Making a Stainless Steel Watch Case and Back on the Shapeoko 3 (Start to Finish)

rmwarren, I apologize, didn’t see those at first, thank you!

DanStory, yes, I am aware of the concerns, and you might be right. For some context, one thing I learned when machining stainless is that it’s best to avoid ramping an endmill – for internal pockets it’s better to pre-drill a hole for the endmill to drop into. I have used a regular hardware-store 1/8" drill bit to spot-drill hole centers in stainless for later drilling on a drill press, and the spotting actually worked quite well. Spot depth was .030", 10k RPM, I think the Z feed was 10 or 15 ipm. The problem with this approach is that I have to remove my workpiece from the CNC after spotting, drill the holes to final size manually, and put the workpiece back, which takes more time and introduces some inaccuracy. For “production” type projects this isn’t ideal – I’d rather have the CNC do as much as possible.

My goal was to have the machine peck-drill a 5/32" hole so that a 1/8" endmill can drop into it and bore it to final size, to avoid ramping. I see now that PreciseBits sells a [5/32 dia, 1/8 shank] drill bit that would be a better solution than the chuck. Or I could use a 1/8" drill and bore with a [3/32 dia, 1/8 shank] drill bit.

If I were to use the chuck, I do have a prop-balancer for R/C airplanes which I could use to balance the chuck if required. Shouldn’t be too hard. Runout is another matter though.

You edited your post to remove this part but I’d also add that I’m not using a Shapeoko, it’s actually a shapeoko-inspired machine I designed and built that uses acme leadscrew for all axes. I call it the Rigidoko. There is obviously still a risk of skipping steps, but it won’t skip teeth/threads.

Rigidoko

Stainless knife blade milled on my machine

This thread is amazing and really shows off the capabilities of the Shapeoko. Do I feel bad bumping it back to the top of the gallery list? Not so much, because it belongs there!

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You have a real talent there!
May i ask how you did the colouring 'Custom made…"?

Since the engraving has depth, I just added a little paint, waited for it to dry and wiped off the overspray.

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1st - Awesome project and kudos to you!
2nd- If your HP48G decides to act like mine (the on/off button quit working) there is an iOS app called iHP48 that you might like :wink: Long live RPN!

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OMG, you have made my day!
A Big thank you

FYI The Calculator still works like new but this is more better.

L O L

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You are very welcome, I just saw a friend using it on his phone the other day. I promptly downloaded it myself :slight_smile:

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