Wife's Christmas gift - Cross/Fish

[ScrapMetal]

Warning: You'll have to pardon a number of things in this project post as I am pretty sure I'm working beyond my skill level at this point. Blush

I only do rough drawings for my own benefit so they are just that, rough.

I actually saw a sculpture of this design at the church where my son has his Boyscout meetings. As my wife is involved actively with her church and she like this kind of stuff, I decided to make some thing similar for her.

Here is the drawing I made up showing the front (left) and side (right) views of the sculpture. I didn't include the base in the drawings as I haven't quite decided what I want to do there.



I started with a 3" x 3" x 6" piece of 6061 aluminum as that's the only thing I had large enough on-hand. Big Grin After squaring it up I cut out the main cross profile then "thinned out" the cross to match the side (fish) profile width.



I intentionally left a couple of extra inches on the base to give me something to clamp/fixture to further on down the line. I will be trimming most of that off when I get closer to completion.

After giving it quite a bit of thought I decided to cut the slots in the cross before cutting the fish profile. I just figured it would be easier to work with while it was still "square".



I cut it straight away with a 1/4" endmill as I'm not building this for NASA and worried about tight tolerances (else I would have like to go with a 3/16" then expand it to spec.). It only has to look good in the end. I used as "standard" size endmill and had to slot in from one side then flip the piece and go in from the other. It all worked fairly well but I did discover that my mill badly needs to be re-trammed which resulted in the slots not meeting up real well. Bash I repeat, "It only has to look good in the end." Big Grin



This is as far as I got today. Tomorrow I'm going to start by re-tramming the mill Blush and start to figure out how I'm going to get it fixtured on the rotary table. If worse comes to worse I'll just drill a hole in the base, run a T-bolt through it, and clamp the one end directly to the RT. I don't expect it to be too much of a problem. One place that will be a little more work will be the "tail" and getting those sharp narrow cuts to look right.

I'll post more when I have more.

Be gentle now,

-Ron

[ScrapMetal]

Between trying to work out some problems with tramming the mill and a Christmas get-together with some friends I only had a couple of hours to spend in the shop today.

I did get the piece fixtured on the RT and was able to get one side mostly cut out. Please pardon the pics as the lighting was terrible and it was tough to get a good angle on it...





I didn't have time to mill off the excess areas. That will be the first thing on the agenda tomorrow. I still haven't figured out what I'll be using to cut out the "wedge shape" where the "tail" meets the base (sorry, it's not shown in the pics). I used a 1/4" end mill to make the slot/cut because I wanted to get as close as possible. I thought I could then use a small end mill for the last quarter inch or so but I don't think I have anything smaller that's long enough for the job. I'll be sure to take some better shots tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about.

-Ron

[ScrapMetal]

Here's where I'm at on it:









As you can see it's still a bit rough. After the wife goes to sleep tonight I'll head down to the basement and have a little "dremel" session with it. I still need to square off the slots on the inside of the cross. I had initially planned to do the horizontal ones with an end mill, turn it on it's side and use a square end mill. I gave up on that as at that depth and size I couldn't think of a good way to fixture it properly without a whole lot of work. I can hold it all by the base but the piece itself it fairly "springy". Seems a file/dremel/etc. would just be quicker.

One are that I still have concerns with is the "tail":



I am hoping to use some small drills to clear out the material near the base so I can get files and a hacksaw blade in there to cut a sharper angle.

Still have to figure out what to do with the base and how to finish/polish it up.

Overall, so far anyway (there's still time ), I haven't made too many glaring mistakes. Considering this has all been done on a manual mill without a DRO I've only turned the handle the wrong way twice. Once wa a major "ouch" but fortunately I just swapped the sides the cut outs were done from and the boo-boo went away. The other one I wasn't so lucky and took off a bit too much off one side of the inner tail area. I'm hoping to be able to cover it, or at least make it less noticeable (to me anyway), when I do the final finish.

Thanks,

-Ron

[ScrapMetal]

Right now I'm not real sure I'll be able to finish it in time. I did a lot of hand filing on it today and still have quite a bit to do. Really makes me want a die filer! Might have to add that one to the "future projects list".

I got some of the material in the tail cleared out but it looks a bit rough. I did a couple little "oops" and took off more in spots than I wanted. This is not something I should have been working on while tired. It's not too bad, the pic makes it look much better, and once I'm done I'll probably be the only one to notice.

I decide to make the base round. Chucked it up in the lathe and did some "interrupted cuts". Tomorrow I'll fixture it up in the band saw and cut the square base off of it. Then I'll put it back on the mill and give it a good, even, flat bottom. I did another little screw-up on the lathe and would like to kick myself for it. I had intended to cut a bevel on the upper edge of the base but I forgot and pulled it out anyway. I don't think I could get it back in there "just right" to give an even bevel around the edge.



After I get done filing on it tomorrow I'll hit it with some emory cloth and steel wool.

I'm taking this one down to the wire! Sweat

-Ron

[ScrapMetal]

This one really gave a jolt to my learning curve and about the only tool in the shop I didn't use was my boring bar (and "NO" it doesn't need any holes ).

I got it beveled and I had a nice little session with a bandsaw and spray bottle of WD-40. The cut ended up so smooth it doesn't need any other kind of finish. Big surprise/plus there!

It still needs to be squared off inside the cross a bit. I did pick up a couple of carbide Dremel tips to facilitate that so I don't think it will take too long. The rest will be the finish work.



Now, as long as I don't end up mauling it with the Dremel tool all will be good.

The next pic you see should be it finished as I'm just about out of time here. Sweat Nothing like pushing a project to the last seconds.

Thanks again and Merry Christmas guys!

-Ron

[ScrapMetal]

The wife seems to be happy with her gift.



I ended up polishing it using an old 14" workbench Craftsman drill press I have in the basement. I used the Scotchbrite pad with an arbor on it and just chucked it up in the drill press. The polishing really causes all the machining marks, flaws, file marks, etc. to stand out (in my opinion) but it did give it a warmer more "antique" kind of feel to it.

The "proof in the pudding" as to how much my wife likes it will be her reaction when I tell her I'm buying more machining supplies/equipment. If I don't get the "eye roll" or the "look" I'll know that it was a "score!".

Thanks guys,

-Ron

[ScrapMetal]

Now here's the problem...

Hmmmm, I already have the "plan" worked out. I know a few tricks that would make it a bit easier if I were to do more of them. I like the idea of a little rotating stand and I wonder what it would look like if I drilled (there's that boring bar ) a hole in the center of the base and place a counter-sunk LED in there....

NO! Must not think this way. Slaphead No way do I want to do another one. It's a sickness!

That's it for now,

-Ron

[Hawkeye]

Nice work, Ron. I can see why it may have left you feeling like you were in over your head. Very complex shape.

[ScrapMetal]

Thanks Mike. I appreciate it.

-Ron