Want a extremely excellent spherical gap in metallic? Seize a boring head! However there’s a catch: small machines, just like the mini mills so fashionable with hobbyists, make the boring course of fairly disagreeable. That’s why Francis of the Challenge Havoc YouTube channel designed and constructed a boring head tailor-made to small vertical mills.
The issue with operating a boring head on a small mill isn’t the shortage of motor torque. And surprisingly, it isn’t actually a rigidity concern both. Boring heads are single-point reducing instruments, form of like inverted lathes, and don’t require a lot energy or rigidity to work effectively. The issue is that the standard boring head design is heavy and eccentric, which creates severe wobble in small machines that lack heft. These boring heads additionally aren’t very handy to regulate and take up a variety of Z axis house.
Francis tried to resolve all three of these issues. His boring head design eliminates wobble with a counterweight that routinely adjusts to keep up steadiness. Additionally it is straightforward to regulate with a hand-turned leadscrew mechanism. And eventually, it’s compact and matches on mills that don’t have a lot room between the spindle and desk.
The draw back to this design is that it is extremely sophisticated and requires a variety of components. Francis modeled these components in CAD, then machined them on his vertical mill and lathe. Should you like watching machining content material, this video is definitely worth the click on for that candy, candy chip-spitting alone.
Other than the handful of anticipated errors, the construct went effectively and Francis was in a position to assemble his boring head for testing. Sadly, the outcomes weren’t nice. The boring head works, however inconsistent deviations imply it isn’t as much as machinist requirements.
Although the video ends on a considerably somber be aware, I believe the design is promising. Francis isn’t fairly certain what the problem is, however I think it’s a mixture of the lengthy boring instrument levering towards the leadscrew mechanism and the sheer variety of components. If Francis can refine the design and make it strong sufficient to keep up good tolerances, it ought to attraction to hobbyist machinists.
