Machining Projects
Throughout my career I have machined various using mills, lathes, and CNC mills. This has allowed me to have a better understanding of DFM principles when designing products and fixtures.
CNC Machining - Senior Project
For our senior project we designed a power hammer for the Material Advantage Club at Sac State. Although we never got to make it due to COVID, we did get the opportunity to use our professor’s personal CNC shop to manufacture a piece of it. This is one of the arms that support the ram assembly.
The major challenge we had with this project was the limitations of our professor’s controller on his CNC machine. It would only process 23,000 lines of G Code before crashing. As a result we had to create a lot of operations in Fusion 360 during post process and turn off features such as smoothing, hence why there is that linear pattern along the sides of the part.
Another smaller challenge we had was our Professor’s cutting tools were of unknown make and quality and we broke a few end mills in the process. Eventually we went to Western Tools in Rancho Cordova and bought a 5 flute end mill that gave us recommended feeds and speeds for machining 4140 Steel.
The pictures on the right show the part indicated in soft jaws that we also CNC machined out of aluminum and the finished product. Overall it was a major learning experience and we were incredibly greatful for the opportunity.
Screw Nut Removal Tool
This was a custom screw nut removal tool that we used to install the heater cartridges for my Polyimide Film Lamination Project. I machined this on a manual Hardinge Turret Lathe and Bridgeport Mill.
It started off as a solid bar of 15-5 precipitation hardened stainless steel. I first drilled and bored the center out. After that I moved it over to the Bridgeport and clamped it in the vice on parallels. I clamped it length wise. Then I machined the top channel in it. I then indicated off of the outsides of the diameter and found my center. From there I moved over the correct amount and cut the center away the relief for the center tab to fit into the screw nut.
Partial Vapor Deposition - Shaft Coupler
This was a job I did to help our Furnace Maintenance team. At Vacuum Process Engineering, we had an old PVD Machine that one of our technicians was working on, but no one on their team had machining experience.
This coupler was also made with Stainless Steel because it doesn’t oxidize. One end had a threaded hole that fit to the main piece of all thread in the bottom left of the second picture. The top was a bored hole that had placement for 3 set screws. The 4th hole is for venting because this was to be used in a high vacuum application.
Very similar to my screw nut removal tool, this start on the lathe with a drilling and boring operation, followed by mill work for vent holes and screw nut holes. In the end result I was able to obtain a piston fit because the threaded portion and the unthreaded portion were not connected.