very precise parts in stainless for SNAP

The print for these was very intimidating. In the end the shop ground and wired them to size, so I was making them +.002 in most dimensions. They are used for aligning gluing fixtures for the CCDs in the SNAP telescope.

Very tiny copper parts both different.

These are mirror image parts and hold a small door on a detector. The Copper is OHFC for vacuum. The largest dimension is the length at 11.5mm, and the smallest is the meeting vent holes at 0.4mm. The wide machine put the slot in with .006" wire. They darkened slightly because I has them on aluminum overnight; that was electropolished off in the cleaning for UHV vacuum.

Clamp bodies for SNAP

Two were made. Work on 4 sides and substantial material removal. The bottom of each of the large holes in the side has a 8-32 thread that required a pulley tap to get to.

intricate stainless steel part

This was a production prototype for testing assembly and welding of a cooling manifold. Small copper tubes are brazed into the back of this and feed coolant several meters into an instrument.
It has features on all sides. It was surprisingly light -- the designer wanted as much mass removed from it as possible. Controlling the bend after material was removed was an issue.

Bridgeport over and under

One amazing property of the Bridgeport mill is its extreme flexibility.
These two pictures showcase an application where a large aluminum ring needed tapped holes on the exterior and interior edges. A very precise setup was made that located the holes for both surfaces using gage pins, 123 blocks, heavy parallels, and an angle plate. The setup is showcased on the "outside setup" and the whole scene in shown on the inside setup.

small instrument rebuild

Various parts of the device were reworked for greater stiffness.
The small clamp was also designed and machined new. The XYZ linear stages were rearranged for better clearance and user operating comfort.

Making a table saw accurate

The table saw is handy for dealing with large stock in acrylic, Delrin and aluminum.
Should you need to saw to a finished length you can get reasonable accuracy with a setup similar to this, provided the gate is stiff enough.