Surefire boring service

[precisionworks]

I don't believe a titanium z52 has been seen before...just sayin'

LOL

I mentioned in "SureFire E-series Addicts Unite" that a titanium E-series tube is in the prototype stage. Still have a question for the drill supplier as $250 is a lot to pay for one drill if it cannot do the job. Once the drill arrives (and as soon as all current orders are caught up) the plan is to machine a handful to Ti tubes & find out the level of interest. If the tube is well received a Ti tail switch will be next on the list, followed by a Ti head.

I have a bunch of drawings for the tube but not a single one for the tail or head. Just have to wait & see what happens when the tube gets to the metal cutting stage & members have a chance to comment.

[bornagainst]

a titanium E-series tube is in the prototype stage.

I'm in!!

[precisionworks]

I'm in!!

This is still weeks away. The drill rep gave me a surface finish tolerance that may not work so that hurdle has to be overcome.

Finished a Haiku with five trits in the tail (1.5x5mm):





Got half way through a Mirage Man Fatty - all eight slots are milled in the head & have eight more to mill in the tail.


Milling the first slot:


All eight done in the head:



The owner of this light wanted minimum sized slots ... any smaller than this & the vial would not go into the slot


Working on the V10R drilling & should have an update tomorrow.

[mikesantor]

Barry,

Did that E2D body come in safe that you ordered for me?

Thanks.

[precisionworks]

Did that E2D body come in safe

It did & it is patiently waiting for an 18650 upgrade

[mikesantor]

No rush. The rifle it is going on doesn't get here for another 3 weeks. Just wanted to make sure there was no problem getting it!

[smarkum]

Milling the first slot:


All eight done in the head:



The owner of this light wanted minimum sized slots ... any smaller than this & the vial would not go into the slot


Working on the V10R drilling & should have an update tomorrow.

LOOKS WONDERFUL! That will be one happy MM owner! Excellent work Barry!
How many passes with the mill so far on that one? And, how long does it take to complete one trits slot passes?
I love all the pics you post of the processes. . . thank you for being so interactive with those of us not in the know.

[precisionworks]

I'm happy that you like the results, Shelby

How many passes with the mill so far on that one?

Each slot is milled to a total depth of .070"-.071". Each milling pass lowers the cutter .0030" - .0035", resulting is about 22 passes per slot. For eight slots that means 176 traverses back & forth.

And, how long does it take to complete one trit slot pass?

Including the time needed to initially set up the light for machining each pass averages out to about 60 seconds. If the phone doesn't ring & no other customers knock at the door those eight slots can be done in three hours.

[smarkum]

WOW! 60 seconds for an average pass. . . that is a long time. Impressive.

[precisionworks]

60 seconds for an average pass. . . that is a long time.

Here's the procedure for a titanium slot. If your eyelids start to droop or you nod off don't feel badly - my wife has the exact same reaction when I ask her to look at (yet another) photo

Power up the spindle & slowly lower the end mill until it just contacts the light body. A tiny bit of Ti dust indicates contact. Zero out the depth of cut DRO (digital read out).

Lower the tool .0030"-.0035" & start turning the table feed wheel at a slow rate while watching the cross feed DRO. The most important factor in obtaining a smooth slot is to keep the feed wheel turning from start to finish because that applies a consistent load to the cutter. If the feed wheel is allowed to stop at any point in the traverse the cutter will not be loaded & it may try to move sideways.

When nearing the end of the slot the feed is slowed down so that the cutter doesn't overshoot the end point. This allows the tool to stop at exactly the same place for every pass (+/- .0005"). That completes one pass & the same procedure is repeated 21 more times to finish one slot.

[stoli67]

The MM looks good.....

I can also see a few slots going into my two Haikus soon

[precisionworks]

The MM looks good.....

I can also see a few slots going into my two Haikus soon

The Ti McClickiePak (used on the Haiku & other McGizmo lights) offers quite a range of location choices. Photo below is a Haiku that Don had in his sales thread, black lines show possible trit locations:



Lot of possibilities for the Haiku, like all blue around the tail & all red around the tube collar (just behind the head).

[mohanjude]

An update for members waiting for their lights ...

Drilling the V10R Ti for trits is starting now. I appreciate everyone's patience on this & will get these out as quickly as possible........

UPDATE at 1247 GMT - Managed to take apart four V10R Ti heads (one of those being the limited edition) without any issues. A Delrin split bushing was machined & slipped over the fin area. The split bush was gripped by the largest pair of ViseGrips in the shop while the other end was secured in a collet. On one the cooling fin screwed off by hand, three were pretty tight, one was almost welded on but it yielded eventually. Drilling will start Saturday morning.

Five V10R Ti bodies are being drilled & tapped for pocket clips - three for the McG & two for the Macs Customs clip.

If my tooling holds out these lights could be done Monday.

Any updates... Heard nothing about progress since Monday.

Mohan

[precisionworks]

Any updates... Heard nothing about progress since Monday.

Mohan

I've run into a technical problem & am trying to sort this out on my personal V10R before going any farther. Will update here as soon as I have something to show.

The problem is that my tooling is designed to make a hole for a 2x6mm trit & the available distance from top of fin to bottom of fin slot is 2mm, meaning I may have to go to Plan B - drilling for a 1.5x6mm trit.

At this point it's good to have my own sacrificial part to work with. That's the reason I do all experimentation on my parts before machining yours. Trying my best to get the 2mm hole size to work, knowing that 1.5mm is available as a backup plan.

[mohanjude]

I've run into a technical problem & am trying to sort this out on my personal V10R before going any farther. Will update here as soon as I have something to show.

The problem is that my tooling is designed to make a hole for a 2x6mm trit & the available distance from top of fin to bottom of fin slot is 2mm, meaning I may have to go to Plan B - drilling for a 1.5x6mm trit.

At this point it's good to have my own sacrificial part to work with. That's the reason I do all experimentation on my parts before machining yours. Trying my best to get the 2mm hole size to work, knowing that 1.5mm is available as a backup plan.

Can you illustrate the problem please as I am not clear in my mind.. thanks

[precisionworks]

Can you illustrate the problem please as I am not clear in my mind.. thanks

The diameter of the vials is 2mm & that's easy to measure with a micrometer. The height of the fin (distance from top of fin to bottom of fin slot) appears to be 2mm. If that is correct the drill will break through the outer edge of the fin.

I have nothing in the shop to measure the height of the fin with the needed accuracy because none of my tools is small enough to probe down between the fins. I phoned a friend who teaches machine shop at the university and he asked me to bring the parts over for measurement on their optical comparator. In seven hours (after he's finished teaching for the day) I'll get an accurate measurement.

EDIT: No joy on the depth of the fins

The optical comparator shows that the fin depth is 1.95mm. The drills I have are 2.050mm, slightly larger than a 2mm vial. There is physically no way for this to work.

I'd suggest looking at the replacement titanium head fin from Steve Ku. Steve's design uses 1.5x6mm trits. He has a good supply of those in white, pink, red, orange, yellow, purple, blue, ice blue & green. Here's his sales thread in the MarketPlace.

[precisionworks]

Everyone who sent in a V10R Ti wants the tail drilled & tapped for a titanium clip. Some are using the McGizmo pocket clip, others are installing a Mac's custom pocket clip. The hole spacing is identical for both the McG & the Mac clip which is nice if you have clips with different surface finishes like color anodizing, heat ano, CeraKote, etc.

Starting on these tonight & plan to post a group photo as soon as they are done.

[Mattaus]

...plan to post a group photo as soon as they are done.

Use your best photography skills - that might look good on a certain someones website

[precisionworks]

Use your best photography skills - that might look good on a certain someones website

LOL

No photos yet. A load of structural steel was supposed to be delivered next week & it arrived yesterday morning - in a mixture of rain & light snow. Way too much steel to leave outside & get rusty so it got loaded onto the trailer for delivery to the job site. The customer was really gracious about unloading the materials well ahead of schedule. Got back after dark last night.

My assistant is loading the portable welder in the truck right now so we can be off to start the job. He & I should be able to get a good bit of the steel hung up today & welded in place. My one concern is a 20' long I-beam that weighs 400# (181 kg) - that goes 12' up in the air to use as a monorail for a chain hoist. After that's in place I'll feel a lot better.

Tomorrow is birthday #3 for grand daughter #1 They live a couple of hours away so no machining work on Sunday either. Hope to update with photos sometime Monday.

[mohanjude]

Monday has come and gone so I think an update is long overdue.

[JMP]

wow...

Monday has come and gone so I think an update is long overdue.

[precisionworks]

Monday has come and gone so I think an update is long overdue.

at this time the only thing I can say with certainty is that all pending work must be completed within 10 days. After that I will be out of the shop for 3 to 4 weeks. I bid the project at 4 weeks & believe that is enough time for completion. But it could take an additional week.

I regret any inconvenience caused by the delay on the V10R. If you need your light back right away I will pay both the return shipping and the shipping cost you already paid.

[egrep]

[mohanjude]

at this time the only thing I can say with certainty is that all pending work must be completed within 10 days. After that I will be out of the shop for 3 to 4 weeks. I bid the project at 4 weeks & believe that is enough time for completion. But it could take an additional week.

I regret any inconvenience caused by the delay on the V10R. If you need your light back right away I will pay both the return shipping and the shipping cost you already paid.

I can see you are very busy and don't want to add to your stress by adding to your workload. The original intention in January was to do the cooling fin mod and I needed your expertise for that.Unfortunately that has become impossible due to the physical size of the 2mm tritium vials as already discussed.

I can have the slots milled by a local machinist and drill and tap the clip myself. The local machinist has done work for me on a couple of torches and is happy to do small simple jobs such as milling tritium slots every morning for around 30 minutes in his break time. This allows him to earn a bit of pocket money.

Therefore I would be grateful if you could kindly return the light and the enclosed tritium vials back as soon as possible.

[precisionworks]

kindly return the light and the enclosed tritium vials back as soon as possible.

They will ship tomorrow.

[precisionworks]

After a week of on-site cutting, grinding & welding the mechanical job is done. Nice to get back into the shop & fire up the mill. Shelby's MM Fatty needs just six more trit slots before it goes to the lathe for boring. Then it's time to install the 16 glow tubes

Also watch for a group photo of ... some titanium lights. To be safe I can say for certain that these will be done before the end of the year

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Shipping rate increase. You pay only what the United States Post Office charges for shipping & once again they've increased rates. Return shipping to USA locations is now $6 & international is $17.

Packing your items takes anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how many parts go into the shipping carton. Just as much care goes into proper packaging as it does into the machining. You pay nothing extra for what one customer called "obsessive - compulsive packaging".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Turnaround time. When this service started in May 2011 my workload of mechanical & electrical jobs was slow. Flashlights would often arrive in the morning, get machined right away & go to the Post Office that afternoon. Summer & fall saw increased business from all areas - flashlights, welding, machining, electrical, fabrication, etc. Lights would usually go out about two weeks after arrival. Trit slot milling started in September 2011 & brings in more work than expected.

At this time most work is on the bench for three weeks & sometimes longer. For that reason this paragraph now appears in Post #1:

Your light or lights will be processed as quickly as possible, in the order in which they are received. Quality machine work takes time & that means your light may be here longer than anticipated. Please don't send your light if you absolutely must have it back by a certain deadline.

[stoli67]

Thanks Barry.... I love the new bezel trits..... and at night some light shines out through the trit slots when the light is on!

[precisionworks]

Andrew,

You deserve the credit on the HDS bezel trits. All I did was mill the slots through the Ti bezel - you figured out how to make the trit vials fit without protruding above the bezel surface. Very nice job

[stoli67]

[precisionworks]

Wow, the ice blue trits look awesome in the black HDS Clickie

Spent the day finishing up the trit slots on Shelby's MM Fatty, still have to bore it tomorrow & will post photos. Removed the MM Fatty from the indexer chuck on the mill & decided it was time to drill & tap a V10R Ti.

Titanium is the coolest metal in the world when the tool speeds & feeds are dead on. Ran the solid carbide drill at 50 surface feet per minute (2100 rpm) and fed down with just enough pressure to keep a good spiral of chips coming out of the hole. Started the tap in the mill chuck (to get it going in straight) & finished by hand.



The titanium button head screws that McGizmo supplies with the clip are a bit long for the V10R Ti & have to be ground to the correct length:



I have a few lights with a McG pocket clip & wanted to be able to tell this one from the others when clipped into a pocket. The coloring is from Casenit case hardening compound. Because it's about 70 Rockwell C hardness the color is there to stay:



Some of you have already noticed that the grooves on the battery tube look different from the way it left the factory. Half the grooves were removed to give the tube a much better grip. The V10R (both Ti & Al) is essentially a straight tube from end to end. Removing half the grooves makes the tube similar to a McGizmo Haiku in the way it feels in the hand. And it doesn't look too badly either.



Cost for the battery tube mod is $50 & includes removal of the www.SWM.com logo.

Still thinking about doing a little dress up work on both the front & the rear of the light but that will have to wait until all the pending lights are done.