whats good for machining flanges flat ,any help would be great

 

What material is the flange made from? Normally I use a face mill or a fly cutter depending on the size of the flange. Is it already welded to a manifold or you just want to make sure its flat before you weld it?

 

ya its on a manifold a friend of mine has it ,stainless steel flange

 

Belt sander is the easiest. You will destroy a fly cutter and it will annoy you to no end trying to set the piece up in the mill. Just use a big belt sander and true up the surface. That is all your trying to accomplish.

 

Depends on how bad its warped. My first manifold was warped so bad, my machinist had no choice but to camp out by the mill.. lol

 

The mother*&^^ ''biznis''


and this is how it ends


Perfectly flat!

 

sweet il try that

 

A mill or blanchard grinder is the standard. Belt sanders don't match up.

 

With the enumerated above you can work only as a flat flange not as an flange welded 100% in a manifold........so....the belt sander is the king of flatening the flanges after you welded a manifold!

 

Belt sander


Mike

 

I made a jig to mount one I made on the mill and flycut it. It was pretty easy actually. Just need two plates with a few bolt holes for flanges and then weld them at the angle you need. Clamp to mill table. Only need 1 jig for a manifold like this. I used a custom flycutter that was made to hold a 1" shank lathe tool so it's very rigid. Some manifolds will resonate but if you hold your hands on the runners it works perfect.

 

nice good input

 

Many parts are not flat on both sides, and are flattened in a mill or blanchard grinder. It just takes a fixture to hold the part, which is a common part made everyday for this in the grinding community.

 

a surface grinder would be a hell of a lot easier than a blanchard if you insist on grinding it flat

 

You hold your hands on the runners to take out the resonance from the fly cutter. :O

 

Its not that bad, I do it at work all the time when a piece doesn't have that much support in a mill/or its too weird/awkward to support. It will help stop the chatter at the very least. You just gotta watch yourself

 

Your boss is ok with you sticking your hands into a live machine tool? Insane.

 

Obviously common sense comes into play here(pretty ironic I know), you have to watch your pinch points and pay attention to the travel of the machine. You don't hold the face you're cutting, I just put my hand on the piece as far away from the cutter as possible to absorb the vibration and prevent chatter.

If my hand would be too close to it for comfort I say f*ck it and don't do it. My boss has seen me do it multiple times and has no quarrel with it as he knows I'm a very safe worker. *knock on wood*

Roll up your sleeves and away ya go

 

sounds good lol

 

That's absolutely retarded. You guys better disable your cameras and make sure nobody else ever sees you do that, because if someone ever gets hurt and WHEN OSHA/wcomp comes knocking on your door they will interview all the employees and check camera's for documentation related to worksite accidents. They will fine his *** to next year if someone reports that or they deem that it was knowingly allowed.

 

this lad nearly got his finger jam in this little sander so i surpose its dangerous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdYwvynSb7A

 

Not sure what your doing wrong but I've cut all my manifolds and intakes on the mill. If its clamped properly you will never have a problem. If its warped bad, I use a 2" face mill to get hog out the material, then use the fly cutter for the finishing pass.

Shim the part as close as you can to get it flat, find 2 or 3 spots to clamp the manifold down, and go to town. Ive even done I6 manifolds, they are a bit tricky to get flat, but more then do-able.

 

use a face mill chucked on an end mill once you have the manifold PROPERLY secured. feed a little bit at a time, and go slowly. last thing you want is the manifold getting flung into your chest/face.

for 90% of us, belt sanding is fine.

use your experience here....if its a few thou' off, just hit it on the belt sander. if this is your first time, and you newbishly did not clamp the flange down, you are going to have to mill it, or buy a bunch of belts, and then drill the bolt holes extra large, and be content with .25 to .125 in thick flanges in some parts.

 

^^^ this. any machinist with a bit of setup problem solving skill can do it.