RobCox
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- Thread starter RobCox
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Thanks.
Martin Hocking
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Top job rob, the result looks worth the effort. Give yourself a pat on the back!
RobCox
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- Cambridge, UK
A couple of weeks further on and the lathe has started to get used but I have still been tarting about with the last few things that needed doing.
First, the bed clamp for the taper turning attachment. This didn't look like an original fitment for this machine. It was a sloppy fit on the rear bedway, so it got a bit of attention on the mill to cut a tighter fitting slot to make the whole thing feel right:
So now the clamp will stay put on the ways even without the brass clamping cylinders - one of which was missing anyway and needed a new one making:
It got shaved further to ensure the tailstock could pass it without fouling. Not sure if this is how it would have been originally, but it'll make it more convenient:
And yes, that mark on the end of the bed was a brush bristle in the paint. It'll disappear under the dings and scratches soon!
Having changed the height if the bed clamp from milling out the bed mounting slot, the original eccentric and rod clamp block wouldn't fit, so I made new ones (3 in the case of the clamp block after 2 cock-ups!):
I put new wire in the lo-volt light and refitted that. When I started using the lathe I missed having a worklight. Originally the transformer took 440V down to 48V. I'm running it on 240V so I fitted a 24V LED bulb:
Then time to fix an annoyance. The cam which operates the microswitches which turn the lathe on and off required the on off lever on the apron to be pushed beyond the detent to get it to turn on. There wasn't any adjustment to be had so I made a new one. The old one:
...and the new one in situ:
First, the bed clamp for the taper turning attachment. This didn't look like an original fitment for this machine. It was a sloppy fit on the rear bedway, so it got a bit of attention on the mill to cut a tighter fitting slot to make the whole thing feel right:
So now the clamp will stay put on the ways even without the brass clamping cylinders - one of which was missing anyway and needed a new one making:
It got shaved further to ensure the tailstock could pass it without fouling. Not sure if this is how it would have been originally, but it'll make it more convenient:
And yes, that mark on the end of the bed was a brush bristle in the paint. It'll disappear under the dings and scratches soon!
Having changed the height if the bed clamp from milling out the bed mounting slot, the original eccentric and rod clamp block wouldn't fit, so I made new ones (3 in the case of the clamp block after 2 cock-ups!):
I put new wire in the lo-volt light and refitted that. When I started using the lathe I missed having a worklight. Originally the transformer took 440V down to 48V. I'm running it on 240V so I fitted a 24V LED bulb:
Then time to fix an annoyance. The cam which operates the microswitches which turn the lathe on and off required the on off lever on the apron to be pushed beyond the detent to get it to turn on. There wasn't any adjustment to be had so I made a new one. The old one:
...and the new one in situ:
RobCox
Member
- Messages
- 488
- Location
- Cambridge, UK
Then on to the DRO. Firrtly the console. There were a couple of screw holes in the back of the headstock so I used them. Got all fancy with the mounting bracket. A simple rectangular block would have sufficed, but it looked better skinnied down:
Granted this is a cheapo DRO from aliexpress, prob half the cost of machine-dro, but it struck me how light and flimsy this one is compared to the one I bought 7 years or so ago for my mill. Every bolt has been made smaller, M8 instead of M10, and the rectangular tube the arm is made of is much thinner material. Hey ho, it was cheap.
What really annoyed me about this DRO though was the beeper. Every button press, loud enough to wake the dead. The manual suggests there's a menu option to turn it off. Nope, not there. So I used a hardware rather than a software disable option. A soldering iron and solder wick:
For the scales, the Z axis (which they call Y on this 2 input DRO console), I used the scale as supplied, made up 2 jacking plates in case it needed levelling and used two holes that were already drilled and tapped in the rear of the bed:
M4 SHCS with an M4 nut in the extruded slot in the scale mount, M6 jacking screws and an M8 fixing bolt:
The carriage already has tapped holes on the spindle side so I used these:
Much milling, drilling and faffing later and this is the mount that carries the read head:
And so to the cross slide. I mounted this on the tailstock side of the slide. The scale mounting extrusion from aliexpress was too thick so I dug out some extrusion I got when I did my mill. I'd already bought some 5um tape as I knew the scale would require messing with. I had to drill two holes and tap them M5 on the side of the slide. The scale then fits in nicely:
More brackets, again using the existing holes in the saddle and we have a sensor mounted:
Then take it all apart again as I'd forgotten to mill a cutout for the coolant mount:
The sensors I'm using have been described as "hot ****" by the guy that does the touch-dro system. Granted, they're prob not as good as you can get, but £30 vs £120 says they're good enough for me. I'm not doing model engineering after all. I checked the X axis against a dial indicator and it was within 0.04mm over a 10mm range, no errors at the extremes I tested but 0.04mm in the middle, so I'm happy enough!
Granted this is a cheapo DRO from aliexpress, prob half the cost of machine-dro, but it struck me how light and flimsy this one is compared to the one I bought 7 years or so ago for my mill. Every bolt has been made smaller, M8 instead of M10, and the rectangular tube the arm is made of is much thinner material. Hey ho, it was cheap.
What really annoyed me about this DRO though was the beeper. Every button press, loud enough to wake the dead. The manual suggests there's a menu option to turn it off. Nope, not there. So I used a hardware rather than a software disable option. A soldering iron and solder wick:
For the scales, the Z axis (which they call Y on this 2 input DRO console), I used the scale as supplied, made up 2 jacking plates in case it needed levelling and used two holes that were already drilled and tapped in the rear of the bed:
M4 SHCS with an M4 nut in the extruded slot in the scale mount, M6 jacking screws and an M8 fixing bolt:
The carriage already has tapped holes on the spindle side so I used these:
Much milling, drilling and faffing later and this is the mount that carries the read head:
And so to the cross slide. I mounted this on the tailstock side of the slide. The scale mounting extrusion from aliexpress was too thick so I dug out some extrusion I got when I did my mill. I'd already bought some 5um tape as I knew the scale would require messing with. I had to drill two holes and tap them M5 on the side of the slide. The scale then fits in nicely:
More brackets, again using the existing holes in the saddle and we have a sensor mounted:
Then take it all apart again as I'd forgotten to mill a cutout for the coolant mount:
The sensors I'm using have been described as "hot ****" by the guy that does the touch-dro system. Granted, they're prob not as good as you can get, but £30 vs £120 says they're good enough for me. I'm not doing model engineering after all. I checked the X axis against a dial indicator and it was within 0.04mm over a 10mm range, no errors at the extremes I tested but 0.04mm in the middle, so I'm happy enough!
