5-axis minus two

[BRAIN52]

So I have this decorative part (pic attached) that has 3 sets of holes in a circular pattern at 3 different angles. I have a Haas VF-2 set up to peck a single hole, with the part in a manual indexer mounted on top of an angle plate. The setup is not great, but it's all I have at the moment. I can drill the center hole, and one of the rings, but the second ring needs to be clocked 30 degrees from the first one. Does anyone have any tips on how to clock the second ring? I'm using a ball pin in the chuck to find my origin and I was thinking of using a level to align the second ring of holes when loading the part.

[mkd]

Any reason you can't send this to a local shop?

i could knock that out in a day on my Okuma mill/turn.

[BRAIN52]

If there was a budget for this I would have sent it out, but I'm in a corporate prototype shop and my budget barely covered materials.

[mkd]

no offense, but It's tough to help an outfit over the internet that won't help themselves. Do they argue when you ask for a drill bit?

 Tell 'em you need $7000 for a single rotary or 30k for this dual rotary from Haas.....or send the part out for $500.

Welcome to the (best) forum

[jlw™]

Honestly what you are wanting to do will work well for you, just slower than a M/T.  Even if it was 4140 this would be a 2hr part in the right machine.  You will probably want to circle mill th holes as the break thru will get ugly real fast.  You need a dummy flat for orienting your patterns to the index.  I've milled flats to start a drill and used that in a pinch.

just my $.02

[taperlength]

I think I would just scribe some lines and circles, drill where they intersect and go on to the next job.

[specv]

put gage pins in two opposing holes in the first ring, then dial those in parallel with the machine axis. 

[BRAIN52]

13 hours ago, specv said:

put gage pins in two opposing holes in the first ring, then dial those in parallel with the machine axis. 

Thanks! That's exactly what I ended up doing. I'll put a mill/turn on my wish list