I searched the archives and found Paul Coat's description of Runyon's 
facing machines.  But I am curious if anyone uses a manual milling 
machine (I assume most of us don't have a CNC machine lying about in 
our shop).

What got me thinking about this is trying to get the baffle perfect 
and the table perfect. These seem to be the hardest thing for me. The 
facing curve is something I would prefer to do by hand anyway. But 
getting the table perfectly flat is, in my opinion, not do-able with 
sandpaper. I've got my own tedious method to get a table flat but a 
milling machine would sure come in handy. 

Then -- onto the baffle.  I've been working on a damaged guardala 
king. When I try to duplicate the perfectly straight baffle that 
guardalas have - I find it very difficult to get the baffle that 
straight using files. There is almost always some curve and when I 
try to make a baffle like that (like Ponzol or Guardala) they 
frequently have chirps that are difficult to find and eliminate 
without losing some of the sound quality and feel you get with that 
straight baffle.  The Guardala shows the milling machine marks that 
cuts the baffle and I'd love to be setup to just clamp a piece in and 
experiment with various baffle angles and side to side arcs. 

Anyway -- harbor freight has basic machines for about $1300 and I 
think you can find combo - lathe/milling machines for about that or 
less.  Anyone use any machinery like that?

Phil Barone's "In the shop" pages show that he uses one. I know RPC
uses one. I would think that they only use these to get the facing to
a rough cut as CNC cannot do the job a human hand can - there are just
too many variables for the poor machine... placement of the mouthpiece
each and everytime would have to be so specific - nearly impossible.
Perfection is a very tricky thing. 
good luck!
Patrick
 


> I searched the archives and found Paul Coat's description of Runyon's 
> facing machines.  But I am curious if anyone uses a manual milling 
> machine (I assume most of us don't have a CNC machine lying about in 
> our shop).
> 
> What got me thinking about this is trying to get the baffle perfect 
> and the table perfect. These seem to be the hardest thing for me. The 
> facing curve is something I would prefer to do by hand anyway. But 
> getting the table perfectly flat is, in my opinion, not do-able with 
> sandpaper. I've got my own tedious method to get a table flat but a 
> milling machine would sure come in handy. 
> 
> Then -- onto the baffle.  I've been working on a damaged guardala 
> king. When I try to duplicate the perfectly straight baffle that 
> guardalas have - I find it very difficult to get the baffle that 
> straight using files. There is almost always some curve and when I 
> try to make a baffle like that (like Ponzol or Guardala) they 
> frequently have chirps that are difficult to find and eliminate 
> without losing some of the sound quality and feel you get with that 
> straight baffle.  The Guardala shows the milling machine marks that 
> cuts the baffle and I'd love to be setup to just clamp a piece in and 
> experiment with various baffle angles and side to side arcs. 
> 
> Anyway -- harbor freight has basic machines for about $1300 and I 
> think you can find combo - lathe/milling machines for about that or 
> less.  Anyone use any machinery like that?

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I use a milling machine to get the table ALMOST flat.  It does a good job on a baffle but
leaves marks which I file/sand away quite easily.

Whatever method one use it is near impossible to get a table "flat" up to the
starting point of the facing curve. My mouthpieces play extremely well (and easy) but
I will never say the tables are "flat".  I still like a little concavity, since most reeds
are convex it makes it easier to get a seal. 

If it was easy to get things flat why does the price of Granite plates go up exponentially
with the degree of flatness ?  These plates are polished using state of the art equipment]
and they are not even flat.

-----Original Message-----
From: wyznerd [mailto:blaineh@...]
Sent: 16 August 2004 16:46
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MouthpieceWork] Anyone use a milling machine?



I searched the archives and found Paul Coat's description of Runyon's
facing machines.  But I am curious if anyone uses a manual milling
machine (I assume most of us don't have a CNC machine lying about in
our shop).

What got me thinking about this is trying to get the baffle perfect
and the table perfect. These seem to be the hardest thing for me. The
facing curve is something I would prefer to do by hand anyway. But
getting the table perfectly flat is, in my opinion, not do-able with
sandpaper. I've got my own tedious method to get a table flat but a
milling machine would sure come in handy.

Then -- onto the baffle.  I've been working on a damaged guardala
king. When I try to duplicate the perfectly straight baffle that
guardalas have - I find it very difficult to get the baffle that
straight using files. There is almost always some curve and when I
try to make a baffle like that (like Ponzol or Guardala) they
frequently have chirps that are difficult to find and eliminate
without losing some of the sound quality and feel you get with that
straight baffle.  The Guardala shows the milling machine marks that
cuts the baffle and I'd love to be setup to just clamp a piece in and
experiment with various baffle angles and side to side arcs.

Anyway -- harbor freight has basic machines for about $1300 and I
think you can find combo - lathe/milling machines for about that or
less.  Anyone use any machinery like that?



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