Copyright (C) 1986-2008 by Daniel H. Hudgins, All Rights Reserved.

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To view or use the current version of this Web page you may need to reload or refresh the display of this page by your browser. Just clicking on the browser's [Reload] or [Refresh] icon may not be enough to insure that all of the page's most current contents have been cached and displayed. Some browsers may have additional commands to help display the page's most current contents such as: holding down the [Shift] key and clicking on the [Reload] icon, holding down the [Control] key and clicking on the [Refresh] icon, holding down the [Control] and [Shift] keys and clicking on the [Refresh] icon, pressing the [Control] and [F5] keys, pressing [Control] and the [R] key, or some other combination of keys or clicks. Check to see which commands your HTML browser uses to load the most current page contents into its cache and then to display them onto the screen.

This Web site is dedicated to the thousands of "users" of my programs, those who have helped test my programs over the last 22 or so years, and especially those who shared their experiences with me.

You must read this notice: This is a licensed Web site (HTML document and associated files). You must read and agree to be legally bound in contract by the Terms of Use and conditions given in the End User License Agreement ("EULA"), Legal Notices, Instructions, Warnings, Disclaimers, and all other text in "SECTION: 0" of "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) before reading or using any of the information, software programs, and or files, contained in, linked to, and or associated with, "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files). Any use or "Beta Testing" of "This Web Site" constitutes your acknowledgment of your full agreement with the current End User License Agreement ("EULA") and your decision to have this current license supersede all prior and contemporaneous agreements and understandings. Information and files in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) have been placed here so that long time users of "The Author's" programs DANCAD3D.COM (tm) , DANCAM.EXE (tm) , or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) could help proofread the text of the documentation files or screens displayed, and also help test data files, example files, and or any software programs that might be made available from time to time, to aid "The Author" in finding mistakes, bugs, and other errors, omissions, defects, mistakes, and faults. Everything in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) is "Beta Test", "Beta Code", Experimental, Preliminary, requires proofreading, or is being evaluated for possible revision, and is NOT warranted to be free of defect. To help "The Author" report any bugs, foul-ups, defects, or mistakes that you find, see "SECTION: 8" for instructions. "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) and all other files and programs by Daniel H. Hudgins are made available "AS IS" without warranty of any kind express, expressed, or implied. All offers and specifications are subject to change or discontinuation without notice of any kind. Please read "SECTION: 8" of "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) before trying to contact "The Author."

SECTION: 7.20 is for some "general" discussion about Metalworking, see also the program files in the current distribution of my programs, the other parts of this HTML documentation, and the current On-Line version of this Web site for information more specifically about my programs. Any comparisons of my programs or methods to some others is only given as a vague generality of my opinion and is not intended as a recommendation or reference to any particular products, or methods, always make your own evaluations and comparisons before taking any action.

The illustrations in the sections and sub-sections of SECTION: 7.20 are not intended to be examples of recommended or proper practice, and in some cases may illustrate methods that you yourself would not apply as shown. The variety of illustrations, showing both practical and discouraged practices, has been included to provide illumination of the general metalworking principles discussed in these sections, and other parts of the documentation, in order to help the reader understand some of the many issues relating to the practical matter of producing parts of usable quality by manual, semi-manual, semi-automated, or fully automated machine operation, and how CAD and CAM software, such as my programs that are described in this Web site, might be of assistance to that end.

A couple of the photos in subsections of SECTION: 7.20 where taken using a Sears (tm) Craftsman (tm) Atlas (tm) type lathe, the others were taken while using a ShopTask (tm) model 17-20 type 3-in-1 multi-purpose combination mill, drill, and lathe. When a manual machine tool is retrofit for computer control you need to consider how safety shields should be added, and where the emergency power cutoff switches should be placed.

Be sure to watch all of the video clips linked to in SECTION: 4, in order to see my CAM program DANCAM.EXE (tm) being used to automatically make a part under a form of Computer Numerical Control a.k.a. CNC, and to also see other narrated lessons on how to use my CAD program DANCAD3D.COM (tm) for related tasks.

When making parts, whether by manual or automated means it is frequently necessary to align the work-piece so that cuts or other operations can be made parallel to one of the sides or edges.

Before you begin machining the work-piece you can use a dial gauge to align it. To align the part you generally need one face to be flat, so when you are starting a part you may need to pick one face and machine that face flat first, then you can use that flat face to align on and make measurements from.

To cut the other faces parallel to the first face that has been made flat, you can use a dial gauge to align the part to the machine's axis. A dial gauge with an adjustable magnetic holder is preferable since you can "stick" the dial gauge on the machine's flat surfaces and orient the gauge's probe at any angle.

Once the probe is on the part at the right angle you then move the part on one of the machine's axis so that when the part is aligned the needle stands still. Putting some oil on the part so the probe can slip better helps keep the needle on the gauge from bouncing around.

To adjust the part you need to loosen the nuts or bolts that keep the part from moving, push on the part a little to move the corner that is "high" then tighten the nuts or bolts and move the part back and forth to see if you have made the part better aligned.

When the part looks aligned, tighten the nuts or bolts down enough to keep the part from slipping while you machine on it. Since the part may move when you tighten the nuts or bolts you need to move the part along the test axis and watch the dial gauge in order to check if the part drifted off alignment when the nuts or bolts where tightened. Some people may use a small hammer or mallet to tap on the part after the nuts or bolts are tight, I do not recommend doing that since I have found that a gentle push with the nuts or bolts slack mars the part surface less and brings the part into alignment without so much pushing the clamps out of position.

The plate in the photo is being aligned to the machine's axis by using a dial gauge. In order to do this you first need a edge that has been machined flat. Once you get one edge flat you can align to that edge when you need to put the part back into the machine, after you have unclamped the part to reorient it, for other operations.

Here two clamps and some stepped blocks are used to hold the part stationary. To adjust the part you first move the part in and out across the probe, so that you can measure on the dial gauge how much the edge is crooked. Then you loosen one of the clamps and push the part in or out about the amount needed, you can read the change on the dial gauge. You then tighten the clamp, and move the part in and out again checking how much the part moved the wrong way at the other end. You repeat the process of moving the edge in or out until the dial gauge needle stands still when you move the probe along the length of the flat edge.

When a piece is to be machined on an automated machine you can clamp it down, then use the dial gauge to measure how much off it is, say for example 0.0723" in three inches movement. In DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s drawing editor you can use the [M]easure command to figure out what angle the part is at, then rotate the tool path to that angle with the [R]otate command. The [O]ffset command can be used to move the tool path so that the machine will locate on a reference point of the part, say you find the part is clamped off machine reference zero by x=+0.0173 and y=-0.1362 you can just use those values, or their inverse, to shift the tool path into correspondence with the part, without having to fiddle with the part after it is first clamped down.

When holding a part in a vice the part and the vice's jaws can be aligned by putting a flat piece into the vice and touching the dial gauge's probe to the flat surface while moving the piece across the probe so that the probe moves along the flat surface. It is a good idea to always align the vice in this way so that cutting marks will be parallel to the faces of the work-piece.

You may see references to "T" slots and "T" nuts elsewhere in the documentation. This is an example. The "T" shaped nuts fit into the "T" slots so that you can put a bolt in from above to hold something down on the machines table. Since the "T" nuts can slide along the length of the "T" slots you can align a vice or clamped part by loosening the bolt into the "T" nut and twisting the vice or clamped part.

In the lower right of the photo you can see the end of the gib shim that the gib tightening screws press against. The pressure on this gib shim needs to be adjusted to compensate for machine wear, dirt, temperature change, and such. In automated machines the tension on the gib shim needs to be adjusted carefully since the stepper motors may stall if the friction is too great, and the backlash compensation may flop around too much is the friction is not great enough.