In a message dated 26/10/2005 21:15:06 , john_pagett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Here's my two penn'orth on the subject
The casting for the axle boxes on the Sweet Pea is a single cast iron piece
long enough to make all 4 boxes. The axle boxes are flanged both sides, and
the casting is roughly the right shape - something like this..
i-i_____i-i
The end mill I used was working in the skin pretty well everywhere and by
the time I'd machined the first side the corners of the cutter were well
rounded. When I did the second side I used coolant and the cutter finished
the side without noticably rounded corners.
I accept that the skin may have been harder on the first side, and it's the
only experience I can offer on the subject. I'd certainly consider using
coolant in future, but not on something nicer to machine like continuous
cast.
To be honest, I can't see why they bothered to make the casting with a slot
anyway, a simple rectangular block would have been easier to machine and
would save very little material.
Cheers,
JohnP
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Hi John,
I have just finished machining the axle boxes for my Sweet William and
use cast bar of a stock size instead of the Castings suggested and they were
fine. I managed to obtain some very close grain cast bar and it machined up
superbly with no hard spots. All the machining was done dry with no ill effect
on the cutter.
Plenty of carbon floating about in the air though.
Best wishes
Don
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