I came in this morning to find, a wonder of wonders, a finished part without a smoking shop!
Today I focused on finishing up the remaining plate parts and getting those ready for their final operation, which is drilling and tapping holes on their side, which will be an interesting challenge!
One of the rectangular pieces I got to work on today had only a couple of basic hole features but was too long for the minimill to reach in one setup. So my boss cut the width to length on the manual mill, then I put it off-center in the vice of the minimill and machined half the features, then slid it down, dialed off one of the existing holes, and was able to finish the other side. It's a bit of outside the box thinking my boss came up with to get this part finished up, though very simple!
I also got started on the podium fixture plate for the 5-axis, which I will be using for a Delrin contract! Super basic concept, a cylinder with a large groove cut in the middle will allow me to use toe clamps and prevent it from rotating on the b-axis table. With the upper portion of the podium, I can use small c-clamps to hold my stock onto the fixture plate, allowing versatile use on many different projects!