves are considered an NFA item. And yes, that means you can buy a short barrel for a shotgun legally with no fuss. But if you own the shotgun which accepts the barrel, you can be nailed with "constructive intent". So it's not generally recommended.

IF YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR HOME BREW GUN:

All it needs is a unique SN. The implication of this is, of course, that if you never sell it. You never need a SN or any other marks. Also, see the specifics on selling your gun. Don't forget state laws as well.

But yeah. Many designs are fairly trivial to make when you have access to a CNC VMC.

Anyway. Make yourself a badass chess set. Most of the pieces will be turned entirely on the lathe, and a little bit of milling, like for the crenelations of the rook. The knight will probably mostly milling (or wire EDMing, if you can get access to it. Shit's awesome. But expensive as fuck). You can use a small endmill to trace out a chessboard as well.

This one is going to be really confusing (no thanks to a shit picture). But if you get the process I am doing, then I will call it close enough.

~29"x9"x4.5". But I have the rectangular type, not the violin shaped type.

Nice rifile by the way. Though I don't have any czechnology myself.