Oh! It's my intention to build a steel pyramid over the top of it with a springy hanger of some kind, to support the cables. Though, the hose/cable that comes with the machine plasma torch are extremely flexible, unlike my manual torch.

Hopefully so, I'll comb through the usual places (Enco, MSC, Grizzly) and see what they have. I'm sure someone has something for this, it doesn't look as old as the lathe. The whole tool post system looks reasonably new, or at least rarely used and well cared for.

 

You can get round carbide blanks in all sizes. You can also get split carbide blanks, which are half round on each end. Those would work fine. What diameter is it?

 

Cool. After dinner I'll measure the diameter. I won't guess.

Z-axis assembly (and on the fly design) continues... beheaded two 7/16" bolts to use as threaded studs at the base of the z-axis assembly, and threaded them into tapped holes. To avoid using nuts on the bottom (because they'll interfere with the saddle this thing bolts to), I tapped the holes one thread short of complete. Using two nuts jammed together, I wrenched the threaded rod into the hole, a hair past where the threads aren't completely tapped. This locks the studs in place, and I had to wrench them in using a 24" long breaker bar. They are that tight

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/cnc2/IM001814.JPG


With the studs in the bottom plate, and holes drilled in the top plate, and the two rails drilled and tapped, I bolted it together, like so:

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/cnc2/IM001817.JPG

Hopefully tonight I'll start making the saddle that goes up and down in the middle.

 

Here is a blurry close-up of the boring bar, and the round tip that was inside:

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/lathe/IM001819.JPG

The cutter/tip/thing is 0.242" in diameter, which I would presume is a 1/4" tool that is deliberately undersized?

There is a partial flat side on the cutting tool which you probably can't see well in the picture, but that flat spot is where the allen-bolt driven cam locks against, probably for more surface area and "bite".

 

Locktite works well in those places and comes loose with heat.

 

Hmmm... That's odd. Normally, you would want a pretty close fit to keep things from bouncing around. And .242 isn't a standard metric size, either. I would check the hole diameter. One problem w/ carbide, of course, is that you would have to have some way to sharpen it. BTW, you can see if it's carbide by testing w/ a magnet. Carbide won't stick. If 1/4" diameter will fit, I can send you some old carbide remnants to play with. It looked like that cutter is pretty short, and we usually throw 'em out if they're under an inch long.

 

Guys, I think there is a law regarding completing projects. It is in our DNA. We are never finished, you can always tweak it just a bit more.

I build custom industrial equipment. I always miss my deadline due to tweaking.

Your project looks great.

 

Thank you! We'll see if you and others say that when it starts making crooked cuts

In my professional life (when I was working), my claim to fame was "never missing a date". Tall order sometimes but that was my claim to fame. In my personal life, well, it's the complete opposite.

Between fun projects and house projects, I could pave a two late road from NJ to Florida with my to-do list!

I finished engineering (cough, monkey rigging) the Z-axis saddle, and today I'll drill, tap, and assemble it, and will post pictures later tonight. If I have time, I'll also make the mounts for the plasma's machine torch, which after looking at it some more turned out to be much larger than I probably need, but hey, no kill like overkill. At least I won't have to worry about my plasma cutter overpowering it, not that I want to cut 7/8" steel plate on this little machine.

 

Calling it a night earlier than usual... my son woke us up at 4 am and was pretty much "party baby" until his bedtime. No naps, no slowing down, just run run run! I'm old, I can't keep up.

The saddle that will support the back of the z-axis assembly required a some minor "adjustments" so the allen bolt heads holding it together, could be recessed into the saddle. Not very exciting, just was a bit challenging to line up since the two bolt heads aren't exactly in the right place, but I didn't worry about it since it's just holding the back plate in place, which is in the correct spot.

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/cnc2/IM001821.JPG

Started making the Z-axis tool saddle, which will consist of two aluminum plates with bearings on the end, like so, and some bearings sideways in between to ride on the inside of the rails, thus keeping the two plates together, and not allowing them to move around except up and down. I beveled one of them, but forgot to do the other one so I'll revisit that part of the saddle tomorrow and make the angles. A quick stab at the disc sander and it's done.

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/cnc2/IM001827.JPG

 

Using your 4 jaw chuck you can accurately bore holes in a small flat plate for bearings. If you have to invert one of the jaws.

You will find soo many fun things to do with that lathe...

 

I actually tried this... but it didn't work out well. I used my dial indicator to position the piece, and chucked it with the 4-jaw, and I did manage to get the center of the hole at the center of the tailstock's live center.

After that, things didn't go so well. I ended up making the hole oversized anyway, using the parts seperator cutter as the cutting tool on the face of the little plate, and when it broke through and hit the chuck jaws, it broke the tip off (which I reshaped, no problem, just was a loud suprise that's all).

Unfortunately, I forgot to remove my dial indicator before I turned the lathe on, and the point was between two of the chuck jaws so it went flying and I have to replace it. It was cheap but still... it hit the back wall, bounced off, and bounced off my head!

I shall give it another try though. I'll probably make it out of aluminum, and I'll put a thick fender washer behind it so when it breaks through it doesn't bang the jaws again. My other option, is to machine a 1" diameter steel rod I have down to 7/8", the OD of the bearing, and "metal spin" a thin metal disk over that. I've been thinking about this for a while, and it might be doable actually. Making a shallow cup, essentially.

Someone else suggested I hack off a piece of square tubing about the same length as the thickness of the bearing, and install four set screws LOL.

Though that would be ugly.

 

Shims behind the part are a good idea.

Sorry about the dial indicator, live and learn...

I drill a hole about 0.1" undersize which allows me to make about 4 finish cuts. 2 to clean up the drilled hole and two finishing cuts. You will learn how to make a "best guess" pre-finish cut to remove half the remaining material then a final finish cut adjusted for the actual amount removed by the pre-finish cut. Using this method you can make very accurate holes, easily within 0.0005".
-Again practice makes perfect.

 

assuming they are flat and true

Yeah, well, I was most disappointed. It was a nice tool, but easily replaced. The magnetic stand/base is okay, so at least it wasn't a total loss.

I get it. Since I was struggling to get a piece with a hole centered in the 4-jaw, I made the actual hole with the cutter rather than just enlargning it slightly.

I have some scrap 3/8" thick aluminum 1.5" flat in the scrap pile, I'll give this another try. Would be nice to have the bearings for the leadscrews not slap around

 

The initial drilled hole will be slightly oversize from the drill bit. The first clean up cut will be slightly egg shaped due to an uneven cut. The second clean up cut will take out any egg shape. You need at least 0.020" of material left for the final two cuts. There is always some give to the tooling and machine from the pressure applied to the cutter. Making two finishing cuts allows the operator to adjust for that offset and make very accurate holes. -Practice the technique before you actually work on a finished piece. Inside cuts are always difficult to position the cutter to avoid any gouging or chatter. Try picturing the forces and torques on the tooling as the lathe cuts.

 

Cool.

I shall try that again today!

Though out of aluminum