Machining the rear cross slide cover.

Simple part - machine down a piece of rectangular stock to the required dimensions, then clear out and finish the channel in the middle. 

It's easy to get used to thinking of these indexable face mills as being only usable for surfacing operations. However, they have a decent cutting depth of 15mm or so for the APGT1135 inserts. 

Mine's a Korloy AMCM3050HS which is 50mm diameter, although I didn't pay the RRP for it(!). Different system to the Mitsubishi BAP mills but very similar in appearance. Fitted with ground APGT inserts, it's viciously sharp (fingers!) and gives a great finish.

Given that I'm machining a wide U-channel here, it seems an ideal use for the tool. It should also be a lot less liable to clog up and chip weld (ping) the cutter with decent MRRs.

Rough out the channel with 2D Adaptive, then 2D Pocket, 2D Contour and 2D Chamfer:

Face off the top and chamfer:

Looks good to me. Bandsaw, long series endmill (manual CNC mode using the MPG) and off we go:

Bottom side (U-channel) done:

Flip over and finish the other (top) side:

I never got round to fitting the enclosure. Now the place is covered in chips. 

Long series drill for the fixings - 7.5mm through and 10mm counterbore:

Sorted - clean out the tapped holes in the cross slide (60 years or crud in there) and slap it on.

Another job done. The Bantam should be happy with this.