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Home built CNC Mill - Gonna make a 1911


StraightUp_OG

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It sure can. I have had it affect bluing and Hard Chrome. I have not used a PVD coating YET! But I understand it can affect that coating as well.

With this 1911 I got a little lucky in that the slide is Stainless Steel and the frame is carbon so I will have a 2 tone thing going on. Blue lower and SS upper so no need to use a coating on the slide.

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Here's my first try at making a part with CNC... Wrote the G-code by hand, learning what not to do as I go :)

Cutting the first one:

That went well so I decided to try making 8 at a time so I spend less time changing tools:

That is a brand new Chinese end mill sqealing like a banshee... No idea what the deal is, I assume it's defective, so I stopped it and will try again later with a known good bit.

Here's the finished part along with one I made pre-CNC a year or so ago:

8664672002_2da3d02a2e.jpg

marvel sliderackers by brcarls, on Flickr

8663572297_65c1f05ee8.jpg

Marvel_slideracker1 by brcarls, on Flickr

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That's a Harbor Freight 44991 with a CNC Fusion kit (I wouldn't buy the CNC Fusion kit again, I'm going to end up replacing much of it). It's an older, less refined version of StraightUp_OGs mill. His mill and my mill are different versions of the "Sieg X2". Keep in mind that these really are toys for hobby use only, you'd have to be crazy to try to earn a living with them.

I've just been figuring out G-code from info on the web, CNCzone is a good place to start... G-code is fairly simple although extremely cryptic. I guess it was designed in the days of punch cards and no one has ever bothered to update it so that it's more human readable.

At the most basic level, you can start out just writing down every X,Y,Z move that you would make if you were turning the handles manually. For example if you want to move the X axis 3 inches at the current feedrate, you write "G01 X3". You can figure out new stuff as you go and get pretty fancy with arcs, loops, subroutines, variables/parameters, etc. I'm to the point now where I use variables for almost everything and do the math and trigonometry in the program instead of doing it on paper. That way if I want to change the size of a feature or whatever, I can just tweak the parameters instead of working out all of the moves by hand again.

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Turned out to be a very pleasant mistake. I learned a bunch and re-shaping the slide was very gratifying. The metal shows you what to do if you go slow and watch. I will hit it with my buddies Bead Blaster tomorrow and it should look good as new. Only the right light and a trained eye would see the repair.

Not sure if I am going to continue the french cut or do a ball cut or perhaps revisit the tri top. Gonna sleep on it...

fixed.jpg

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Nice!!! Where do you learn how to right the code to make the machine do all this! Maybe I'm thinking to much into this or am just chicken shit

Here's a good place for some gcode info

http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCCNCGCodeCourse.htm

Also the Mach3 and LinuxCNC user manuals both have detailed descriptions. Just google them and download the pdf. They're both good reading if you're thinking of cnc.

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No matter what you do with the French cut, you would have to be an idiot to not be proud of that gun and want to shoot it ever chance you get, I know I would never think about looking that gift horse in the mouth if you offered to let me take it for a spin.

Just awesome, can't wait to see how it turns out when you think it's finished.

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Thanks James! If you ever make it to Rio for a match let me know, you're more than welcome to take it for a spin!

On my way, lol, I wish. Don't have the first clue as to what I would have to do to transport any of my firearms out of the US to attend a foreign match, but I think I will have to look into it, specially cause I got family in NZ and they have some matches I'd like to go to.

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the cost of the second one is more than the little machine shop hi torque but it looks more like a real knee mill just mini sized. i am looking into this really and i think i am gonna get the AGI video set and the jerry k manuals and prob start with hand tools first and maybe send the slide off for cuts and such. i dunno...i know i have said this and asked this a billion times on this thread but can you put up a genuine list of the tools needed for this stuff Straight Up? i mean the mill tooling the hand tools even the lubes and lapping stuff? i get lost in the setting up the slide and frame in the mill for cuts talk and i also see the weigand barrel fixture is a nice tool for barrel fitting but am lost on the bull barrel and bushing barrel fitting at the muzzle. maybe the reference material noted at the first here the AGI vids and the Jerry K books will tell bout this more?? I really think if you guys made videos from start to finish using your tools and mill and such everyone on here would follow it. the details are what is needed.

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You are currently in a state of "analysis paralysis" , you are letting yourself become overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. STOP and begin at the beginning.

Buy Jerry's book and read it 10 times. Easiest and cheapest way to start. Then build on the foundation with experimentation using the basics tools (outlined in Jerry's book). Once proficient and still interested move to the more complex machine based tasks.

Don't over think it.

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dskin, I am feeling ya. I'm trying to figure out whats going on with my barrel order, once thats resolved I'll order the slide to go with my frame. And then I'm just gonna bite the bullet and see if I can get this done with files to start. And once thats done I'll screw around with the mill.

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