Brass Anvil

An introduction to milling, and a tricky one. Before even starting to machine the piece, the edges had to be filed square to dimension by hand - much harder for a 50mm x 50mm x 8mm block than the earlier, smaller exercises. Once prepared, the milling machine was used to cut four slots of increasing size from the edge and a pocket on the backside. (Getting the edges of the pocket within tolerance was an ordeal, as this particular milling machine had been in use by new students for years, and the lead screws had gotten a bit loose. In the end, careful and iterated measurements achieved success.) Following the milling, the row of holes was drilled using a jig borer; a tool for aligning holes with micron precision. Finally, the triangle slot was - once again - filed out by hand for sharp and precise inner corners.