Nifty CNC Machining

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Nifty CNC Machining custom parts design and manufacture using a Hitachi Seiki CNC HiCell CA20 turn/mill Lathe with full conversational control of all 4 axis XYZC

custom parts design and manufacture using a Hitachi Seiki CNC HiCell CA20 Lathe with 4 axis XYZC

Finally completed all these components. It may not look much, but there's hundreds of hours machine time all on one tabl...
03/10/2026

Finally completed all these components. It may not look much, but there's hundreds of hours machine time all on one table.
All repeat jobs, there are 30 off sets of each
The main spring housings were not as easy as I first anticipated as the wall section is thin where the OD grooves are. Machined from K1045, which is a readily machineable mild steel. It gives a reasonable finish with good dimensional stability. I was provided a sample from which to reproduce. The sizes are apparently imperial but no where near anything standard. Often, oem parts are deliberately machined to random sizes to prevent incorrect installation with other components or reproduction by other means. I'll post up the set of parts as I get to them.

1/2" x 13UNC stainless steel connectors. A nice easy one to start the next day with. They don't look like much, but there was alot of machine milling time in these.
Another batch of 6061-T6 aluminium top hat air deflectors to add into the mix.
The 1/2" UNC hex bolts are off the shelf, but do not have enough thread length, so I chased them longer, thats fiddly on a CNC.
Stainless tube spacer, stainless retaining spacers, stainless sleeves. Pics was taken prior to final completion of all items.

This repeat job is a simple door handle extension piece to increase clearance for those with oversized digits. The doors...
30/09/2026

This repeat job is a simple door handle extension piece to increase clearance for those with oversized digits. The doors have profiled moldings meaning most standard handles will have no clearance. My customer came up with his own solution. Machined from stainless steel.

Another batch of weld on swing hanger bushes machined from mild steel and their insert acetal bushes completed.
29/09/2026

Another batch of weld on swing hanger bushes machined from mild steel and their insert acetal bushes completed.

Regular customers get spoilt. It's a Saturday arvo of a long weekend and they need some weld on mild steel spacers.I'm a...
26/09/2026

Regular customers get spoilt. It's a Saturday arvo of a long weekend and they need some weld on mild steel spacers.
I'm already busy working on a bigger project, so it's not a big job to slip them in between ops. A couple hours later, job is in customers hands. Service matters. 😁

26/09/2026

Trying something new today, G code peck tapping cycle. Youre never too old to learn and can never know it all. Newer machines operators will scoff as they take it for granted their machines can do it as standard. Machines that are well over 3 decades old barely had a screen and keyboard, let alone fancy option G code cycles. I cut my teeth on machines than ran on blue punch tape with no screen or keyboard. My typing skills never improved. CNC forces you to become a single digit typist.

The Hicell says it's possible but the manuals do not show how or give an example. Typical of CNC manuals written in Japanese translated to engrish 😁.

Tapping threads in stainless steel, deep blind holes have always given me a twitch. Breaking taps is common and expensive. Starting the thread on CNC then finish tapping by hand has always been my saviour.

I have 2 choices. The standard non rotating solid tap holder that has 5mm of float in the Z axis or the rotary live tap holder with the same float. There is no slipping clutch on either of these. Rigid tapping is also a modern option not available when this machine was built. So...live tooling it is, peck to 45mm deep and it's a success. This G coding is all written by hand and was trial and error. Fortunately, it worked 1st time with just 1 peck, then adding more. Thread is 1/2" x 13UNC.

Future tapping of deep blind holes should be less problematic and tooling will last longer.

This job does not repeat often, but when it does, it keeps me busy for alot of hours.The end of another repeat job. I ha...
20/09/2026

This job does not repeat often, but when it does, it keeps me busy for alot of hours.

The end of another repeat job. I have done these a few times now. These #316 stainless steel wire rope swaging ends for braided cabling are a time consuming component. Fairly easy on the tooling because I don't push it too hard. Just let the machine tick away doing its thing.

All 4 separate operations to complete what looks like a simple enough job are now done. The turning is fairly quick, it's the drilling, reaming and V groove profiling that takes time.

1st op, cut the blanks. 2nd op, part machine the section for swaging. This has multiple 0.5mm pitch V concentric grooved sections are for the swaging tool, machined by plunging a threading profile insert. All 60 off individual groove profiles. The hole is reamed to take the multi stranded stainless steel wire rope Dia. 8.3mm x 80mm deep. This op alone took a couple of days run time. Each job is handled individually, no bar feeding this one. 3rd op, finish the plain shank section. 4th op, profile the head.

Some machinists generate a program and run it as is. I never have. I edit the life out of it to get the best results and cycle time. Every time I repeat a job, I examine the program code for ways to improve it. Only a couple of guys I used to work with ever bothered with this. I remember a spool program that Mike Kersey and I played with over many years. It barely resembled the original. What a mess that was. I don't miss it. That's how we manage to do jobs better and faster than the next guy. Always thinking and evolving.

Just a quick fill in job. Machined from mild steel. These are prototypes to join machinery handles together. The cross h...
16/09/2026

Just a quick fill in job. Machined from mild steel. These are prototypes to join machinery handles together. The cross holes are for location pins.

Just a small job this one. Cable and tube crimp sleeves and collars. Machined from aluminium and stainless steel. The th...
03/09/2026

Just a small job this one. Cable and tube crimp sleeves and collars. Machined from aluminium and stainless steel. The thickest wall section is 0.5mm.

My mate Marcus found it impossible to source a standard plumbing part, a floor waste grate. It's quite a normal practice...
31/08/2026

My mate Marcus found it impossible to source a standard plumbing part, a floor waste grate. It's quite a normal practice for manufacturers to make their components dimensionally and geometrically proprietary to prevent interchangeability. That's great, so long as you can actually source them. Good luck! What do you do when they cease production, become obsolete, change design or just close down? Dig up the floor of your bathroom and replace the entire plumbing setup of course.
No!
Its a simple and common part that should be made to a standard. Its not. So...he supplied me the existing part for a quick check of dimensions and asked if I could do slots for the waste grate section. Of course I can. We chose white acetal for strength and dimensional stability. Using the Hicell's own built in conversational software, I drew what I wanted, the control then calculated all its own cuts, speeds, feeds, tool paths to complete the single setup operation. It did something I've never seen it do before. The machine control chose to mill the 4 off larger slots along the Y axis, left to right, shifting on X axis for the 2nd slot then rotating 180 degrees and repeating the 1st 2 slots. Follow that?

Then, for the 2 smallest outer slots, the control chose to rotate the job 90 degrees, move on Y axis, the mill the slot upwards on the X axis, then rotate 180 degrees and repeat the final slot. I considered that very odd as I figured I only sketched the 3 slots on upper half, then ticked the repeat x2 box 180 degrees. I figured it would mill all 3 slots in the same XY plane. No, it chose it's own method and I'm lost as to why and how it even had that thought process power built into a 33 year old computer system. Anyways, job worked out a treat, even the cycle time was impressive. For 5 off, I didn't bother reducing the cycle time myself.
Confused much? Try being the operator that thought he'd seen all options this old cnc had to offer.

A smaller top up batch of these stainless steel mounting discs done and dusted.
31/08/2026

A smaller top up batch of these stainless steel mounting discs done and dusted.

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Lower Chittering
Perth, WA
6084

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+61407087816

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