Hello Everyone! First off I'm pretty new to milling, only been doing it about a month now and have been struggling a lot. There is no one at my current company that has milled before so I'm stuck trying to just figure it out as I go.
My problem is that I have been milling a couple of basic parts and have been noticing an issue with the overall measurements in the parts after they are milled. I first assumed that this was fixture issue because I was milling brass sheets that were 0.01" thick and the sheet was lifting slightly more and more as I completed the part. I figured that this was to blame so I tried all different ways of fixing the sheet metal (bracing it down, using double sided tape, cutting the piece to almost the size of my part, and a combination of all of these) and I am convinced that after everything the stock is reasonably fixed.... or well enough to not have the kind of error that I am experiencing. I am milling parts roughly about 1.6" long and about 0.3" wide. After the part is milled I have noticed that the width is ok but the length has an error of about 0.01" too long. Recently, I noticed that the longer I made the part the bigger the error would be in the overall measurement. I adjusted the drawing on SW to compensate for the error by reducing the overall length by 0.01" and noticed that the milled part was pretty close to what it should have been (within 2-3 mils).
I am thinking that the lead screws need to be adjusted but am not sure how to adjust them. Can someone explain how I can do this? I am using a MiniMill Pro-3 with stepper motors. Any advice will help. I was just about to start messing with the lead screws but figured I should ask the experienced people on this forum.
Thanks!
My problem is that I have been milling a couple of basic parts and have been noticing an issue with the overall measurements in the parts after they are milled. I first assumed that this was fixture issue because I was milling brass sheets that were 0.01" thick and the sheet was lifting slightly more and more as I completed the part. I figured that this was to blame so I tried all different ways of fixing the sheet metal (bracing it down, using double sided tape, cutting the piece to almost the size of my part, and a combination of all of these) and I am convinced that after everything the stock is reasonably fixed.... or well enough to not have the kind of error that I am experiencing. I am milling parts roughly about 1.6" long and about 0.3" wide. After the part is milled I have noticed that the width is ok but the length has an error of about 0.01" too long. Recently, I noticed that the longer I made the part the bigger the error would be in the overall measurement. I adjusted the drawing on SW to compensate for the error by reducing the overall length by 0.01" and noticed that the milled part was pretty close to what it should have been (within 2-3 mils).
I am thinking that the lead screws need to be adjusted but am not sure how to adjust them. Can someone explain how I can do this? I am using a MiniMill Pro-3 with stepper motors. Any advice will help. I was just about to start messing with the lead screws but figured I should ask the experienced people on this forum.
Thanks!