Small Vertical Slide

[PaulR]

I'm looking at buying a vertical slide for my little lathe because I don't have room or the spare cash for a milling machine at present. It would be mainly used for cutting slots, small flats etc. The parts involved will be small and cuts very light. I've used one in the past and it seemed to work ok even if it took time to set up compared to a mill but I can't recall which lathe it was on and exactly how it was set up (it was about 20 years ago!) . Anyway, a couple of questions if anyone has a view...

1 I've enquired about the Seig milling slide but I'm told the topslide has to be removed to fit it. If I was using a slot drill in the chuck (or collet when I get one) how do I control the depth of cut?

2 I've seen various milling slides with 'z plates', castings which fit on the toolpost and position the vertical slide in front of the saddle, so topslide and cross-slide are both available. (example in picture). That seems a much more versatile arrangement possibly at the expense of a little less rigidity although as mentioned I would be taking very light cuts. I guess some way to stop the z-plate rotating around the toolpost would also be desirable.

[Jasonb]

For the SIEG you can use the apron handwheel to put on a cut, a plunger type dti will give you an indication of how far you move but the adjustment is a bit coarse.

Fine movements can be done if you engage the leadscrew half nuts and then turn the leadscrew by fitting a handwheel at one end.

This is a lot more rigid than the toolpost mounted ones.

[PaulR]

For the SIEG you can use the apron handwheel to put on a cut, a plunger type dti will give you an indication of how far you move but the adjustment is a bit coarse.

Fine movements can be done if you engage the leadscrew half nuts and then turn the leadscrew by fitting a handwheel at one end.

This is a lot more rigid than the toolpost mounted ones.

Thanks for this. I get the feeling that using the apron handwheel won't work very well as there's some slop in it and I'm not sure I could move it less than say 5 thou without a lot of tedious back and forth! The leadscrew itself has a cover and the end is within the bracket. It doesn't appear to be threaded internally at the end I can't see an easy way to add a handle given the limited equipment I have. I found this thread https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php?topic=4056.0 which mentions loctiting an adaptor for a handle at the end but I'd still have to resort to a DTI to gauge the cut.

The other disadvantage with all the toolpost mounted ones is that the slides themselves seem to have imperial scales which will require some mental gymnastics and probably errors knowing my skill in the gym 

[Jasonb]

It is also possible to just use a gear on the other end as your "handwheel" though you may get greasy fingers.

[PaulR]

It is also possible to just use a gear on the other end as your "handwheel" though you may get greasy fingers.

I'll have a look, might be able to rig something up at that end.

[PaulR]

The only way I could get this to work was to engage the leadscrew and spin the chuck (I put a DTI on the carriage pushing against the clamped tailstock to check, there was quite a bit of backlash I but could control the imaginary depth of cut quite accurately). The trouble is I'd have to engage/disengage the leadscrew before taking each cut and that's probably a bit too tedious.

[Jasonb]

Loosen the banjo and swing the gears out of mesh with the fixed gear on the spindle or simply remove one or two gears in the gear train then the spindle and leadscrew can rotate independantly

Might even be possible to just put the tumbler reverse lever in the mid position which stops drive to the geartrain.

[PaulR]

Loosen the banjo and swing the gears out of mesh with the fixed gear on the spindle or simply remove one or two gears in the gear train then the spindle and leadscrew can rotate independantly

Might even be possible to just put the tumbler reverse lever in the mid position which stops drive to the geartrain.

Ah yes, why didn't I think of that. I'll have a look and think about the best way to go, cheers!

[Charles Lamont]

The 'z-bracket' arrangement in your photo is likely to be so lacking in rigidity that I think you would find it very disappointing, even for light cuts.

In any case, you will soon want to do something more ambitious, so I would suggest getting the most rigid arrangement you can from the start.

For depth of cut, if you have a change gear with, say, 50 teeth (or whatever is a sensible division of the leadscrew pitch), you can put that on the left hand end of the leadscrew, put some marks and numbers on it with a marker pen, and bend a bit of a beer can to make a pointer. 

[PaulR]

The 'z-bracket' arrangement in your photo is likely to be so lacking in rigidity that I think you would find it very disappointing, even for light cuts.

In any case, you will soon want to do something more ambitious, so I would suggest getting the most rigid arrangement you can from the start.

For depth of cut, if you have a change gear with, say, 50 teeth (or whatever is a sensible division of the leadscrew pitch), you can put that on the left hand end of the leadscrew, put some marks and numbers on it with a marker pen, and bend a bit of a beer can to make a pointer.

Thanks Charles. The reviews for the z-plate type are very mixed in terms of rigidity and quality, from poor to excellent in equal amount! In view of that I'm going to discount it unless I can see one in operation in the flesh. The Seig one seems to involve an awful lot of faff just to cut a slot or a flat, not only the business of depth of cut but having to reset the gib strips on the topslide after every use. I'll put it on the back burner again for now and stick with filing even if it's not as accurate or pretty.

Actually I might try Jason's idea of just using the toolpost to hold the work, mentioned in an another thread.

[Jasonb]

You don't need to faff with gib strips. Wind the topslide right back so you can access the two screws that you use to set it to an angle. Undo those and take the slide off. Use the same to screws to fit the vert slide.

Give ARC a ring just to check but that is how I have always known them to fit the SC2 &3. He still has some in stock and it's 60% off at checkout so just over £50

[PaulR]

You don't need to faff with gib strips. Wind the topslide right back so you can access the two screws that you use to set it to an angle. Undo those and take the slide off. Use the same to screws to fit the vert slide.

Give ARC a ring just to check but that is how I have always known them to fit the SC2 &3. He still has some in stock and it's 60% off at checkout so just over £50

I've already checked. Yep, that's the way it's fitted I realise now I misunderstood, I thought it was just the moveable part of the slide that had to be removed 

[PaulR]

I've ordered the Seig one from Arc. Looking at the gear at the end of the leadscrew I noticed it has a hex socket, so I shortened a spare allen key and made a little handle - no greasy fingers and a bit further from any moving parts.

While I was at it I decided to make a simple detent/dividing attachment using a 60 tooth wheel for 3/4/6 divisions. Made a short slug to go in the chuck end (should ideally be tapered but parallel will do) and a tight fitting boss for the wheel. Just need to make a slightly tapered 'stopper' to go behind the wheel and a bracket which can be fixed using that convenient M5 hole  I plan on drilling small holes on the side of the gear 10, 15 and 20 teeth apart and filling them with dots of different coloured paint.

[PaulR]

I've wandered miles off the original post but here's the almost finished super simple detent.

Made the tapered stopper and put a slight bevel on the chuck ends so as not to scratch inside the spindle. Made a bracket from annealed 1/2"x1/8" steel and filed part of one side to fit within the teeth. JUst need to make the marks on the wheel and it's done. I suppose it would be more accurate to leave the bracket in place between each point and have a separate sliding part on top of it to engage in the gear but I doubt it'll make more than a tiny fraction of difference doing it this way. Just need to put the dots on the wheel and it's done.

Assembled:




Parts:

[uuu]

Very neat.

Wilf