Author Topic: CX701 Lathe Report  (Read 35572 times)

Online Jasonb

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #120 on: January 20, 2017, 04:00:06 PM »
Makes me wonder that if a scale about 3" longer were used then the read head could be mounted on the far side of the bed and you would only loose maybe 1/2" of chuck clearance once a cover has been fitted to the scale. Probably still enough clearance to teh back splash that teh scale won't hit it when the cross slide is wound in.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #121 on: January 20, 2017, 04:38:04 PM »
And finally, here we are with the swarf guard in place. That pretty well finishes the install of the cross slide DRO. I may have to drill and tap somewhere to put a cable restraint in place, but I will leave that for later. The next job will be the Z axis slide which fits to the back of the lathe. That one is going to be a pain, because I have my lathe bracketed to the wall, and all the bracketing and backsplash have to come off and the lathe has to be moved out far enough from the wall to let me in behind it to work comfortably
.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #122 on: January 20, 2017, 04:42:20 PM »
Makes me wonder that if a scale about 3" longer were used then the read head could be mounted on the far side of the bed and you would only loose maybe 1/2" of chuck clearance once a cover has been fitted to the scale. Probably still enough clearance to teh back splash that teh scale won't hit it when the cross slide is wound in.
There isn't enough room to do that. When the cross slide is wound all the way to the rear there is only 2.75" between the end of it and the backsplash. That would put the read head right in the middle of the rear lathe way.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #123 on: January 20, 2017, 07:18:18 PM »
The 3 brackets for mounting the read head on the Z axis are shown here, unmodified. I had to drill and tap two 1/4"-20 holes in the saddle to mount the top block. You will see that I have partially covered the rectangular hole in the saddle dovetail. It's alright--nothing comes out thru that hole. I have had the topslide to the full extent of it's travel both directions, and nothing has to come out thru that hole. These brackets hold the read head, which in turn determines where the scale gets mounted. As you can see, I am going to have to modify the slotted piece which hangs from the block attached to the saddle.  I will cut it off just below the slots and add two shorter slots below where it is cut off. This will keep it from sticking up above the block attached to the saddle, and will raise the read head a couple of inches. I don't want the scale to be right down at the bottom of the lathe, where all the swarf and chips end up.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #124 on: January 20, 2017, 10:48:33 PM »
The Z axis read head brackets have been modified and bolted in place. I have a stack of 1 2 3 blocks and parallels in place at each end of the lathe to temporarily support the scale in place. I can use one of the stand-off scale supports that came in the kit, but I have to fabricate one that is a bit thicker for the near end of the lathe. This is not rocket science, nor is it too physically demanding, but tonight my old arse is dragging!! I'm done for today. Hopefully tomorrow I will get the scale mounted and start looking for the best place to mount the display panel.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #125 on: January 21, 2017, 03:22:50 PM »
The new thicker mounting plate for the near end is finished and the scale has been mounted. There is a raised boss where the bracket is mounted at the far end of the lathe that doesn't show up well in the picture, and that was why I had to make the near end bracket thicker. All of my drilling and tapping is finished to mount all of my brackets, and I'm glad that is over with. I don't break taps all that often, but there is still a high pucker factor involved when drilling and tapping somethin "free-hand". now I have to use my test dial indicator and confirm that the scale is parallel in two planes to the rear "way" of the lathe. If it isn't, there are slots in most of the bracket connections and jack screws in each mounting pad to get them level and "true" to each other.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #126 on: January 21, 2017, 06:05:54 PM »
Z axis is all mounted and dialed in. Numbers on display go up or down with carriage travel from end to end. I'm going to grab some lunch and then mount the z axis swarf guard.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #127 on: January 21, 2017, 07:06:08 PM »
I'm getting right down to the wire here. The rear swarf guard is installed. I wish I knew how well my little pipe and flange weldment was going to work for a pass-thru in the pan under my lathe. I guess I can go ahead and install it, and if it doesn't work well I can festoon the cables some other way. I hate the thought of a whole snarl of cables just laying in the pan of the lathe. That is just asking for trouble.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #128 on: January 21, 2017, 10:48:10 PM »
So, after another days slugging, the scales, swarf guards, and read heads are finished. The little "pass thru" that I made is gasketed, siliconed, and mounted to the lathe pan, and the cables routed thru it. I got lucky on that one---I built the "pass thru" before I had the cables that run thru it. Luckily, the end connection on the cables  fitted thru it okay. The display is mounted, and I "think" that everything is going to fit when I move the lathe back into position. I may even be able to re-use my sheet metal splash guard that goes on the wall above the lathe backsplash, because the cables are routed around the end of the lathe and up to the display. I have to put some P clamps on the cables to take any strain off the point where they attach to the read-heads. I may have to do a little creative carving on the lathe backsplash before it can be re-installed---I'm not sure yet. Hopefully, tomorrow will finish this up.


Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #129 on: January 22, 2017, 02:32:06 PM »
There is one "dirty little secret" involved with cutting these scales to a shorter length. The end caps are attached to the aluminum scale extrusion with 3MM diameter bolts. When you shorten the scale, you don't have to drill and tap new holes because the "hole" is actually a formed slot in the extrusion that is open on one side.---all you have to do is run a 3 mm tap down the "hole" and put in new threads.--and here is the rub---I bought a brand new tap, cut the cross slide scale to length, and carefully (very carefully) ran the tap down full depth of the threads on the tap, reversing the tap every turn to break the chip. To break a tap off in the end of the scale would be a disaster!!--And then--When I went to remove the tap, it only backed out about 1/4 of a turn and froze. I could turn it back and forth about 1/4 turn, but there was no way in Hell it was coming out of there without breaking the tap. Oh No--I've screwed up the very first thing I went to do on this installation!! But wait---It's a slot, isn't it. So, get a flat bladed screwdriver, pry the slot open "just a little bit" down at the end of the tap, which I can plainly see thru the open side of the slot. A bit of lubricating oil, a short prayer to the DRO gods, some very careful back and forth on the tap handle, and out came the tap. Ahhhhh---Big sigh of relief. This so un-nerved me that I didn't cut the Z axis scale. The Z axis scale is about 1 1/2" too long, but I wasn't going to test my luck again. I am going have to cut a pocket into the lathe backsplash to accommodate this "too long" scale on the end nearest to the headstock. I can patch up around the point where the "too long" scale interferes and requires some minor trimming of the backsplash, but no way do I want to have to buy a replacement scale because I broke a tap off in the end of it.

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #130 on: January 22, 2017, 04:47:05 PM »
So, after $1240 Canadian, and 3 1/2 days of what seemed like damned hard work, everything is back to normal. Everything fits and is in the same position it was when I started. I opted to buy the 5um read heads for both axis. I could have paid $200 Canadian funds more and got the 1 um read head for the cross slide, but for a hobby lathe I didn't think it was worth it. I haven't used the lathe yet, just ran the cross slide and the carriage and watched the numbers scroll up and down on the display. I'm whipped, and don't plan anything more for today.--Hope you enjoyed following along.---Brian

Offline Thor

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #131 on: January 22, 2017, 06:20:03 PM »
 Well done Brian.

Thor

Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #132 on: January 29, 2017, 04:39:55 PM »
One last little kick at the can here before I finish the DRO install. After making a few cuts with my lathe, I could see that a lot of the chips and cutting oil were going to fall right on top of the scale cover. This doesn't alarm me. What did alarm me a little was that much of this chips and coolant fell behind the vertical ridge on the scale cover and landed on top of the topslide. So--Today I removed the compound rest and ran a good bead of silicone sealant right down the joint between the back of the scale guard and the topslide. (right where the point of the pencil is)  Fortunately there is a fairly large chamfer (about 0.080") on the sides of the topslide, so after wiping everything dry of oil and cleaning it with some laquer thinners, a good fillet of silicone filled the chamfer in completely. Now I won't have to be worried about cutting oil and metal shavings and possibly iron dust finding their way down to the scale and read head.

Offline gerritv

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #133 on: January 29, 2017, 11:25:13 PM »
This might not be useful for the area where you sealed with silicone but for other areas: I use left over pond liner for keeping fluids and filings out of places. It is removable or you can glue it on with Gorilla Glue or similar.
The picture shows the bib I use on my milling vise. I use a small piece on the gap at headstock end of my chil guard on the KC1022ML lathe where the carriage runs into. Flap keeps chips out of motor area but when I need to get close to the chuck it just pushes it out of the way.
You should be able to get free leftovers at any local pond supply place.

Gerrit
 
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Offline Brian Rupnow

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Re: CX701 Lathe Report
« Reply #134 on: March 29, 2017, 06:21:36 PM »
I have been using the DRO set-up on my lathe for a few months now, and it's absolutely wonderful. Even though they are an expensive brute of a thing, they are well worth the money paid for them. They do however, show up some things that I wasn't really aware of. I like to have the gibs on my cross slide free enough that it lets me move the cross slide with very little effort. With the DRO in place and operating, it soon became clear that when taking a cut parallel to the axis of the mill, the cross slide would "back up" of it's own accord from whatever I had it initially set at. Okay, that is easily enough fixed by locking the cross slide before taking a cut each time. This is a pain, and the bolt which locks the cross slide in place is not all that convenient to get at with a hex wrench. Way back on posts 106 thru 110 I showed the lock handle I had made up for the carriage lock. It works great, and although it takes a bit of fitting to get the required clearances looked after, the handle is much more convenient than grabbing a wrench each time to lock the carriage in place. I wanted a similar hand operated lock for the cross slide, and after a mornings farting around I have one. Basically, I silver soldered an extension onto the head of the cross slide lock bolt (the only one of the gib screws that doesn't have a locknut). Of course, it falls right into the area where the carriage lock handle is, so there is a bit of measuring and "try it and see if it clears" engineering involved there, but it works and it clears the top of the carriage lock lever. Now I can tighten it with my fingers tight enough that the cross slide doesn't move when I'm taking a longitudinal cut under power.

 

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