Zimmermann FZ-5

[Brian]

Chris, I found the Bridgeport particularly useful for short, blind, sliding dovetails. I have a feeling you'll likely find the same here.

My first piece of furniture I made about 8-9 years ago, almost every joint is a sliding dovetail, as literally the only real tools I had were a Bridgeport and router bits.

[Chris Hall]

Brian,

I can imagine many types of joinery which could be tackled, in whole or in part, on this machine. And I am really pleased to have found that it works well to surface material which is otherwise problematic to dimension down, like this curly bubinga. I'm scheming right now to add some sort of extra long support table on top of the deck so I can surface those door panels on the cabinet. Otherwise, removing a full 1/4" of material from those eight panels is something I could only tackle by endless rounds of hand planing (no thanks), or taking the material to a place to get them thickness sanded. That place happens to be nearly 2-hours drive from my shop. With so much material to remove, the thickness sanding would take a while, and would cost me several hundred dollars in hourly shop rate. That's what I did last time with the material for the coffee tables and before that with the materials for the Ming dining table, so the costs are known to me - and the Sandya thicknessing sander I can access is not especially accurate. I had problems last time with going under dimension. So I'm looking to see if that same amount of money won't create a workable solution to the problem using the milling machine, leaving me with a final skim to do with the hand plane or surfacer, depending.

~C

[Chris Pyle]

Brian,

Have you considered buying a speeder head for the BP to ramp the RPMs for wood? It sounds like you were able to accomplish what you wanted without it but I'm wondering if a speeder head wouldn't be a cheap way to get into the correct range for various cutters.

Chris,

I'm really enjoying your blogging of the process with the mill. I hope you have purchased some old machining books, as I'm sure there are tons of tips and tricks in there? Or perhaps there are some good patternmaking books out there?

[Chris Hall]

I have one machinist book: Machine Shop Trade Secrets

It's all 'tips and tricks'. I've looked through it a couple of times for sure.

And I'm sure there a zillions of other tips and tricks out there - just look in any machinist's magazine.

It's all a learning curve.

[Brian]

The trouble I had with working panels on the bridgeport is that you need to have a way to hold them flat. Not a big deal if you can clamp across them for joinery runs, but a very big deal if you want to surface a full panel, which has the likely hood of moving while in the cut.

Chris P, it worked fine when I spun it up to a speed that would be appropriate for aluminum.....not ideal, but I would work to make it more ideal if I used it regularly. My father's shop is not really far away, but far enough that I've found other method for doing all of the work that I normally do. If it were in my garage I'd probably find many more uses for it. Most of what I really want the bridgeport in my own shop for, is not woodwork, but hinges and other metal parts.

[Chris Pyle]

Brian,

I can imagine many types of joinery which could be tackled, in whole or in part, on this machine. And I am really pleased to have found that it works well to surface material which is otherwise problematic to dimension down, like this curly bubinga. I'm scheming right now to add some sort of extra long support table on top of the deck so I can surface those door panels on the cabinet. Otherwise, removing a full 1/4" of material from those eight panels is something I could only tackle by endless rounds of hand planing (no thanks), or taking the material to a place to get them thickness sanded. That place happens to be nearly 2-hours drive from my shop. With so much material to remove, the thickness sanding would take a while, and would cost me several hundred dollars in hourly shop rate. That's what I did last time with the material for the coffee tables and before that with the materials for the Ming dining table, so the costs are known to me - and the Sandya thicknessing sander I can access is not especially accurate. I had problems last time with going under dimension. So I'm looking to see if that same amount of money won't create a workable solution to the problem using the milling machine, leaving me with a final skim to do with the hand plane or surfacer, depending.

~C

What is the size of the panel Chris? How wide do your vice jaws open up? I was imagining a way of using straightedges in the clamping...

Then again it may be easier to order some aluminum tool plate and machine it to contain a handle that can be clamped, then clamp it and machine the surface deadnuts before clamping the panel to it.

[durbien]

Our CNC machine uses vaccum clamping to hold large sheets flat - though I'm not sure if that amount of pressure would distort solid wood. We routinely deck the MDF work table flat with a big fly cutter and that thing doesn't move at all.

We also use glue and screws a lot to hold big stuff down - we machine sacrificial tabs into the material as attachment points and then cut them off later.

[Jack_Ervin.]

It's all a learning curve.

You probably have looked up a spec sheet on your Kurt vise as to the different configurations of bolting the hard jaws on but if you haven't, it is capable of opening and holding up to 17.030. You can have taller and wider soft jaws made to give more support to clamp thicker parts (wood in this case). Out riggers can be made to bolt to the left and right of the t'slot table to support longer work. I worked on part on a Bridgeport that formed the backbone of the B1-A prototype bomber. Those parts were over 16 feet long and cut were made on each end and along different places in-between. Those parts were supported on shop made roller rests which amounted to the type used as in feed/out feed support for woodworking machines. The floor was concrete but you may get proper support on your shop floor if you are to set up that kind of support.

Jack

[Chris Hall]

I presume you mean this spec sheet?:

Kurt_JawPos.gif (3.31 KiB) Viewed 3516 times

I hadn't considered moving the jaws outboard, so good to know!

[Jack_Ervin.]

I presume you mean this spec sheet?:

I figured that you are consumed with design and machining the sticks for the build and maybe had not had time to considered this yet. The other is food for thought. You will be abled to spend two and half life times thinking up new ways to set up your mill and the last one will just be enhancements of all the others just like all the other machines you have. Good to see you are finding good application for the mill early on.

Jack