Cutting a radius on a mill

[jdurand]

Problem: cut a radius on the end of a pile of aluminum brackets for a customer. The blanks are cut from aluminum angle with a band saw.

The final shape should match the paper laying on the aluminum.



Solution: Grab a piece of steel out of the scrap bin, chamfer an edge to clear the rounded inside corner of the aluminum, and clamp to rotary table. Make sure it's adjusted so the outside edge of the aluminum falls on the radius of the circle.

Center of rotary found by using the center drill hole on an MT3 drill chuck adapter. Makes for very fast and easy zero setting on the DRO.

The T-nuts were made on the mill at an earlier time.



Clamp aluminum blank to steel



Prepare to trim... as soon as the customer gets me the updated radius. All stop, time for an adult beverage.

[jdurand]

Ok, got the new radius from the client. Bit shorter radius than before but easy enough to accommodate.

I still need to drill holes but those are easy.

Note: Using a machinists square as an end stop is probably some high offense. Just add it to my list.