It seems everybody is getting new cabinets (well in Washington DC anyway)
SO I thought I'd share my new cabinets...

I got to use my machinist powers yesterday to make a spare part for my CNC mill.

This machine has a robotic arm to automatically change tools. Not a big deal in the world of industrial CNC stuff, but pretty schweet for a garage toy.

There is this piece that serves double duty as a ramp to actuate the tool grabber fingers, and it also mounts the coolant ring onto the machine.

It broke.
It broke a long time ago, probably due to a Z-axis crash by the previous owner. I kinda knew about it but just ignored it.

I was cleaning out the coolant ring the other day (full of nasty stuff, ick)and I re-discovered the broken part.
The dilemma here was that by taking apart the tool change assembly, I could still run the machine, but no tool changes could be made in automatic mode.

So I took the broken part, and measured it, made a quick sketch, and made a replacement using the jog mode and DRO position readouts, much like you would do on a Bridgeport.

Pretty satisfying to be able to make repair parts for a machine on that same machine!...Continue Reading