I'm spoiled by being able to use the CNC machine at work after work hours. It's a Datron M8 high speed milling machine for aluminium and plastics.jeruw wrote:What machine did you use for making your parts, and how do you go about doing the multiple setups (for machining both sides of your pivot arms? I haven't experimented with that yet as the machines I've been using are pretty basic and I'm very new to all this. I'm also curious how you did your pivot arm shafts. Was that done on a CNC lathe?
The multi setup parts required some planning to pull off. I didn't take any pictures of those setups because I didn't think anyone would be interested in seeing it.
Some parts have through holes that were used to screw down the parts for setup 2. For the pivot arms I made what is called soft vise jaws, where you clamp two aluminium bars in the vise and mill out a cavity that is the shape of your parts outer contour. That way you will have nearly 100% edge coverage when clamping it for setup 2.
Edit: I put down a lot of text in that answer but only managed to answer one of your two questions it seems. The shafts are all made in the CNC mill actually. I wanted to get as much features done in a single part without complicating the multiple setups in the mill for me. As I wanted to do most work in the CNC mill I also knew that I would want at least two flat and parallell surfaces that I could clamp in the vise. So I made my shafts have a hexagonal "lump" where the pivot arm would sit and made a matching hexagonal hole in the pivot arms. That killed two flies in one swat as I got my flat and parallell surfaces to clamp on AND I also got a way to make sure the arm would stay still once mounted on the shaft. The magnet for the hall effect sensors will be mounted in the shaft and I need to know that the shaft won't rotate on its own without the pivot arm moving. Then again a six sided key to lock the pivot arm to the shaft may have been a tad bit overkill. However the hexagonal lump was big enough to clamp on when milling the actual shaft ends on that part. After the shaft ends were milled I just chucked them into the cordless drill and sanded them smooth with some sandpaper.