A New Machinist

[upaa27]

Hey all,

I have access to a 4 axis CNC mill and a lathe. I have just started working on them and just went in today with some copper and aluminum for around 3 hours and came out with these results.

This will be the heatsink(I will polish it tomorrow)

Here is the battery tube

Sorry about the blurriness

I have not finished the heatsink or the battery tube but I am going in tomorrow to hopefully finished smoothing it out, adding fins, drilling and threading it.

I am making it to fit 2 18650s and a 12mm module with 20mm diameter for a circular driver.

I am hoping to start making more hosts as I have a ton of aluminum cylinders sitting around and selling some of the hosts if you guys want. I will definitely take custom orders for hosts and heatsinks. I am liking machining in copper so I might just stick to making aluminum and copper hosts.

:thanks:
-upaa27

 

[IsaacT]

I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

 

[upaa27]

Thanks Isaac! I will do my best!

 

[rhd]

What file formats can you accept for the CNC work?

 

[upaa27]

What file formats can you accept for the CNC work?

At the moment only g code but I am working on using inventorCAM which will allow me to use many more formats.

I can also take the measurements and do it by hand if that would work.

 

[upaa27]

Worked some more today and am almost done with the heatsink

Bach hole is to fit a round 20mm max driver with + contact on the bottom

This hole is a bit over 12mm for a module and a bit of heatsink compound or heat dissipation liquid. I made the hole smaller in the back so that the module doesn't slam into the driver and the wires can fit nicely.

Going to probably finish the whole host hopefully by next week.

 

[upaa27]

Tomorrow I am going to try to pick up a longer drill bit as my current one will not drill to the length I need for the battery tube.

 

[sinner]

Very nice work ,looking forward to your designs. I started the same way! :wave:

 

[upaa27]

Thanks Sinner! Means a ton coming from you.

 

[IWIRE]

That's cool ! Good luck with your project ! I've been wondering about making hosts out of aluminum rigid conduit. I use a lot of it and always have scrap pieces left over.
Now that I've subscribed to this thread it will pop up on my phone and I can keep track of your progress :beer:

 

[upaa27]

Thanks Iwire!

I tested out the heatsink with a NDB7A75 set at 3.5a and it had duty cycles of up to 1 minute!

At the moment I am waiting for a die and a tap 3/4in 16 for both to thread the host. It should be arriving tomorrow.

 

[IWIRE]

That's acceptable to me ! When you get it assembled it should be even better !
Do you know anything about small mills ? I have a little South Bend 8K lathe and I'm wanting to compliment it with a small mill. I've been looking at a Grizzly G0704. It has tapered roller bearings and a precision ground bed. Seems like that would be important, but I really don't know.

I'm not a machinist I'm just a tinkerer. My brother is a machinist but he only works with big machines.

 

[upaa27]

That's acceptable to me ! When you get it assembled it should be even better !
Do you know anything about small mills ? I have a little South Bend 8K lathe and I'm wanting to compliment it with a small mill. I've been looking at a Grizzly G0704. It has tapered roller bearings and a precision ground bed. Seems like that would be important, but I really don't know.

I'm not a machinist I'm just a tinkerer. My brother is a machinist but he only works with big machines.

I have not used any manual mills at the moment but I know a lot of guys who use the Bridgeport mills for their work.

I use a JET metal lathe and a 4 axis tormach CNC mill

 

[IWIRE]

I have not used any manual mills at the moment but I know a lot of guys who use the Bridgeport mills for their work.

I use a JET metal lathe and a 4 axis tormach CNC mill

Thanks ! I'll keep researching. :beer:

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

The Chinese mills can be a real pain to tram.
You won't go wrong with a Sherline, Taig, or Tormach.

 

[IWIRE]

The Chinese mills can be a real pain to tram.
You won't go wrong with a Sherline, Taig, or Tormach.

Thanks ! :beer: I'll check those out and see if I can find one at my price point. I found where the one I was looking at has a plastic gear that causes problems. I'd rather save up some money and get something I won't have to rebuild just to make it work.