Dave, Vic, Nick, Mike, thanks much for the comments!
Had a few days with no shop time, but got back to it today.
Got the base painted. I don't know if it will get hot enough to mess up regular paint, so did this in heat
resistant black. It's supposed to be gloss. It was until I followed the directions. The can says it won't
be cured until it's been heated, so after putting on a few coats, I popped it in the oven at 300° f for about
an hour. After it had cooled, it came out kind of semi-gloss. I guess that's how it's going to be.
I got started on the feet, which I've been putting off a bit. Using a piece of brass flat stock, laid out one
end and used that end as a guide for all the others. The center for the radius that's being cut with the boring
head is a point somewhere off the surface of the work piece. I cheated a little, and instead of figuring out
where that point falls in mid air, drew out the measurements on a piece of paper, then used a compass to mark
one radius line on the work piece. Then set the boring head to cut that radius, and just moved the X and Y around
until the arc of the tool followed the arc drawn on the piece.
The Y table was locked, and the X dial set to zero. I counted all the turns as I cranked the X back away from
the tool until it would make a first cut of about .050" into the arc. Then kept cutting away, and after each pass
with the tool, cranked the X in another .050" and cut down through it again, and so on until I got back to my
starting point on the X axis.
After the first cut, the piece is flipped over, and all done again. I used a small adjustable square as a work
stop, adjusting it off the piece after the first arc was cut, and using that setting each time I reset the piece
for another cut. Before starting each arc, I ran the cutter over the piece turning the spindle by hand to make
a mark as seen in the pic above. That way, if I lost count of the dial turns, I would still be able to see where
to end the cut.
Here is one end with the arcs done. After this one, I didn't do anymore marking out. The next cuts were done
on the other end of this piece, and then the two ends were cut off and squared up, then the same was done again,
until I had four feet.
It was kind of a slow process, but after a few hours I had the feet roughed out.
A pin was put through the holes in the pieces and with all the arcs lined up, they were locked in the vise to
take a cut off the flats and get them all to the same length.
The flat part has to have a large 'V' cut in it to fit over the corners of the firebox. To get started with
that a slot was cut right down the middle of them.
After the slot has been cut, a countersink is used to start the sides of the 'V'.
If the milling machine you are using is on the small side, you have to go a bit easy when cutting
a 'V' in this manner. The gibs need to be adjusted up properly to keep the tables from wanting to
wander a bit. The deeper you go, the heavier the cut becomes because the angle of the cutting
edges make the tool "bigger" with each cut. So as you get deeper, take smaller increments on
your cut.
This is where I ended today. I'll show finishing up the 'V' next time, if I don't goof them up.
Thanks for checking in!
Dean
