Some Cutaways I made

[blue60]

Nice and clean. Can you talk about the processes are you using to clean up, debur, and polish the areas that were cut?

Thanks for sharing!
Squelchtone

To be honest my cleanup is minimal, I use sharp cutters so bur's are at a minimal. mostly I just use that Green 3M scrubby pad to just break the sharp edge and a small file for bigger burs. Everything gets a blast of breaklean before and after the scrubby pad and file and then lube and assembly. I hope to be making a video of me milling a best core some time soon.

[hag3l3]

Very nice locks. Please describe the many and varied ways one could potentially mill a lock like that without an actual mill.
ex= sticking an end mill bit in a drill? Or using a dremel?
Any good ideas? Looking for some as I have no access to a mill....

[Squelchtone]

Very nice locks. Please describe the many and varied ways one could potentially mill a lock like that without an actual mill.
ex= sticking an end mill bit in a drill? Or using a dremel?
Any good ideas? Looking for some as I have no access to a mill....

If you want to end up in the ER with injures, sure. If you're going to plunge cut a padlock using a drill with an end mill bit, that drill better be a drill press for a controlled Z axis, and then you can get an XY table pretty cheap to advance the drills position in space, you'll also need something to clamp the lock down to the xy table. I don't think our hands have the needed steadyness or resolution to not screw it up or cause damage or serious injury, or at the least damage the work piece.

If you want to make a cutaway, I'd recommend a knob cylinder first as the walls are thinner and you can do it with a hacksaw, a set of hobby files and some sand paper. A Dremel could even handle it, a padlock however would be a lot more effort.

Don't forget to wear safety goggles!

Squelchtone

[blue60]

hag3l3: without a mill you're option's are limited to used a dremel, or a drill press, as noted above you could plunge mill it with a drill press but there would be alot of cleanup in the end.
You could make something like this with just a basic set of files .
I would recommend not using a slide table on a drill press to mill anything, the way a drill press is designed is only for a thrust load not a side load.

[blue60]

my latest lock, Marry Christmas / Seasons Greetings Everyone.

[blue60]

Happy New Year

My First cutaway of the year


yes I know the 4th chamber is empty, the key pin fell onto my shop floor and is gone forever.
I hope to replace it soon.

[SnowyBoy]

You're progressing well, can already see a dramatic improvement in your work. Next step for you I think will be to bite the bullet and cut the slugs to show the lower set. Believe it or not, it's pretty easy to get it spot on. PM me if you need a bit of inside knowledge.

One thing I noted, you seem to be doing a lot of shallow sweeps! It must cause you mad arm ache.... grab yourself some new carbide 3 flute cutters, and try going a bit deeper on each stroke. As for your machine lines, they can be disposed of by running the cutter .1mm into the wall of the cut, then doing a final sweep (it's called side milling). Only run the cutter into the side a microscopic amount, any more and it might grab and snatch the lock or break the cutter. Also always side mill in the direction of the cutters rotation...

good luck

[Squelchtone]

blue60 that Medeco is beautiful, that's a lot of metal to remove.

SnowyBoy: your signature line about finding safes behind paintings is probably my favorite of all member signatures on the forum.


I can't wait to see the cutaways you'll share with us this year!
Squelchtone

[blue60]

You're progressing well, can already see a dramatic improvement in your work. Next step for you I think will be to bite the bullet and cut the slugs to show the lower set. Believe it or not, it's pretty easy to get it spot on. PM me if you need a bit of inside knowledge.

One thing I noted, you seem to be doing a lot of shallow sweeps! It must cause you mad arm ache.... grab yourself some new carbide 3 flute cutters, and try going a bit deeper on each stroke. As for your machine lines, they can be disposed of by running the cutter .1mm into the wall of the cut, then doing a final sweep (it's called side milling). Only run the cutter into the side a microscopic amount, any more and it might grab and snatch the lock or break the cutter. Also always side mill in the direction of the cutters rotation...

good luck

Snowyboy: Thank you for you advise and kind works I think this is turning out to be one of my best cutaway to date.
I will look at getting some 3 flute cutter, most of the cuts done here were with a 0.062 2 flute cutter going as fast as my mill would go .

I did happen to mill the plug the next day just to the top of the sidebar (just forgot to update here)



also here is a Imgur album for the medeco (with more updated pic's) http://imgur.com/a/kSvBd#0


you will notice that key pin #5 is being held in place with spring pressure, the sidebar and not much else I did this to show more of the pin rotation, its not super strong or secure but it still works LOL

[Robotnik]

That Biaxial is beautiful; I have nowhere approaching the mill skill or patience necessary to produce such a cutaway, so I respect it greatly. Nice work.

[blue60]

That Biaxial is beautiful; I have nowhere approaching the mill skill or patience necessary to produce such a cutaway, so I respect it greatly. Nice work.

Thanks Robotnik, patience is not necessary I found If I am not nervous about milling a lock it shows in my work, alot of my early locks I was scared to mess up hence the fact that there is not as much detail.
the medeco was just something I happened to have kicking around and I needed a project so it became a project lock

[FletcherMunson]

This is inspiring me to invest in a tabletop mill ;p

[blue60]

Here is a Masterlock M175 I did just because I wanted to see the insides of it



imgur album https://imgur.com/a/vlLUI#0

[DCT]

Cool!
Did it give you any trouble?

[blue60]

it was not bad.. just a little bit of a pain, I wish I could have kept the outer cover But now I have a idea of what is where. I just need a older 175 to kill and to compare what changes were made .