Steel Flanges Drilled & Tapped

When performing this type work I always prefer to have the retract height set to approx. 2" to clear all the clamps, you are doing great!

from one Old Learner to another: yes, doing is the best training; making mistakes is the very best teacher

In 1981 I was an engineering student at Southern Tech in Marietta, Georgia. One of my instructors had married together a milling machine with a rudimentary computer that was programmed by holes in paper tape. At that point all it would do is make monogrammed belt buckles. CNC has come a long way! ……although, now that I think of it, that was 43 years ago. I’m so old.

I always do the high clearance plane when using strap clamps. Less drama. You need a backside chamfer tool for one and done.

I am proud of you Adam!!! Progressing nicely into the previously unknown!!

Adam's talking the language, confidence is growing. I predict he will become obsessed with CNC, and become proficient with it within 6 months.

This is the best part of the day for me, sitting down and watching one of Adams EPIC videos! keep them up!!

working with clamps it worth having your retract to 2" in travel, peace of mind and cheaper then breaking tools

Ive done literal hundreds if not thousands of different parts that needed to be clamped down in the machine. If I can say just one thing that will save you a ton of headache; Make sure your clearence height between every operation is higher than your tallest clamp-setup. Depending on your machine it might make the part take a little longer to finish but nobody wants to see the machine try to rapid feed a large drill sideways through a clamp.

You need to build a big 2" thick aluminum sub plate to make these jobs much easier. We had both large sub plates that covered (and protected) the entire steel table or smaller sub plates that clamped in the mill vise(s). If our parts weren't too tall, we'd bolt numerous vices , rotary tables, dividing heads or whatever's needed to the sub plate. Now you can drill straight into the sub plate and avoid drilling into your nice 1-2-3 blocks. You can put locating pins and tapped clamp holes anywhere you want. You can keep using them job after job until they become Swiss cheese. Or you can save them as dedicated fixtures for repeat jobs. But you probably already knew all that stuff. We kept most of our common fixture machining programs in the memory of every machine. Sub plates, vacuum plates, soft jaws, etc. We made fixtures to hold parts in pockets for the 6 work coordinates to machine all sides of a part complete or even multiples using sub programs. Those are my favorite type of heavy duty toe clamps BTW. You can also use those hexagonal cam actuated clamps (I can't remember what they're called) to clamp where you're not miling the periphery or ID. If we are milling periphery and ID, Id bolt thru several of the drilled holes. So many ways to 'skin a cat' so to speak.... That's what makes machining so interesting!

You should be proud in your continuing education journey! I'm 59 and the best part of my job is having to learn something new. 😊

Went from pucker to relief and cut cycle time in half in one job. That's a win. Fun to watch this new chapter for Booth Machine. 👍

Thanks! This brings back memories of my first factory machine job in 1975 as a radial drill press operator out of high school. I had to lay out by hand bolt circles on flanges all day long. Parts for dredges at Ellicott Machine Company in Baltimore. We had one CNC machine in the whole shop and it was a test mill to see how they liked the new technology. Blue the flanges, lay out the bolt circles and holes with dividers and set it all up manually. Loved that job.

Really cool to see you on the cnc again Adam. You’ve clearly learnt a lot and we’re learning from your videos too. A lot of the experienced cnc guys on YouTube gloss over the basics so it’s really good to follow your journey.

Thank you for making these video's. I haven't done any machining since the early '90s, and to me this is like a cross between technology and witchcraft. You have definitely sated my curiosity.

I love to see someone my age learning new things. Made me realise that I can still learn new things myself, that the skillset I have isn't set in stone.

Instructional videos can be very helpful, but seeing someone go through the learning process while both asking and then answering the questions that are going through my head adds a unique quality to your videos. I doubt I'll ever run a CNC machine, but it's fascinating to see. I feel like I have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the process. Excellently done, as always. Also, "pucker factor" is now in my vocabulary.

I have to admit, I was stuck "old school" mode and being if I had a shop I would lean heavily with the older machines because that was all the interest I had, this episode kinda opened my eyes toward CNC machining. The clarity of your step by step movements showed me a new way of doing things. I appreciate that Adam

Make your clearance plane like 2 inches above the part and your rapid moves will clear and you don’t have to pucker up so much!

very well done Adam. I am super proud of you. It can be rather arduous for people to add different skills especially with people of you mastery of manual machining of all the differing types. I would love to buy you a beer and have a conversation about how fun this kind of learning is. I went from being a mechanical engineer with a degree to going back to college for a Computer Science Engineering degree and now working in this industry since Jan 2005. I know the butterflies in changing lol. So I applaud you and I am proud of you as well. I look forward to so very many more excellent videos from you.