Author Topic: Homemade vertical milling machine  (Read 4951 times)

Offline NormanV

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Homemade vertical milling machine
« on: September 11, 2013, 04:22:21 AM »
I am currently making the patterns for castings for a milling machine based on Dave Gingery's shaper. I have a couple of points that are puzzling me.
A, do you think that tee slots can be strong enough in a cast aluminium table?
B, I was considering casting the tee slots into the table, sand cores would be very fragile over the length that I require (500mm) so I though of making the cores from MDF. It would be easier to machine the remnants of the MDF rather than solid aluminium.  Has anybody ever tried casting aluminium with MDF patterns? Does it hold up? I was thinking that it would be starved of oxygen within the mould and would not burn too much. Any thoughts?
I haven't made my furnace yet so I can't do any tests myself.
Thanks, Norman