Machining the upper flat blade mount

I’m currently machining the blade mounts. I expect they should be done by tuesday.

The flat blade wasn’t bad to machine, except for the fact that I had to weld extra material on due to the innaccuracy of the slitting saw. Welded material is machinable, but it is much more difficult to machine than regular steel. I found the fly cutter worked horribly on the welded material, and that I had to use an endmill instead. Overall, it took about 6 hours to fix. First I welded it up, then I machined it down.

To check the height on the mount, I used the blades I ordered. When the machine is assembled, there needs to be .007″ to .010″ clearance between blades. I machined the mount deep enough so that the blades were just barely under the thickness of the arm. I may need to machine more later, but the lower mount can be machined instead of the entire arm.

For now, it is better that not enough material has been removed vs. too much. If I remove too much, I will need to shim the blades to get the proper clearance. While this is doable, it would make for a lower quality machine which is more likely to get out of adjustment.

Before I call the job finished, I need to figure a way to remove material from the upper edge. No milling bit is perfectly square, so the bit of material left on the upper edge is preventing the blades from sitting square on both surfaces. I may just use a dremel and grind/cut away a bit of the edge. I’ll post a vid when I figure it out.

The welded up blade mount