I do the same thing here at my shop on my mill. ZERO problems doing it this way. I've done countless LS heads and have not had any head gasket issues to date... I'd be MORE concerned about bolting a perfectly flat head, onto a warped engine block deck. It seems that is a common problem on the LS motors. Wish I could mount my engine block in my mill and surface the block that way... maybe something I should attempt here in the near future.
make sure you put a flat bar on the head when you are done. many bridgeports have unacceptable level of wear that causes the head to be cut with a "bow". your cutting tool also needs to be able to come completely off the head when the cut is done.
This mill works very well and wasn't used much in its life. Over the whole area I get consistently around .003 flatness, tested on a Mititoyo CMM at my old workplace. Which is well within spec.
Good shout. I used to use a pretty new Bridgeport after approx 7 years of use I accidentally cut the bed at least 8 tho deep. Embarrassing! The design of those mills is lacking at the extremes of X axis travel
Thats not so much from wear, more the mill head not being trammed correctly and cutting a radius on the surface. You can cut big radi using a fly cutter and tipping the mill head.
Good idea using the boring bar as a fly cutter. I probably have to mill the head on my old Continental powered forklift motor (it's pushing a little coolant which I guess is common with them) and I didn't know what I was going to do it with. I noticed the tip in the comments here setting it up slightly out of tram to cut with only the leading edge. I'll have to remember that if I do end up milling that head myself.
The nice thing about his approach is that the average machinist will often have a bridgeport or clone of a knee mill. I have a bridgeport in my shop. I use it for all my milling needs which are many, and even though it takes more time and effort to set up to do a decent job of milling an engine head, as infrequent as he may do them, and the money he may make or not make doing heads doesn't warrant the expense of buying a machine designed and dedicated to milling heads. I feel for what he had to work with he did an excellent job. The important thing of course is getting the set up right with tramming the head, the spindle, etc.
I am curious if any wear in the table or saddle of the mill translated into up and down movement of the head during the cut. If so, it looked like that machine also has a horizontal spindle. If that is a horizontal spindle, you could change your setup slightly, and eliminate any variation in the saddle and table affecting the cut. Thanks for the video.
I’m getting my heads rebuilt n milled as well going 20 down as in 20 thousands down I really don’t know much about the difference it makes about what Hp gain would I get?
@@LS_EhYea but it’s not a “Bridgeport” style either. It doesn’t have a rotating turret, not sure if the head can nod and it looks to have a horizontal spindle. The words to describe this style machine tool is “Knee Mill”. It looks like a good machine, just call it what it is.
@@strykerjones8842 people get stuck on the terminology and miss the point of the video, knee mill doesn't get views, as a lot of people uneducated in machinery/machining call them a Bridgeport.
What you need is a two piece vise that clamps to the milling table. You can set the jaw opening to about 85% of the table length. The way you are clamping the head down is super sketchy in my opinion.
OLÁ. Observei que não completastes o "passe" no aplainar o cabeçote. Isto significa que o acabamento superficial é SEM CRUZAMENTO. É uma prova que não existe planicidade. ABRAÇOS... Roberto Udo Krapf
Great video. Have wanted for a while to convert Vanorman 570 to pdc/cbn cutter head but due to cost I have not been able (I am retired) I use my Bridgeport for a similar operation. One issue I have found is the valve cover rail is parallel to the Spring seat, but the deck is rarely parallel to the valve cover rail. Usually only a few thousandths off But I have seen over .010 + tip from one side to the other on many sets. I assume this is production issue, but it only causes minor chamber volume changes. If you do any volume, try a Korloy RCGT1003MO-AK. Will not finish like a CBN/PCD but is very cost effective and Labor effective over 3- or 4-point cutters. They support a slower spindle speed and faster feed rates found on some mills Such as the 570 while still giving Sub 50 RA. With Higher spindle speeds sub 30 is easy
Do you put the head slightly out of tram so the flycutter only cuts on the leading edge? Seems you don't have enough table travel for the cutter to clear the cutter on the trailing edge.. Or am I missing something?
@@LS_Eh Not my good eye.. I have a knee mill with only about 24 inch or so of travel (32 inch table) and want to fly cut a cylinder head or two so I'm stuck with only being able to use the leading edge.. So I was making sure the out of tram was an acceptable method. Thanks for the info..:)
Wouldn't having the head slightly out of tram mean that the fly cutter is cutting a parabola where it's lower towards the center? Or maybe the gasket makes up for that slight deviation.. ?
@@wombats465 unfortunately yes, you do add an error in the deck surface doing it this way. Like a dish in the center, But the cylinder head still comes out within spec. Unfortunately Don't have other options when using a smaller mill!
It will correct the deck surface which is mated to the block, you can add an error in flatness (warp) by just clamping it incorrectly. I have tested it with several different knee mills and on a Mititoyo CMM I can get around .003 flatness on the surface which is within spec! 🙂
