Author Topic: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...  (Read 16524 times)

Offline Tennessee Whiskey

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #45 on: January 04, 2018, 07:49:45 PM »
Yup, move “Y” to the rear limit and extend the ram a couple of inches forward of that, lock and tram and your golden  :ThumbsUp:

Cletus

Offline Kim

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #46 on: January 14, 2018, 02:30:42 AM »
Last weekend I started on the Z-axis and was just snailing along, when I suddenly realized that my X-axis only had 1/2" of travel!  :o  Not Ideal.  It took me a while to finally figure out what was keeping the X-axis from moving past that point, but I eventually did it.  The cool setup I had to hold the Y-axis read head didn’t clear the casting for the right end of the X-asis.
In this picture, you can see where I’ve marked a new semi-circular line on the 1/4" aluminum plate.


And here’s from the back side. It’s the place where the casting gets wider that hits the plate.


So, off to the little Taig mill to clean up the problem.  I just free-handed (or Etch-a-sketched, as Chris would say :) ) the x/y knobs to follow the circular line.


And it worked great!  Have the full X travel now!


So, back to the Z.  I had to position the scale back a ways, and a little bit on the high side to work around the shape of the column casting and the various carbuncles growing out of it.  And I ended up making an Aluminum block for one end that helped square the scale up.  In this picture I’m madly cranking the Z-axis up and down to adjust the scale into alignment in all dimensions.


Then I worked on attaching the read head.  Again, a lot of things in the way.  And with the scales mounted a bit high, I ended up using a bunch of brackets and a 10” length of aluminum angle to connect the read head, as shown here.


Then I put the cover in place.    


Lastly, I needed to mount the control panel.
I marked up the holes, drilled and tapped one, then started to drill the 2nd one when something strange happened.  The hole started at my center punched location just fine, but suddenly, the bit moved about 1/4" to the left and dug in FAST.  Its like the spot I was drilling was extra hard or something, and the spot next to it was really soft.  Try as I might, I couldn’t get the hole to start where I wanted it.  :(

So, I made another set of holes about 1/2" down from those first holes.  You can see my mess right here (the upper left one is the one that got very messed up).


I really think there was something goofy with the casting right there. It was just weird!

Anyway, with that excitement behind me, I got the control panel bracket attached to the column.


Then I wired up the panel, arranged all the cables and ty-wrapped them neatly, and here it is – all working as expected!

I’ve got good travel on all axes! 

The only thing left to do now is the scale for the quill.  And that will wait for another day.
Kim

P.S.  Wow, the background of those shelves is REALLY ugly!  I'm going to have to figure out what to do about that.  The shelves are actually about 5' behind the mill, but it looks like they bump right up next to it.  The magic of photography, I guess.

Offline 10KPete

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #47 on: January 14, 2018, 02:51:48 AM »
I wouldn't worry about the shelves..... I'd worry about a shield behind the mill to stop the chips!!! A curtain works....

Congrats on the DRO install.

Pete
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Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline Kim

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #48 on: January 14, 2018, 02:54:45 AM »
Thanks Pete!

So how would you hold up a curtain?  Just a movable rack sitting behind the mill?

I'd considered hanging a tarp in front of the shelves.  While that would hide (and protect) the shelves, it might not control the chips too well.

Kim

Offline 10KPete

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #49 on: January 14, 2018, 03:15:16 AM »
Conduit can make a nice, light frame. Either free standing or mounted to the mill.

Pete
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Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline Kim

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #50 on: January 14, 2018, 05:10:22 AM »
The conduit is an interesting idea...
Kim

Offline 10KPete

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #51 on: January 14, 2018, 06:23:19 AM »
I like conduit 'cause there are lots of fittings available to join it. Not all electrical. Much bracketry is made for uses in green houses and such.

Pete
Craftsman, Tinkerer, Curious Person.
Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline Kim

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #52 on: January 15, 2018, 11:36:04 PM »
With the three main axes completed, I want to do the quill next.  The 2nd Z-axis.  I debated whether or not to do the quill at all, but I finally decided to do it now while I’m in the doing mode.  Then I’ll have all the axes completed and won’t have to fiddle with it again (until I decided to move the Y-axis or something :) ).

This is a 6” iGaging scale, but I really only need 3 1/2“ for the quill.  And in fact, the 6” scale just won’t fit where it needs to go.  I needed to cut it shorter by about an inch.  I didn’t know if this was possible, or if I’d break the whole thing, but I decided to go for it and hope for the best.  Turns out, it works just fine.  Here’s the scale after I cut about 1” off of the end. 

Interesting to see what is involved in the scales.   I don’t see how the thin sliver of glass here does anything, but apparently it does, and the read head needs it to get a good reading.  I peeled off a black protective layer then carefully lifted the thin glass off the metal.  Interesting.  And the best part is rest of it still works! :)

I’m going to hold the scale in place by making a clamping ring to clamp on to the end of the Quill.  The quill is about 3.30” in diameter.  So I setup a 4”x1/2” piece of aluminum on the lathe to bore a hole in.  I used the faceplate, which is a first for me.  I used the center to get the location for the hole lined up.


Then drilled  a 1” hole (the largest drill I have).


From there, I used a 3/8” insert boring bar to bring the hole up to about 2”.


And after that, I moved to a 3/4" boring bar to finish it off.  The 3/4" bar worked really well.  It has so much less spring than the 3/8” bar its not funny!


Here’s the end of the quill that I will be clamping on to:


And what it should look like in place:


The second main piece I’ll need for this is a plate to hold the read head.  The read head will clamp to the quill quick feed lever.  And it will need a very similar hole in it for clamping.  So I did the same procedure to setup for that, but rather than opening the hole with a 1" drill and the small boring bar, this time, I decided to try a hole saw and see if that would work for me.  The benefit is that it would make a LOT less swarf, and hopefully take less time too.  And I’d have a cool aluminum donut for the scrap bin when I’m done!
So, here’s the hole saw at work.


I took it slow and cleaned chips often.  But it worked :D


Then I finished the hole to size using the 3/4" boring bar.


And here’s about what that piece will look like when its in place:


And just to give you an idea of where the iGaging uint will be going.


And that’s about it for today.  Here are the two pieces I’ve got so far, with a sketch of the eventual shape drawn on.


My next step will be to make the large radius corners.  But unfortunately, my sherline RT is too small for this and I don’t have any 7/16 T-nuts to use for holding things down on my cool new 8” RT. But that should be remedied early this week!

Till next time,
Kim

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #53 on: January 15, 2018, 11:54:39 PM »
I wouldn't worry about the shelves..... I'd worry about a shield behind the mill to stop the chips!!! A curtain works....

I'd worry about visitors...and the realization that things are missing.  ;D

Too bad you're on the other side of the continent. Makes it difficult to visit and squirrel away some goodies.

I get the impression you walk into your shop everyday and get a smile on your face.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline Kim

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #54 on: January 16, 2018, 12:07:32 AM »
Yeah, well, I'd like to walk out there every day!  I do get in my shop most weekends (not all, unfortunately) and some evenings.  But that silly four letter W word keeps me out of the shop more than I'd like.

But yes, it does make me smile! :)

Bet you're looking forward to your retirement, eh, Zee? :)
Kim

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #55 on: January 16, 2018, 12:46:55 AM »
That's looking good Kim. With the quill scale mounted you should be ready to turn out milled pars with relative ease.

Bill

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #56 on: January 16, 2018, 12:57:39 AM »
Bet you're looking forward to your retirement, eh, Zee? :)

Oh yes. Funny thing at Cabin Fever. Fellow said "I thought you retired!". Made me think of the phrase "I thought you were dead".

I thought I'd retire January 2nd. But I'm still going for a little while.
Partly because of a fellow at work...I think we want to go together. He's been my manager for years and is a good friend.

Funny...once you hit that target...you don't mind as much to keep going.

And...I see this as free money...money for shop goodies.  ;D
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline Kim

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #57 on: January 16, 2018, 02:46:53 AM »
That's looking good Kim. With the quill scale mounted you should be ready to turn out milled pars with relative ease.

Bill
Thanks Bill, that's my plan! :)

...
I thought I'd retire January 2nd. But I'm still going for a little while.
Partly because of a fellow at work...I think we want to go together. He's been my manager for years and is a good friend.

Funny...once you hit that target...you don't mind as much to keep going.

And...I see this as free money...money for shop goodies.  ;D
That's a great way to look at it, Zee!   I like that!
Kim

Offline Jo

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #58 on: January 16, 2018, 08:08:45 AM »
Partly because of a fellow at work...I think we want to go together. He's been my manager for years and is a good friend.

:headscratch: I thought one of the requirements for being a manager was to be a heartless  :censored: I wouldn't want to have a drink with my boss even if he was paying and it was in company hours  :hellno:

Yes once you know you can afford to retire then the job is to spend your money. All your life you save for retirement, once retired the task is to spend it all  :whoohoo: Have I mentioned buying the odd casting for retirement   :mischief:

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Offline Kim

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Re: When, what to my wondering eyes should appear...
« Reply #59 on: January 21, 2018, 05:07:43 AM »
Today, was First Swarf day on my new mill!

Last shop session, I’d just bored holes in the brackets for the Quill Z-axis.  Now it was time to round the sides of the clamping ring.  But do that, I wanted to use my new 8” South Bend Rotary Table, but I didn’t have any 7/16” T-Nuts.  But UPS came to the rescue yesterday, so I was all set for today!

After getting the RT centered, I used an old piece of kit I had, but one I could barely use on my Taig – an Coaxial Indicator.  It just required too much headroom and I couldn’t ever make it fit on the Taig.  But the new Grizzly has ample head room for this ingenious tool!  It was fun to finally get to use it:
 

I made the first swarf using a 3/8” roughing mill to cut a straight edge where clamping screw will go.


Then I repositioned things and roughed out the outside of the ring clamp.


I then went back over it with a 4-flute mill to clean things up and take it down to the final dimension.


All I can say is “WOW!”  This is fun!  The mill works great – plenty of power – sure, aluminum isn’t the toughest trial run, but I could still tell a dramatic difference from the Taig.

And I’ll have to say I REALLY like that SB Rotary Table.  It is very nice quality. I was worried because I’ve heard people talk about slop or inaccuracies in their less expensive RTs. And I was worried I'd gotten spoiled with the Sherline RT - that is a very nice piece of equipment. But its only a 4” table.  This SB 8” is much bigger, but equally smooth and even.  It met and surpassed all my quality expectations for an RT!

That’s it for today.  Not a lot accomplished, but since I was using new tools, every step took longer.  I had to develop new methods for clamping things, figure out how to use the R-8 Tooling, and all sorts of other new fun things.  But it is worth it, and working beautifully!

Thanks for checking in,
Kim

 

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