[Dean]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I hope that all had a nice holiday. In particular, my heart goes out to those with familiy members in the service, stationed overseas, and in harms way.

There are a few more things I would like to mention while they are still fresh in my mind.
These are some useful tips in case there are others out there who suffer from SLCOCD (Stainless Luger Carbine Obsessive Conpulsive Disorder)

I am fortunate that I selected 304 stainless for this part. This is a stainless alloy that is weldable. There is a variant that is even better suited to welding called 304L (low carbon). You may want to consider using this if you can obtain it.

As I mentioned earlier, start with 3/4" stock instead of 1" as I did. Nobody will miss the extra 3/100ths inch. Much time will be saved in not having to thin the stock down. However, I must say that thining the stock down provided me with valuable practice time and allowed me to become accustomed to the material.

Use four flute endmills. There is less chatter. This is especially important with the Atlas milling attachment which is not as ridged as a full blown milling machine.

Carbide milling bits will hold their edge longer but they are brittle. I ended up breaking my 1/4" carbide bit about 3/4 of the way through this project. High speed steel bits work fine but they will dull quicker.

I think the best solution would be cobalt steel bits (I recall Rick W. mentioning this type of tooling with regard to threading). I noticed that Industrial Pipe & Steel has some sale pricing on these type of bits in their current sales flyer. Despite this, they are still more costly than HHS or carbide. There must be a reason for this. I also understand that TiN coated bits are of benifit when machininf stainless.

Coolant must be running at all times on the bit. Spindle speed must be adjusted based on bit diameter, smaller bits spin faster. I ran the 1/4" and 3/16" bits at the full speed belt setting that the Atlas could provide.

The most critical time for the bit is just as you begin a cut (entering the material), and as a cut ends (leaving the material). You have to slow down your feed rate during these times. Otherwise you will break the bit. Shock is what destroys the bits.

With the Atlas milling attachment, All cuts must be performed with the workpiece being pushed into the cutting edge of the bit. This requires frequent re-orientation of the workpiece in the vise to obtain this goal for every cut.

I carefully measured and then drilled the axle bore first. I then used a black marker and covered one side of the bar. I then scribed the layout on that side of the bar (using the hole as a base line for all measurements).

When I made the cuts, I did not mill right up to the scribe marks. I left a few thousands just in case. You can always come back and remove more.

A seasoned machinist already knows these things, I am mentioning them here for the benefit of the novice (and for myself, I don't mill things very often and I forget these things).

I am now finding stainless to be a wonderful material to work with and I think I will use it more in the future. I think the improvements in machinabiliy that maufacturers are now incorporating into the alloys has a lot to do with this. Search the web for "machinability stainless" and you will see several trade articles discussing this. Ugine is one such manufacturer that has done alot in this area.

I can remember years ago I would dread having to drill and tap a hole in stainless (let alone machine it). This is much easier now if you select one of the newer free machining alloys.