D1-4 chuck adapter for rotary table

[Mike R]

I started making this adapter plate for my rotary table as I have a new to me lathe that has a D1-4 camlock spindle and the chucks wouldn't fit on the rotary table anymore unlike my plain back chuck on my previous lathe.  Not wanting to buy chucks just for the rotary table I search for a solution (ie commercial adapter) but came up empty handed.  So I have started to build my own. 

I need to credit DeereGuy over on MadModder for the "idea" of making my own.  I tried contacting him to get a copy of his drawings that he was passing out previously but to no avail so I made my own drawings.  I needed to purchase the spec from ASME for the spindle nose to get just one of the dimensions as I had no luck finding it online and my ability to measure my spindle was lacking (ability refering to tools and skill!)

So with the spec in hand I whipped up a CAD model of what I wanted to make and set about buying a lump of steel to make it from.  Around here $29 Cdn gets you a lump of 1018 HRS 5" dia by 2" thick.

Cleaned up it was 4.980" diameter so I adjusted my model to reflect the cleaned up dimension and machined the taper on the front.

I was trying to not have 20 thou (10 on the radius) be a problem and it seems that I escaped a serious boo-boo by using 5".   The mounting holes to the rotary table are mighty close to other holes in the adapter.  5.25" or 5 1/2"would have been a better choice from that perspective.



I am waiting to machine the camlock holes till I receive the camlocks (ordered them from Grizzly).  I am hoping they are made to the ASME spec but being parts for a Chinese lathe I don't want to risk it!  The parts are supposed to be here Wednesday (likely Thursday as I will need to pick them up from UPS) so I'll know then if they are a match to the spec or if mine will be a custom build to fit them.

Attached is a 3d pdf of what the finished part should look like.  I'll try my hand at making some 3-view drawings with dimensions but its been many years since I did that in school and I've never done it with this software so I may not succeed!

Mike R

[Bogstandard]

Mike,

It was because of the problems of making the D1-4 holder, and loss of a lot of throat depth on my mill that I took the easy way out, and went for a removable Myford nose conversion for my lathe, and subsequent conversion of all the tooling for the mill.

Bob actually went into production with his version, making them out of ali and hard anodising them, I haven't heard from him on Skype for ages, so I can't help on that score.

John

[Mike R]

John,

I realize there is a loss of a little bit of extra Z depth with the adapter but my mill has ~ 20" of height there so unless I'm trying to use it on something really big / long it will be ok.  Plus I envision using it with the axis parallel to X axis for adding flats to round items, etc.

It is a little bit challenging to make but that is part of the fun!  Hopefully I don't need to make it again though - just need to be very carefull on these last few operations.

I thought I'd make it from steel and get it nitride hardened after I was (done for durability), but my choice of steel was poor.  I learned after that 1018 is a poor choice for nitride hardening.  Fortunately it won't be subject to much wear and I just need to be carefull to not damage it while changing chucks.  Worst case is I need to skim the face back and touch up the taper to get it back in shape if it does get dinged or wear...

As I said, I tried to contact Bob but his website is gone too.

Mike

[Mike R]

Received the camlocks from Grizzly today.  They deviate from the spec but not in any way that appears to be critical.  Tried them in my spindle and they work! So I can continue on and make the holes for them in the adapter as per spec.  I do need to update my model / drawing to show a metric thread as that is what I purchase from Grizzly (purely out of convenience) - again that does not really make any difference to the final function of the adapter.
You can see in this photo the camlock on the left is from my lathe and the one on the right is from Grizzly for their G4003 lathe.  The cutaway is slightly larger, its missing about 0.050" at the top and teh cam area is a bit narrower but the rest seems to be fine.  I guess that is the difference between a $7 a piece and $19 (from Mac-it.com).  I almost ordered the more expensive ones but ran into the typical "I live outside the USA" problem and gave up...

These are again my lathe pieces on left and the new ones on the right.  The most obvious difference is the spring. At least I can cut it down if its too big!



Mike

[Mike R]

I've attached a PDF drawing of the adapter - the drawing is less than perfect as I struggle to learn the Fusion 360 drawing side of things. 
Any questions just ask.
Mike

[scottsfx]

This was a while ago...what a great addition to the 'shop - adds the conveniences of the Camlock to the mill - I was wondering how it worked out ?

Any changes you would make ?
What size centre bore did you manage to achieve ? The D1-4 chucks are about 1.5"...
Are the rotating pins worth buying rather than making ?

I was thinking I would have someone grind the angle on the outside of the centre boss as it seems the only really critical tolerance to keep it mounting consistently.
Currently have 96mm (x 4) Lang/5th Axis type mounts on my rotary table and mill bed and might look to fit studs to mount one of these as I can't bring myself to double up on my family of Harrison chucks just for milling operations.

[Mike R]

Wow, that was a long time ago!


I do use it regularly now.  It took me forever to actually add in the pins that retain the camlocks, finally did a few months ago.


As for changes I would make?  Nothing big.
I would maybe try and reduce the thickness a touch (maybe 1/4"), on the back side that mates to the table, but would need to check the length of the pins, there may be a reason I made it with that little bit extra material.


And maybe increase the diameter to 5.5 or 6" to fully capture the heads of the 4 hold down bolts (purely cosmetic)


I also made mine from mild steel  (1018 I think) and its holding up ok without hardening. 
I think the cams are hardened and they have enough funny geometry to make them a pain to make - i.e. at least 3 or 4 setups, so buying them from somewhere (i.e. Grizzly etc.) made sense to me.


The center through bore is 1.5" and could even be made a bit larger, but as you say I think the chuck is only 1.5" and my 6" table only has an MT2 center hole (much smaller).


One of the little time savers is that once the adapter is centered on the table, it stays that way and the chuck can just be mounted up straight from the lathe, with virtually no worry about it being off axis (at least for my tolerances    )
Its actually been such a convenience using the chuck on the mill I often just mount the 4th axis vertically so I can hold round items easily.  To the point that I've been thinking about making a rectangular one to hold in my vise or flat on the table so I don't need to keep repositioning the 4th axis....


A few random pics of it attached here.  The last 2 show the convenience of the adapter, the front crankcase was held in the 5C collet chuck on the lathe, and I needed to drill some holes so onto the 4th axis vertically (good thing I have lots of room), and then I was back to the lathe (not shown) and then back to the mill to make the radial holes for the lifters and pushrods, all without removing the item from the chuck and needing to recenter.


Mike

[Mike R]

Well I messed up editing the pictures but you get the idea..

[kvom]

I have a similar tool for D1-3.  Found someone online who was parting out a lathe and had him cut the nose off the spindle.  So I didn't need to buy/make the camlock.