Splines

 

I started cutting the spline in the shift lever. If you look close you can see a couple of cuts having been made. I started making the tool by grinding but it wasn't working out real well. I have a spacer head on the mill so I put my piece of stock in there and I got a very accurate 60 degree shape centered on the rod. I had previously centered the machine over the rotary table so I had to re-center it after making the cutting tool. Before moving the table, however, I set the dials on the table feeds to zero. I moved the table back to the zero marks on the dials, but I checked center with the little tool I made and the wiggler just to be sure. I'm not sure what the depth of cut should be on the vee cuts, but I set an indicator to measure the depth of cuts. Right now I'm going .020" deep, meaning I'll probably have to make at least two passes. I'm having a little trouble deciphering the vernier scale to get the reading on the seconds - that is the subdivision of the minutes. I keep thinking of the old machinist joke when cutting a gear. When he gets around the circumference and gets to the end cut, he asks the boss "Do you want one big tooth, or two little ones." It might come to that.