If I provide material and finished cad file anybody willing to machine it for $$$$

I have a part I need machined and thought I’d ask here before contacting an outside company to have it machined, I just need a single part mulled out of aluminum, I can provide the material (will purchase based off of what you recommend) I’ll already have the cad file ready, and I understand the effort and work that goes into getting everything set up to mill so I’m not looking to lowball you for the time. If anybody is willing to and wants to help me out and make $ let me know.
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What the part will be used for should drive what possible alloys. Generally, if your don’t need the high strength, consider a 5XXX series aluminum rather than 2XXX, 6XXX, or 7XXX series as these are double to triple the cost. But if you need those characteristics - the that’s what is needed.

  • High loading/stress?
  • Corrosion resistance?
  • Fatigue resistance?
  • Any welding?

Good summary to start with:


So really It doesn’t have to be any of those so Really just what ever grade you think is best cause it’s not something that’s gonna need to hold up to wear and tear or have a high load weight wise, but basically it’s a flat cylinder with 2 raised rims about 1/2” wide one being on the Edge circumference and the other 1” inside that one, and a 1” raised portion directly in the center, but the only challenge I see is I need holes drilled parrell to the face of it thought those rims 15 degrees apart drilled facing the center point, is what we have capable of that or is that gonna need a 5 axis to machine

Can mill most of the unit, then put the piece in the rotary indexing head on the Bridgeport. This allows drilling at controlled, precise angles

It will depend on the size for whether it’s feasible

For choosing materials really need to know most about the use case. You say not much wear and tear, but what about tolerances? For example, are we looking at +/-0.001 or +/- 0.0001. one of these is far easier to achieve than the other.

In terms of load, what would you consider? Supposedly it’s not high load but that’s a relative term. 5XXX aluminum is cheaper, but more malleable than 6XXX series which means it may be more prone to bending at modest loads.

So what’s the use case?

Totally agree this is the way to go. Are holes going to be tapped?

Re Bending: How long/tall is this thing?

Don’t forget the LARGE* rotary table that can be mounted horizontally or vertically which would allow at least 12.000" dia.for drilling holes if too big for indexer. While description is missing the distance between the second rim inner edge and the 1" center post edge, it’s 5.500" dia. + 2X the missing space.

**Note: This Large Rotary table not used often as it weighs at least 1 CM’s units of weight. :wink: This is an undisclosed weight but is used as a comparative unit of objects not easily lifted up onto the Bridgeport bed. Equivalent in Stones is unknown - and we’re to polite to assign a value. *

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calling the great @TBJK

8” across, 3” Total height, rims being 1 1/2“ Of that 3” for the body and rims and even .001+- would be acceptable but in regards to the holes diameter and location .0005-.001+/- is fine I modeled it with compensating for minor variances in tolerance. No tapping needed just clean drilled, both edges of the holes chamfered would be a plus but not asking anybody to go through that level of effort of doing that 96 times

The holes would be tedious, but straightforward.

The rest of the unit sounds like it could be done on the haas or on the large rotary table. Could do most of it on the haas then take it to the indexing head for the holes.

That was my only issue I saw with it is the holes but I could modify the design to have holes every 30 degrees so it’ll cut down time spent indexing it

Our indexer can lock at all sorts of increments; next time I’m in I can try to remember and check what the increment values are.

“Is fine”, I’d hope so, since that’s a total tolerance band of 0.0015". That means your holes have a positional location measured at about -15 +30 seconds of an arc. This is considered a tight tolerance in industry for most machined parts. (Pratt & Whitney on their jet engines considered 0.005" a tight tolerance feature, you’re at less than a third of that). If that’s what you need, then that’s what you need, it’s doable.

Be aware your 8" raw stock cylinder from the mill is probably ± 0.002" on the diameter which is 2.6X your tolerance. This is critical since tolerance stack-up of your concentric rims and center post will divide that up positionally on their nominal center lines and then on the profile tolerance. Will the -0.0005 matter if profile is inboard or outboard of just relative to adjacent feature?

Not trying to give you a bad time - but when your go to inspect the part you’ll need to know so you can account for stack-up. Decide what features need to hold that tightness and which don’t.

The holes will be easy to do, as long as they are on the same radius. You can put the information into a calculator, That calculator will spit out DRO dimensions you can use to reference based off the center of the part. Then go to each coordinates & drill.

This suggests you need 3" long through-holes drilled. Do I understand that correctly? What diameter are your holes? To fit into a 1/2" wide rim the holes are << 1/2" diameter … so drilling them 3" deep is going to create a runout that challenges the tolerance you specify.

EDIT: When you say “parallel to the face” - do you mean parallel to the flat face, or do you mean radial holes perpendicular to the circumference?

I think I misread the details. Never mind my previous post. Got a sketch of what you need? Or is it something you don’t want to share with the general public?

So just finished a rough rendering so everyone can kinda understand what they’ll be undertaking if you they want to take on the job, but ignore the rack and pinions as I’ll be purchasing those due to tolerance and uniformity concerns, basically just the grey is what I need machined, I tried to get all the dimensions I could visible and obviously if someone’s willing I’ll provide a much more accurate and detailed rendering, but here’s what I was wanting

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So one error is I didn’t make the rods go all the way through the exterior wall but I do need the holes to go through the exterior, and I’ll need 1/4” deep 1/8 diameter holes drilled at the center points of the circle gears in the base, also the hole around the circumstances on the top are 3/8th deep tapped if it’s possible to tap hole that don’t go all the way through the material

May I ask what is the application of this assembly?

I’ve always be fascinated by bank vaults doors and since I don’t have room for one in my apartment, I’m making a smaller one, I’ve been researching and studying what few schematics I could find for a while now and pestering an engineer buddy of mine for a while and figured I’m ready to pull the trigger on it

If you’d like, I know a source for that usually has cheap small ones (found door style with radial bolts). Old but functional. You can use them as a reference to build one. Funny thing is last year I put one of these round doors on the freebie shelf (about 12-16" wide with a 2" thick stepped hard plate)

Of course this is just a model right? Wouldn’t want to make an actual security one out of aluminum*** :stuck_out_tongue:

I may still have the rebuild kit for the radial locking mechanism from an old round door vault I used to use as a blast chamber. If I do it’s yours.

I assume you’re going to try and machine the cam to make the bolts move as well?

*** unless it’s for something like a child / simplistic “residential security container” as we call them in industry versus an actual safe.

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“It’s a clock!”

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