Re: internal contouring with cnc

Gerry,

First off, when you speak of CNC and automatically adjustable boring
tools you're talking big bucks.

Maybe there are other ways to accomplish your task. Unfortunately,
you haven't given us enough information to work with. All we know
for sure is the job can be done with custom reamers, but we don't
know what the bores look like, stepped, tapered or some combination?

If your bores are stepped and get progressively smaller with depth
there are some fairly simple ways to accomplish this with a high
degree of accuracy using a piloted boring tool with adjustable single
point cutters arrayed along the tool.

Give us more info and we may be able to come up with something.

Doug

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "caerbr" <somersgarry@h...> wrote:
> Hello - I am an amateur flutemaker, working in wood and delrin(a
> polymer), and I have been wondering about the possibilities which a
> CNC lathe might offer for creating the bore of the instruments. The
> bore profile of wooden flutes is rarely a simple cylinder, and
varies
> from flute to flute, and is one of the most time consuming parts of
> the whole job. Small changes in bore profile also have a crucial
> effect on the qualities of a flute. The traditional method of
making
> a flute is to take a wooden blank of the correct size, drill a
pilot
> hole and then use a specially constructed reamer in the lathe to
get
> the final internal profile of the bore. Problem is - you have to
make
> a new reamer every time you want to modify the bore profile - which
> makes prototyping a very slow business. So I have been wondering if
> there is some technique available(not too expensive!) using a CNC
> setup and a controlled adjustable boring tool which I could program
> to cut a given bore profile, which I could then easily when I
wanted.
> This would eliminate the time and effort involved in making new
> reamers every time I want to experiment with a new bore contour. So
> there it is - any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.
> Thanks in advance.
> gerry