Well, the weather is not cooperating. We are caught in the ice storm that is currently crippling the midwest so it is unlikely we will get to the CNC Router this weekend. So…..

Moving forward with parts that can be built. I decided it would be cool to have a kick plate on the cab door so my kids would have something to put their feet against while they play (I probably should have kick plates all along the walls of my house!) So I started messing around with a design concept. I was thinking polished aluminum diamond plate with my design logo (t3design) cut out so the black laminate of the door shows through, and color anodized orange to match the rest of the cab, finished off with polished carriage bolts to hold it on. After some sketching I came up with this:

Got the diamond plate in and drew up the plans which Steve (one of the best Tool & Die machinists in the universe) converted to Esprit so he could program it to run on our Chevalier VMC (a CNC vertical machining center). I really enjoy working with Steve. He is an old school machinist who has successfully adapted to all the numerically controlled equipment. The thing is, you can program the machine to move the tool around, but you still have to know what tools and what speeds and feeds and how to clamp and hold the work piece and about 10 billion other things. Steve got the piece clamped up and dialed in the center:

We used the mill to spot and center drill the holes for both the carriage bolts and the EDM start points. Then we changed to a end mill and milled the outer edge to create the rounded corners:

It took longer to draw, write the program, and clamp and set-up on the work piece than it did to mill it:

Unfortunately, we ran out of time today. If the roads are not to bad in the morning and we actually all make it to work we will program the Wire EDM and cut-out the T3.