Thermostat and heat storage questions

[dkwflight]

Hi My heads and blocks were opened with a hand held die grinder.
Dennis

[pigseye]

Maybe I should just give up trying to find a use for my mill.  ;-)  And use a die grinder and just be careful.

Thanks

[hotater]

Pigseye---

Theres a bunch of ways of doing it and I don't know what kind of tooling you have or can borrow.

First is the way I did it.----

I have a hollow block frame that square and flat in all dimensions with "windows" cut out of various sizes and shapes .   I mounted the inlet fitting inside this box and eyeball indicated center with a boring bar held in an autofeed boring head.   Once I had the edges located and I knew the diameter I wanted to go, I did the math, set the depth at about .060" I think it was and started feeding the boring tool outward the correct number of 'clicks' (click=.0025 travel, .005 on diameter).  When the counting was done I lifted the boring  bar and was done.

How I'm betting you have to do it.--


First is to set up the tool because you need the milling vice to do it.....   Use a 'flycutter'.  They're cheap and most import mills come with one.  You need a flycutter smaller than the hole and then a cutting tool that's carbide tipped and a 'left cut', so that the bottom of the cutting edge is parralell with the mill table.   Now set your vernier or micrometer (carefully) in the milling vise with the anvils set to the diameter you want to cut.    CAREFULLY , with the milling head out of gear swing the tool back and forth between the measuring anvils until you get the spindle dead center between the anvils and the cutter just scrapes both of them.

Now grab the fitting any way you can in the vice and then use jackscrews and hold down clamps it level the top both ways AND center the spindle in the middle of the hole.   You need to REALLY have a good hold on the fitting and the round part can't take a lot of strain.  Use the vise more as a stabilizer and clamp the fitting flange between the jackscrews and holddown clamps.

CAREFULLY and at the lowest spindle speed, feed the tool down until it starts to scrape the fitting.  It'll probably chatter and scare the hair off your arms.
  Don't panic, back off, shut down and now that you have a MARK to go by, you can pull the tool back until you're cutting about .025 a pass.  You'll get terrible chatter right at the bottom with your machine.  Go easy, DON'T use cutting fluids on cast iron.  Experiment with feeds and speeds.  Sometimes it's best to feed fast with a slow spindle with cast iron.

Let me know how you do.  Milling machine work is FUN.

[dkwflight]

Hi Mills make good drill prsses and will when you tickle them make a round hole into a squarish one
Or you can pony up for a rotating table. You will want one any way.
Dennis

[Joe]

Pigseye,
   All the above is great advice…I don’t know how I got along without a mill and a lathe...it was barbaric to say the least…the only thing I would add is to try whatever technique you decide to use on a piece of scrap first…learning curve…etc….
With that mill you can make a nice gib key puller … tappet puller etc etc…it will easily pay for itself in no time…
September is coming…. depending on where you are…. you might be able attend a vocational machine shop course at the local school….

When fitting the t’stat to my 6/1 head it actually fit without any filing but I wanted to rotate it a bit so that it was orientated and centered properly and hence the very little bit of filing was done.  You might look at the other water fitting to see what orientation fits over the holes best.  With two pieces and being able to flip them there is bound to be a combination that will fit your needs with a minimum of fiddlin'......

Joe

[pigseye]

This is great advice.  Thanks guys.

I have to be honest and don't understand it all.  When you use terms like anvils, jack screws, clamp hold downs, I don't know what they are or how to use them.

Here's what I have:

Enco Mill/Drill   http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=105-1132&PMPXNO=953978&PARTPG=INLMK32

This Milll/Drill came with a few extras like:
52 piece clamp down kit
Cheap worthless vise
Big Chuck which I never use
Some huge surface planer tool (see pic of accessories)

I also purchased miscellaneous cutters (including fly cutters), collets,
5" vise with swivel base, Model #425-7250,    http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=260&PMITEM=425-7250

and a

Dial Indicator, similar to the Enco Model #605-4208, http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=185&PMCTLG=00

I still need or need to do the following:

Build or purchase indicator fixturing to square the mill with the dial indicator
Square the mill - it seems pretty good for just taking it off the crate from China
Other gages?

Since I know so little about machining I don't know what else I need so I've only used it to do the most basic things like creating a flat spot on some copper rod and cutting the edges of heavy guage sheet metal.

I would love to use it for fitting thermostats into my coolant port.

I'm sure there are other tools I need to do accurate set up.

Could you guys make some suggestions?  Other gages or indicators I should get?  Maybe some books or DVDs I should watch to learn more about machining?

Thanks Again,
Pigseye

[lgsracer]

Some of these videos may help:

http://technicalvideorental.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=115_13

[aqmxv]

Could you guys make some suggestions?  Other gages or indicators I should get?  Maybe some books or DVDs I should watch to learn more about machining?

Good for you for asking questions.  My suggestion would be (assuming it's possible) to consider taking a class or two at your local community college or voc-ed.  Most people (Hotater excepted, and he's way, way past this anyway) are not too far from someplace where this sort of thing is taught to would-be machinists.  There are usually both daytime and evening classes available, tuition is usually modest, and you tend to get a lot of hands-on and expert supervision.

I'm definitely a satisfied customer - took a welding class and a shop techniques class years ago.  Learned a lot in a short period of time.

[hotater]

I second the tech school suggestion.  Take basic lathe first, then the milling machine, then grinding if you want to get that fancy.  Take welding and brazing while you're at it.  It's no good to know how to subtract if you don't know how to add.   

I just did a complicated set-up on my mill and took pictures.  I'll post a link shortly.

[pigseye]

These responses are great.  here's my status

There are no hands on basic milling or lathe courses available to me after work hours in my area.  I have found a "distance" learning course on Milling, but there won't be anything hands on.  This might not be an issue if I do my own labwork at home on my set up.   But this is truly a "paper" course, no DVDs just books and tests that I take at my own speed.

There is a very convenient MIG welding class that is available to me.  I tried to register last spring but it was full.  There are 2 more classes this fall but I'm already booked.  Hopefully later this winter.  This is a real good hands on course that is limited to 10 students since they only have 10 welding stations.  You can literally walk in off the street knowing nothing about welding and after six 3 hour sessions become fairly proficient.  you don't even need safety equipment for at least the first day.

I have rented the Fundamentals of Milling Machine Operation DVD and it was pretty good but I didn't feel like I was ready to really start milling.  There were to many things I didn't understand regarding set up, tramming, edge finding, clamping, etc..  maybe viewing more videos would help.

Hotater, any pics you can post would be greatly appreciated.  I really need to see it to learn it.

Thanks to all,
Pigseye

[hotater]

Pigseye---

Use  "milling machine book" as a search term at Ebay.  THere are four books there for a total of about $25.
What spindle nose has your mill got?  R-8 by any chance?  If so I have a shell mill arbor for you.

I learned more about set-ups from catalogs than most anywhere else.  See what tools are made for the mill and what they do to get some idea of the versitility.

[pigseye]

Yes, R-8.  What is a Shell Mill Arbor?

I'll do some research and check out ebay for books.  There are just so many milling books i'm not sure which ones are worth the paper they are printed on.

Thanks

[Andre Blanchard]

Yes, R-8.  What is a Shell Mill Arbor?

A tool holder for driving shell mills, face mills, and larger reamers.  These tools are large enough that an R8 spindle cannot really do them justice.  You can use them on wood and plastic put when you get into steel the cutters are so big that you are limited to light cuts.

I'll do some research and check out ebay for books.  There are just so many milling books i'm not sure which ones are worth the paper they are printed on.

Thanks

Machinery's Handbook
Any edition (older ones are cheaper) would do for most all home shop stuff, you are not likely going to be doing much EDM or hard milling tool steels at 60Rc to + or - 0.0002".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0831127007/ref=pd_sl_aw_alx-jeb-9-1_book_5406959_14/002-6424281-5880813?n=283155

Another good one.
Machine shop Practice Vol. 1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0831111267/002-6424281-5880813?v=glance&n=283155
Machine Shop Practice, Vol. 2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0831111321/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_3_img/002-6424281-5880813?ie=UTF8


Some older books, online for download.  They are big so a high speed connection is required.

This one printed in 187?.
Modern Machine Shop Practice Vol. 1
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/collections/index.cfm?TitleID=274
Modern Machine Shop Practice Vol. 2
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/collections/index.cfm?TitleID=367

This one from 190?.
The Advanced Machinist
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/collections/index.cfm?TitleID=278




Someone joked about drilling square holes. 
That is a very specialized art.
http://www.drill-service.co.uk/drills/Watts-Square-and-Hexagonal-Hole-Drilling-Equipment.htm

[dkwflight]

Hi Andre
I was thinking you could make a square or odd shape hole by manually guideing the bit like a router, taking out material in steps .
Thanks for the links.
Dennis

[Jim Mc]

I just put a vertical mill in my shop, and am starting to learn about it. (Old Tree 2UV).  One great resource I've found is this website:


http://www.practicalmachinist.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi


Some of the OT posts are great.  There's some really good writers on that forum.