Len Mason's "Mastiff" - chewed from the solid

Moving on with the Mastiff build, onwards and downwards in this case, to the base. There was a pause before cutting metal as I wanted to use the high-speed head on the Aciera and this involved lifting lumps of metal heavier than I am now comfortable with. The solution is shown below:



1.8 m of steel I-beam was clipped to the ceiling beams which are fortunately designed to span the very much wider room next door and deep enough to carry the likely loads easily. The 1/2 ton chain block is also over-kill but it was already in stock. This rig has the capacity to carry large parts of the mill and lathe when the time comes to move them elsewhere.

The base started life as a piece of 12 mm plate squared up in the mill:



I also took very light cuts over both faces to get rid of the dings and scratches acquired in the scrap box. As with all the parts cutting into the rectangular outline was delayed as long as possible so that the marking out and mounting were easy. The oil drain holes were drilled and countersunk:



and the fixing holes drilled and counterbored from the other side:



With the mounting holes transferred to the crankcase and tapped the crankcase could be used as a fixture to secure the base while the pocket forming the top half of the sump was outlined with a 6 mm slot drill:



I got nervous about using the crankcase as a jig when using a bigger cutter to clean out the rest of the metal and clamped the base directly to the mill table:



Shaping the sides involved the high-speed head and a new solid carbide endmill:



and a lot of twisting and turning of the workpiece:



The final operation was to put 45-degree chamfers on the "legs"



With a final result that looks like:



on the top and like this on the underside:



A few dings and cutter overshoots are visible but nothing to affect function.

DT

Thanks "steamer" Dave.

I also have a similar file for "Minnie" which I could post the same way. Right now my "workshop job" is the Mastiff build, my "computer job" is building a CAD model of the next project, ETW's Wyvern. Hopefully this will, along with Ron's great Wyvern build log, will help sort out the difficulties builders find with the Wyvern drawings.

DT

Nice job on the crankshaft and base. 

Hey DT...is that an F3?

I have an F1....Love my Aciera!
....and no Jo, you STILL can't have it...... 8-)

That base is pretty intricate DT. Came out very well though...nice !!!

Bill

Quote from: steamerI have an F1....Love my Aciera!
....and no Jo, you STILL can't have it...... 8-)

Dave you seem to forget I have Sexy 

Jo

You still have a think for her....  8-)

Yes Dave, it's an ancient F3, along with the high speed head, horizontal overarm, slotting head, simple dividing head, small angle table and tilting table. This is a lovely machine to use and, despite around 50 or 60 years of wear still capable of very good work. When things don't go quite right there's no question about where the blame lies! I've seen pictures of the F1 (and Sixis etc equivalents) but never got to play with one, I might even have room to squeeze one in if it ever became available locally but all precision mills are about as available as hen's teeth and rocking horse droppings on this side of the world.
DT

DT,
I wanted to let you know that I've been following along. Good work on a tough project.
Art

Thanks Art and Bill, I like carving metal but there is a chance that chewing the whole Mastiff project from the solid may cure me of this!
DT

Quote from: deltatangoYes Dave, it's an ancient F3, along with the high speed head, horizontal overarm, slotting head, simple dividing head, small angle table and tilting table. This is a lovely machine to use and, despite around 50 or 60 years of wear still capable of very good work. When things don't go quite right there's no question about where the blame lies! I've seen pictures of the F1 (and Sixis etc equivalents) but never got to play with one, I might even have room to squeeze one in if it ever became available locally but all precision mills are about as available as hen's teeth and rocking horse droppings on this side of the world.
DT

Yeah about the same over here too.    I'm afraid most of the good stuff has gone into new Chinese cement mixers ect.    I've got the index head, the dividing head, the fixed table, The swivel base, and the little bity vise.  A full set of collets and arbors, the overarm for both the spindle and index/dividing head, and the lever feeds.    It's a great little mill.

Dave

Just want to say I'm following along and thats some nice work you have done. I really like the main block she looks sweet! Nice job on the crank stress relieving usually helps a lot in parts warping and moving around. Good job!

Thanks Doc!

The next bit of the Mastiff to tackle was the sump and here is piece that would really benefit from being a casting, unless of course you are the patternmaker.

I wasn't at first convinced that it was even worth cutting the fins at all but measuring the areas from the CAD model shows an increase from 68 cm² to about 115 cm², nearly double. There may be a useful improvement in oil cooling after all.

The blank was squared up as for the base and the sump hollowed out as for that part. After drilling and counterboring the fixing screw holes the mill table set over to 10 degrees in the YZ plane and the first side of the fins cut with a 6 mm solid carbide endmill running about 2000 RPM in the high-speed head:



The fins around the oil drain hole had to be cut from each end:



after finishing one side of the fins the sump was turned around in the vice and the other sides cut the same way to leave the job looking like:



There was a narrow ridge left between the two middle fins which was removed last:



but I left the slight ridges between the other fins as a "feature". To finish off the mill table was returned level and a very light cut taken over the bottom surface with a 50 mm face mill (6 APGT inserts) and WD40 for lubricant, a combination that leaves a very fine finish.




Progress so far looks like:


Begining to look like an engine perhaps?

On the Aciera F3 the angle of the milling heads and the angles of the table are all adjustable and when I first had the machine I couldn't see how it was possible to tram the heads, looks to be too many variables. There are angle scales that get you very close but not spot on (except by luck). Then I noticed the two pairs of taper pin holes through the table and the table support bracket halves, one pair in the XZ plane and one in the YZ. Some time in the past the pins had gone missing but it didn't take long to make replacements.

The nasty sting in the tail came after I'd finished the sump and started to use the high speed head to square up the billet for the timing case, there were nasty ridges that suggested that the quill was "nodding" in the YZ plane and the front of the cut was deeper than the back, not good, as this is the only place where there isn't any adjustment possible.  I think this must come from wear in the quill or, just possibly, misalignment in the bearings. Sometime soon I'm going to have to pull the high speed head apart and investigate but that requires a lot of thought!

DT

PS I haven't been getting notifications of new posts for some weeks now. PstechPaul suggested logging out and back in but this doesn't look to have worked. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Looking great!!!

Dave