Chris, have you done this process including honing "in house" before or anything similar? A long time ago I did some cylinders 1.5dia X 6" long and honed them before and after chrome to get a Mirror finish when you hold cylinder up to light. I have a hone but am not interested. Used Sunnen hones are CHEAP and still use same modern tooling and give similar results in a short run enviroment. And Sunnen can give technical advice as there are all kinds of exotic stones..good luck either way.

Another way to check part at the machine is to pick-up a face and zero spindle centerline to face , now move out 5.900 from face and with an indicator holder set a dial indicator to zero on the face you had just picked up so that indicator is set to zero as it revolves around in the spindle at 5.900 rad. Now move back to spindle position on machine where you actually bore rad. and sweep in radius top to bottom and see how close you are to actual size. (very handy to have a Moore #3 jig bore with a 50 millionths readout to quickly check parts like this (us small shops do things like this)

Does your spindle have an adjustment like a Moore Jig-grinder to grind a slight cone shape as opposed to tilting head like a Bridgeport and making same radius while you bore just on a angle? Does not seem very likely but thought I would ask and do you take a light finish cut and same results? I have seen some crazy #@%! from CMM inspectors..

more Buckeyes

When I was shopping for CAM software and knew "nothin" ; I asked around Dayton and Denver and was amazed at how many people building Molds used ProE for design and Mastercam for build, so I threw my lot in with the majority "figuring they must have a reason" plus Bob at Fastech did a good presentation and seemed truthful.

Ok, I just looked in MSC catalog under punches and iron worker punches say shock resistant (maybe S7) and stamping punches are all A2 60-63RC or M2 which cost more, so M2 maybe the one to try..

I made some punches out of M2 once, may want to look at that material...also try and find out what "punch manufacturers use" probably a reason why they use what they use and I have not made stamping dies in a long time..

May need to talk to heat treater you are usin and make sure they are being "vacum heat treated" also on thin A2 plates they can be "pressed" when being heat treated so they come back FLAT...not like 01 where they have to be straightened..all cost some extra. I had one .5" thick X6"X 12" A2 gage plate come back dead flat but it warped along 12" length and holes that were in line barely cleaned up in jig-grind, which SEEMS impossibal but it happened and have done several others and its never happened since. A2 is brittle compared to 01, and D2 is abrasive resistant and tough,tough, and even tougher, may want to try S7 as its shock resistant and see if that helps and it grinds easier than D2..

With your attitude, you have have the potential to go far...I recently interviewd a person(toolmaker) I worked with years ago...he is not interested in even learning anything CNC... This industry is full of people that do not give a ****

I love learnin new stuff, thanks also paul nc

What Thad said and then with "options" down below it at bottom of menu? Probably not what you were hopeing for..

I am needing new spindle bearings on my VMC and am thinkin about doing it myself also, or atleast dropping cartridge out and sending it to a "spindle rebuild house", lots of them around. My spindle only goes to 4,250 RPM (15HP 3-speed). If I had a high RPM spindle I would send it out...although if you have lotsa VMCs first rebuild will probably be the hardest(why I am going to only buy one brand)and would be handy for small shops to save money as long as it does not end up costing more.

quote: Could you make a set of soft jaws and chuck them? Thats what we do and really crank the center in to build pressure against shoulder and bigger chucks will give more dampening if your spindle motor can handle it without burning up. 10 in. chuck is better than 8 inch, etc on borderline cases.

quote: A Ritter driver plate Are you saying "this is being turned between centers"? Then you have very little dampening...wow

sometimes holding a deadblow hammer near cutter helps....(contact helps dampen vibrations) +1 on smaller cutter radius to reduce vibration.. maybe even positive rake?? would it help to take .006 per side?? where tool can take a better bite? I don't know very much about hard turning as we do lots of precision grinding .0001 stuff.. I've turned a few long 420SS 32-38RC shafts and a little change in RPM or feed can make a big diff. in vibration on those.

Always remember, "if a salesmans lips are moving, he MAY be lying"... even if they act like your long lost brother...

quote: If you don't like his price, don't use him. Agreed...My feelings are "when you ask for a quote, they can bid anything they want" and take their chances on getting order or repeat business...on other products, he might be lower than other guy higher...starvin, etc. ( cheap guy may raise prices after first order) don't take it personal in my opinion.

I have always had trouble chaining letters in window and then engraving...it always drops short line in the number 4 and have to go back and add some chains

quote: Does anyone know hardness of mild steel before and after case hardening Would guess soft colled rolled 1018 is close to zero and I have it cased hardened to 58-60 RC.. (I only have the cheapo ball drop hardness testor that does not go lower than 20 on chart and I just ran test on a ground piece I have, looks like it would be around zero)..

I have bought from MSC and my Harig surface grinder has an auto reset if it gets too hot mainly by fluid being low which helps dissapate heat. hint

quote: In my experiance cheep toolholders and/or cheep spindles do this. Do people with $$$ machines ever see this in 40 taper?? Mazaks, Okumas, Mori Seki, etc. Or only cheaper lighter machines ??

I not sure if regrinding spindle will fix fretting. I had heard moisture in air lines can contribute to this. Mine does it when I use a rougher and heavier cuts. I just clean spindle with paper towels and alcohol and scotch brite by hand, the toolholder. I would like to know more also.

Forgot to say, I think we used right angle head and there are maximum RPM call outs for those. Think safety, if this is safe at all. Needed full size wheel to get surface speed up.

quote: EDM would be the only other method I could think of On long thompson shafts, I have also used Bridgeport mill to grind flats down to soft material...was a long time ago and wore a full coverage helmet with home made arbor and standard surface grind wheel..really need a guard. Oh yeah, "owners" were expendable.

quote: You need to see me milling the thin pipe 150 mm dia 1 mm wall thickness with 30 mm dia mill CONVENTIONAL AND JUST TRY TO USE CLIMB MILLING we all know you "actually" have to use what works best for that situation..and even thin sections "can" be climb milled safest sometimes, if you can "block" behind the area you want to cut- i.e. with gage blocks or sometimes in the Bridgeport it works out that the mill vise jaw can be right next to thin section you want to cut. could probably climb cut a .001 wall that way and no hope conventional cut. All good input from many people to learn to think ...solutions