Drilling 750 Holes
In the hot summer months of Tucson I make parts to
be assembled in the outdoor area of my workshop during our cool
and comfortable winters.
One such project requires 750 precisly placed holes
in three different lengths of aluminum alloy. The setup for this
operation is shown on this web page.
The small CNC machine that I am using is the MicroProto
Mill shown
here.
This desktop machine is a toy by many standards but
perfect for the scale of work that I do.
I am using the SuperCamXP program and hardware to
drive the machine via USB. The screen of the program for the many
holes to be drilled is shown below. The rectangle is the work
area and the small +'s are the locations for the holes to be drilled.
On the right side of the screen are the control settings
for the desired peck drilling operation to be completed. Only
7 holes (rather than the full 8) are being driled on this length
of material.
At the bottom center are the various speed controls.
Below is shown the setup for drilling the various
holes. The square aluminum alloy bar stock is securely clamped
in two precision vises. The picture below was taken after a few
holes were drilled and shows the chips caught in the newly installed
stainless steel tray.
Here is a closer shot showing the square bar in the
twin vises.
And here is a shot from an earlier run of this product
- before I installed the chip tray
This closeup picture shows things much better.
The drill is a .070" diameter solid carbide drill.
All holes on the longer lengths have been drilled.
Here is another way to look at these holes - as chips!
These shorter bars still need to be drilled. Once
completed, these bars will all be set aside until the cooler winter
temperatures return.
Drilled!
Clicking here
and here
will link to two short movies of the peck drilling in progress.