Machining the Bed on the Flex CNC
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- In this video we take the final steps of the Flex CNC mill installation. Typically this is is done by @FlexMachineTools prior to shipping out to the customer but I asked if we could do this in the shop to help getting a little more training and seat time on the machine. Everything turned out great and the machine is now ready for some work and projects. #abom79 #flexcnc #flexmachinetools #cnc #cncmachine #longbedmill
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In all the time I’ve watched this channel, I’ve come to understand that Adam is always learning and growing. He says he’s intimidated by the FlexCNC but that’s only temporary; just you watch. Great role model for workers of all kinds.
Adam, thanks to you and Flex for providing this content, which is both educational and entertaining. Looking forward to the unique projects ahead for this machine.
A wash hose pumping coolant works well for washing chips down.
Flex and MItronics x 2 and other new machines, I give Adam full respect, I would be way over my head. But I'm 73 years old, I'm sure his younger mind can grasp all of this new technology. More power to you Adam... Love the videos.
That Flex CNC is going to open up a whole new world to you, Adam. Thanks for taking us along for the ride!
Keep at it Adam, the discomfort / being intimidated is growth. You will get up to speed in no time. It’s great for us to see you have the same challenges we have diving into this stuff!
I've enjoyed seeing the process and your journey into CNC. I really like that you are upfront about it all being new to you, just taking your time to do things right, and picking it up at your own pace. This is much more valuable to me, and likely your sponsors, to see it from the start. I find this niche interesting and Flex seems to have a good entry price and a recognition that we need to keep this heavy infrastructure work here in the states. I've had large weldments machined where my choices went from literally many hundreds of shops in a 200 mile radius to 2. And... judging by what I paid, they knew that. You've got this!
It's been so interesting watching you build up the new shop, keep it up!
Adam willl be starting a 2nd story soon!
Pleased to see that thing are working well for you.Thank you for sharing.
You have a great shop and it is a tribute to your upbringing and skill. Your dad and grandpa would be proud!
Colin furze from the uk gave you a big shout out in his shop build video the other day he has millions of subs. He picked his new lathe from your recomendation (because it was what you had). If you have seen a subcriber jump or view jump the last few days thats why. I was pretty stoked when he said abom79. Your new shop is awesome.
Colin built a shop that will be the envy of a lot of people who make stuff.
The joy in your face when you have a new machine or tool..
Great machine Adam, you're going to have some fun with that! As for a quick way to clean the table, write a simple program to use the machines coolant nozzle. Set it to run down the T slot of each rail to flush out the chips, then run slowly down each side of the table to flush everything down into the bed auger. Looking forward to the first project on it! 🙂
hey as a fellow cnc machinist thats a great tip that even long time cnc machinist dont do.
Seems logical, Captain! Better than having to periodically get in there and swill it out. Kind of like a new car - wash, polish and keep that "New Mill Smell"...
We do that with our big machines. Another trick is get some wood strips (we use non absorbent foam but it's expensive) to fill the slots not being used to keep chips out.
@@MegaCabCummins6 would not recommend wood, if you leave it in the slots for too long it swells up and you will end up having to machine it out with the resultant mess it makes.
@@pool-cover If the wood is submerged yes.
Like you I bit the bullet last year and got a CNC Mill for my home shop. I knew nothing of it. I'm a excavator operator for a real job lol. I gotta say less than a year in and I love my CNC. I live in the shed now. I don't don't use my manual mill for anything now. I can design and program in Fusion the smallest of jobs about as fast as I can walk over to the manual mill and do a set out and dial in the DRO. You know far more than me, you will kill it in no time. Its dead easy to do. Fusion is a basic program to learn. I'm teaching my 12 year old to use it now. I want him out there building his own projects.
I must say that shop looks impressive
Any one else remember the good old days when Abom79 actually made stuff in a workshop rather than doing long winded product placements?
If he's gonna neglect that wonderful old shaper, I'll take it off his hands.
I think most who remember those days have already left. Go CEE.
That the great thing about machining Adam you learn something new everyday.
Our haas mills always had a coolant wash down hose. Wash the chips right into the conveyor. Cool machine be awesome to see that baby make some chips on a project.
I'm so happy you took the plunge into this new shop, you got this brother!
Very nice equipment, I will miss the garage type of shop and that type of work is why I started to watch this channel. I learned so much that I could apply to what I do. Not sure that I will ever be into CNC, just not my style.
Manual machining is mostly used for hobby these days, while CNC is more about making a living. When machning is just a hobby, a side show economically, naturally no need to invest into CNC, if one not have a special interest and/or need for it
Very interesting! From my own experience of this type of tool changer, sometimes the tool can get stuck in the spindle and not release which causes a lot of damage. Should be fine on a new set up but pays to regularly clean the spindle taper and tool tapers.
I give you a lot of credit learning to use those CNC machines. To say it is intimidating is an understatement.
I love watching this as I'm also learning cnc myself. Sort of the same, always used manual machines now trying to learn the new stuff!
Hasn't cnc been around since the 60's
@@davidhamilton7628 yes it has. But what he is using and what I am learning hasn't.
I liked the old you much better. I will never have a cnc machine. I prefer watching you making parts on your manual machines.
Very cool mill. Thanks very much for sharing the final process with us.
Really looking forward to seeing some interesting (and profitable) jobs come off this machine.
Awesome video, keep up the learning and in no time you'll need a hopper dumper and a fork to keep up with the piles of chip pouring off that thing! Easy way to wash down the machine is just use the coolant and write a simple program that just moves the spindle around all those tee slots and runs the coolant over the bed and wash it's self off. Will take a little bit of tweeting/experimentation to get it to do exactly what you want but once you have it you can just load it and push go anytime you need/want to wash it down. Doing this regularly is a good idea anyway on a big machine like that as it get some fresh coolant on all the surfaces and crevasses that coolant can go stagnate in and rot/rust your machine.
Do you know why the bed way rails do not go the end of the machine. It looks like they are short on both ends of the machine. Why is this???
Glad to see all that progress you are making Adam !
Nice equipment you have in your shop.
A wash down run is a great idea. You can also set up a wash down hose off your coolant pump system. For those areas that the mill head can’t reach.
Suggestion for the chip cleanup: Tap off your coolant lines at the spindle to blow coolant down the sides of the bed and into the rail slots so the chips get washed into the auger. Then an air-blast to dry out the bed and rails. Program in a slow flush 'n dry up the bed and job done!
Just spotted @Paul Ms comment suggesting same!
See if you can add a second pump and hose to the tank. This way you can rinse the table after each project. Congratulations on the new shop tools. Can’t wait for the new projects. Thanks for the great content.
I've never been a machinist, but I designed and built software for most of my adult life. About the only advice I can give is to take your time and program for safety. Learn how from the beginning to add in extra tests and sanity checks. Yes, that will take extra time, but so does fixing broken machines and making parts over again. As you get more experienced, you can slowly remove the extra tests and training wheels.
I can't wait to see what kind of new work you get for this amazing machine.
Adam, you got some good looking machine shop right there! The cnc is really cool
I can’t wait to see what you have cooking’ for this machine.
what an awesome tool... thanks for bringing us along for the maiden voyage
Haimer Shrinking machine, with variable coil. Cool, had the same here in germany a few years before - good choice! Never seen this adjustable parallel before, that seems to be an absoluteley helpfull tool.
Get you some cheese cloth or filter paper for your chip pan to keep the fines out of your tank and a C-Thru Separator, really makes maintenance a lot easier. Nice machine! Good luck!
this machine is for demo only
Very best wishes for many profitable projects on this lovely machine. I envy you for owning such a beauty.
Adam, I've been intending to come visit you for a while now, I'm just over here in Navarre... For the past year I have had a mid-1950s Sheldon lathe that I'm refurbishing as a home hobbyist, and it has some wear. I want to discuss having some work done to restore it's accuracy. This seems like the perfect machine for the task...
Adam I'm an old school machinist, that can't really spell that great. I guess I'm hooked on phonics. But anyways I worked in a shop where they were all new school. I started on mills and lathes. Than I moved up to screw machines. Loved those machines. Can't really say they loved me. But this new CNC stuff I'm impressed with it but it's not to my liking. If you make a mistake on CNC it will cost you alot and you might even have to fix the machine. I like machines that if I make a mistake it's only a tool that has to be sharpened or replaced. I feel it takes away the abilities of the machinist and puts it into the programer. Your making us obsolete. What ever happened to a little blood sweet and tears.
The scene where it changes tools reminded me so much of the movie Logan's Run.
Very excited for your new endeavors Adam. Also fun to see the master of machining go back to school. Imagine you feel the same as I do now as I try to learn manual machining in my little hobby shop. Very encouraging to see you wade right into the deep end! Thanks to you and many other RUclips machinists for helping me get into this hobby.
A machine that mills itself ... crazy. Great vid btw!
They all will if you try hard enough.😂
I've been looking into the same machine with the fourth axes I'm heavy into the lawn care machine maintenance and small engines that would greatly improve my fabrication of replacement parts and r&d of new parts. Adam it's a learning curve for me too
The Distance-To-Go screen and single block mode are super handy when you're running a program for the first time.
Wow! Y’all gonna be doing aircraft wing spars on that monster, or what? Thinking multiple fixture plates are among the first projects.
Impressive machine. Looking forward to following along.
I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around what a machine like this is used for... so I'll be interested to see it in action.
Either a few very long parts or an absolute ton of small parts. With a machine like this parts can be loaded into and out of the areas not being machined. I'd be curious how many machine vises can fit on that thing
@@Dreddip All of them.....
A typical task for this machine will be drilling and milling in large structural beams, large plates, steel castings. And one can clamp down several smaller parts for machining on the table, doing them all in one setup. It's not a machine for all, but to many companies this is a great option at a relative resonable price point. Time will show what Adam's plans are. It will be interesting. I bet we will see parts of different size on that table
It will be very handy for milling keyways and other features on huge shafts and gear wheels, some of which are over 6' in diameter. If he has a repetitive job, say making 20 30, or 40 parts he can do 3-4 at a time, limited only by how many milling vises he has.
He could easily get a contract for lots of production runs with some drilling and facing. He wouldn't use vises he would build fixtures that are easy to load and repeatable. He could also load many fixtures and run many different ops on many parts. I forgot how many tool ops this machine holds, but I'm sure as bright as Adam is he will get the most production out of this machine. I bet he's already got some jobs lined out for it, it's hard to believe their are any machines like this in Pensacola, that are open to mild to moderate production jobs. Can't wait to see you guys conquer this journey been a huge fan since almost day one. If I ever make it back to Florida I'm hoping I could meet you guys, I've learned a lot from you. Greatly appreciated.
Them firetrucks follow you wherever you go 🤣
"Look guys I'm running it alone!!! " - back to school 🏫
That looks like a lot of fun - thanks for sharing
Pretty neat macro program. Set the 100/101 and go
I always enjoy watching your videos
I have learned a fair share of manual tricks
I look forward to learning more Cnc tricks
Hi Abom, this is where coolant is supposed to be used to keep the temps of the entire process as close to equal as possible. The reason for that is metal expands when it gets hot and thus the need to keep the temps constant.
Can’t wait to see some big jobs getting machined on the flex.
I miss the old shop and its content. I’m a retired Tool and Die Maker and I enjoy seeing the chips fly. Not interested in machinery commercials. Good luck with the new direction you have chosen.
His hundreds of manual machining videos are allowed to wacth more than 1 time. He want's to develop and move on in life learning something new.
34:35 Maybe a small submersible pump from the coolant sump with a hose with a 1 1/4" NPT discharge to a nice long length of hose and a simple nozzle, so you can just walk around the bed and wash the chips down toward the auger?
Every time the name Flex CNC puts a smile on my face :) Flex. Not rigid :)
LOL - haven't you seen the FLEX ARM a79 uses? I've never seen such a wobbly "tool" for professional use in my whole life and it has made me shy away from FLEX equipment. The arm itself looks weak but seems to be adequate BUT the drill head is visibly wobbling when he uses is. Yacc!!
What a neat shop you've just built !
You can take advantage of your through-spindle air by chucking up a plain copper tube with a 45 degree bend at the bottom. Cycle it back and forth across the bed and you can blow all the junk into the auger hands-free.
Only trouble i saw was when Y axis was milling the first couple rails. It sent a lot of coolant towards the door which then dripped onto the shop floor. Have fun Adam.
Love your new workshop the equipment is looking really good carnt wait to see you making chips fly .
thats one hell of a machine, cant wait to see it doing a job.
Muchas gracias por brindarnos estás experiencias con esta hermosa máquina CNC maravillosa y en esta profesión todos los días se aprende algo nuevo bendiciones.
Now that a clean shop
This is super cool man. I’m excited to see what you start cranking out on it.
nothing
Hmm, I ponder would it be advantageous to use a magnet of some kind in the end catch box? For capuring shrapnel and making removal and keeping it cleaner.
Suggestion for clean up, I don't know if Flex made a provision in the coolant system, but an extra bib in the coolant line would allow attachment of a length of hose with a nozzle, allowing easy "wash down". I have a friend who is/was an old school machinist and he had several of his larger machines set up in this way. He only had to brush the areas around the edges but use the coolant pump to flush the swarf to the screens where it could be scooped away with a chip trowl.
When not in use, the valve on the bib can be shut and any coolant in the hose can be drained back into the system so there will be no loss of coolant to the machine.
Thanks for the "cutten iron" hope to see a lot more.
Awesome Adam! Can’t wait to see some projects on this machine. I’d bet in a few months you will be practically an expert.
Great to see the evolution of your shop.. I would imagine doing this in place will ensure the level surface is spot on..
For clean-up. you can make a flood curtain using the machine coolant and make a program to run the machine down and back to wash the chips down to the chip conveyor.
Man, you've come a long way Adam from the early days! i am a guitar maker with 20+ years cnc use, I have no idea what you'd machine on a 20ft bed but I'll be eatn snacks watching you do it.
Multi op setups seem prime use imo.
Accurate finishing of one large part might be stretching capabilities but having multiple setups per part per op that could be left standing could be a good way of utilizing the footprint. Otoh more spindles make short work. I’m curious too though.
Adam I recommend adding a wash down hose with decent pressure if it is not already equipped. It will make your life a lot better. Nothing makes me mader than nit being able to work with a clean machine. They're expensive af and should be maintained as such.
I really enjoyed watching this thank you.
Good work! Don’t let these machines intimidate you!
Love your content. Been a viewer quite a few years now and love how you're diving into CNC. I ran CNC Grinders for bearings since 2011 until 2019 and in 2020 started running CNC mills, lathes and multi axis mills. I like and actually would prefer to mill the rails in its resting location. I always just figure the more accurate, the better. Also, a long wash down hose is what you need for that big machine, at least in my opinion.
If you buy one of these machines, the bed is already machined when you get it. I think this was a special case for Abom.
I wonder if it's possible to hose it out with the coolant.
You should write a spindle purge macro for tool changes, gets all the coolant out of the lines keeps that sticky mess from gumming up your spindle and tool mag
.786 or 19.996mm, you got your self a metric machine and you are constantly converting to imperial to please the audience.
Funny.
Never the less i am following your channel from day one.
Regarding cleanup: I was thinking of this during the video. I would "write" a bed-wash program that just runs the coolant pump through an appropriate "tool" that just runs down each side and sprays water to flush the chips toward the auger. Just an idea.
Awesome Machine.
Love it.
Great Video..
Glad to see you making some chips!
Thanks for sharing! Fantastic, start for many years of rewards and challenges.
Even went with the heat shrink tool holders. Very fancy
it would be cool to watch you do the clean up, I just think it would be interesting and satisfying
It'll be interesting to see if this channel can successfully evolve from one showcasing brilliant traditional precision metalworking skills into one showing CNC'ing, in which the skill is mainly in programming. I'm not sure it'll work but we'll see.
Those brilliant traditional precision metalworking skills were build from the ground up at his Dad's shop and alongside his machinist employee before years spent at Motion adding to and refining them. Adam is doing this the hard way. The easy way is learning it alongside experienced CNC machinists day in day out for a good few months, no distractions and other life stuff getting in the way. Learning all them G codes and M codes like the back of your hand? do the machining work that utilises them over and over; trying to remember them off a chart is the slow and inefficient way. As a kid wanting to upgrade his vocabulary, does he 'read' the dictionary, or upgrade the standard of the books he reads?. How many hours a day do kids spend on their mobiles texting their friends and following their idols, navigating through all the platforms out there ad infinitum.
How many times have you heard an expert, whether trade or profession, say that he was fortunate to work for and alongside the best along the way. Not the case here; Adam is left largely to his own devices with his new toys, not fully immersed for long periods, having to learn it in small intermittent chunks, revisited in between other jobs.
Holy hell, if they make a right angle head with a precision wheel you'd have the biggest surface grinder in the world! No charge for that idea Flex, just remember ghostinthemachineshop when the time comes 😆. Can't imagine what that machine costs.
Just had an idea: you can use tools with holes for coolant facing downwards to clean your workpiece after all the operations with compressed air; just raise Z a little bit, turn on through spindle coolant air purge and go over your workpiece once more. Should be simple enough.
I've just purchased my first lathe and rewatch your vids if I'm not sure on something. Thankyou Adam
Man I do love how some fresh inserts be cutting 🤌
You are doing great Adam😊👌🙂🥇
Adam, I have a suggestion to help with clean-up of your flex. Remember the carwash Brush that went on a garden hose? It would clean up the whole inside, even between the rails.
I guess your next big purchase will be for work holding equipment. I am looking forward to the first milling job you have. Eventually adding a fourth axis would give you the fleibility to mill some very complex parts. It would be interesting to see a circle/diamond/square test cut (in wax) if that process is still used to check interpolation. Good luck and congratulations.
you mean the next donation...
@@summerforever6736 These machines are not free “donations” as you imply. They’re business agreements between two parties based on value given for value received.
> 0.001" over 20 feet? I feel lucky holding 0.001" over 6 inches on my hobby mill! 😅 Really looking forward to seeing the jobs you'll tackle with your new CNC machines.
You should see of Flex can fit some washdown coolant nozzles to the gantry so that a cleaning cycle may be dome moving from end to end with the auger running and no spindle turning.
As the spindle has coolant through flow, the washdown may be possible without additional plumbing, one pass either side of the bed... Just a thought.
very cool machine and excellent content. For cleaning the tray might I suggest either putting an additional "coolant" line the length of the tray with flood spray nozzles in each bay and/or a low-pressure hose long enough to cover the entire length to wash the chips down to the trough.
It will be fun when the "microsoft technicians" start cold-calling a79 based on this video to take control over / encrypt the CNC console :)
Ok
Like you Adam l found learning the various codes quite intimidating but as time goes on and you become familiar it does get easier. Very interesting video as usual……