lathe and milling machine update

A short weekend

Due to some health issues, the weekend at the farm was significantly shortened.  Turns out that the shortness wasn't ill timed though.  It was cold and not a lot could be done outside, and furthermore, my indoor plans with the lathe and mill were restricted due to lack of some needed parts.

Lathe update

I brought up a lot of the toolings and lubricants that I had ordered over the past couple weeks.  I decided to put together one of the heavy duty shelving units that I bought last year to hold all of the tools and stuff.

This shelf is against the back wall in back of e the lathe.  I already have a bunch of items on it!  I don't even have all of the lathe equipment on there yet.

New Quick Change Tool Post Holder

One of the things that I really wanted for my lathe was a quick change toolpost holder.  The only issue that I had with this new QC holder was that the TeeNut wouldn't fit my tee slide.  I used the old TeeNut from the previous holder but still needed to use a spacing washer on top to get it to lock down. I plan to mill the TeeNut that came with the new QC holder when I get the mill up and running.

The old tool post holder.  Difficult to swap tools and difficult to align.

The compound slide tee slot

The new tee-nut on the left, the old on the right.  The new one needs a trim..

The size issue is a bit more evident in this picture.

Using the old tee-nut for now

Nifty!

I put a tool in to see how it felt...

However, the post was not "set" - the post was sliding all over!  

I had to add a washer on top of the post to get it to cinch down tight.

Pretty Sweet!  I will mill the new tee-nut when I can. Until then this workaround is fine.

I am happy with this QC holder (its a Phase II that I ordered from Enco).  However, I ordered a model "BXA" which is designed for 1/2" tool bits.  Generally you want to be able to hold as big a bit as you can to reduce vibration.  After further research I found that this lathe could also use a model "CXA" QC holder which can hold up to a 3/4" toolbit.  However, bits and boring bars and such are more expensive for the CXA...  I decided for now to just order a super sized bit holder for the BXA holder and live with it for now.  I do have some 3/4" indexable bits ready to go, should the need arise.

Threading Gear issues

I got the replacement gears that I ordered.  As expected, they did not come with the bushings.  I had planned to use the bushings that were in the old gears.  Removing the bushings had me worried, but I found a solution.  I found a drill bit that had about the right size shank and a lip the permitted be to drive the bushings out fairly easily!

I actually had already removed the bushings in this picture, but I wanted to illustrate how I did it!

I just used the arbor press table to hammer against since it had a nice sized gap to accommodate the bushing and bit as I hammered them through.

The three old gears.

The three old bushings.

Notice something wrong with one of them?  It's too thin!

So. I wasn't able to just pop these into the new gears and rebuild the gearbox.  Sigh.  Moving on, I measured the shafts and gears (and the old bushings, just to be sure) and found some replacement bushings online that I hope will work.  The replacements will probably require some machining to fit. So, waiting for those to arrive.

I did rebuild some of the lathe gear box.  I put the gear-shift shaft back on the gearbox and cleaned up a bit.  I thought about opening up the back gear and drive gear box, but I decided against getting too many "gears" and screws mixed up with the gear box parts.  

BTW: I have far fewer pictures than I would have liked because my phone kept stopping.  It would just shut off!  I think maybe it was too cold?  Anyway, next time I will try to remember that I have a camera there that I could have used!  D'OH

Milling machine cleanup and study

Not able to make anymore progress on the lathe this weekend, I moved on to the milling machine.  I started by moving all the crap that I had placed on top of it!  Then I began a general dust off and cleanup.   Then i put some of the handwheels back on.  A couple of them gave me quite a bit of trouble.  The wood-ruff key was stuck and was binding in the handle when trying to slide the handwheels on.  The handwheel on the front (the Y-feed) I forced on using a wooden mallet.  The key must have either moved or maybe it just wast stuck in a obstructive position.  But, the handwheel on the right of the X-feed table was not going on using the hammer method.  I tried penetrating oil and heating the woodruff key to no avail.  I eventually settled for just filing down the part of the key that was sitting p to high to allow the handwheel to slide on.

Cleanup and rebuild..  All the handwheels on except the right X-feed

After some more work I was able to get the right X-feed handwheel on.

View showing the back of the mill.  Here you can see the feed motor on top (just below the power feed gearbox) and the coolant pump motor on the bottom.

This view shows the ram head locking levers.

Here is the ram head drive shaft.  I was able to run this through its whole travel using a wrench.  I cleaned and oiled the ram ways as I did this.

Power feed handwheel closeup.  I will need to re-lube this before use.

Power feed speed adjustment "levers"

This shows the top left side of the machine.  Here you can see the support arm shaft (the big shaft protruding from the back - left side of picture)  and a locking lever just under the motor.  I think that lock lever is for the motor mount, as I am pretty sure that the support arm locking lever is in the front of the machine. 

Here you can see the top right portion of the mill.  This clearly shows the milling head (in horizontal position) and the other side of the support arm.  The tubing is for the coolant feed

Closeup of the milling head.  You can see the oil level indicator.  Again, another thing I need to re-lube before I run this.

This shows the rear end of the spindle/mill-head.  The thing with the little handwheel is the draw bar that threads onto whatever tool that is in the mill spindle.

Closeup of the front of the spindle showing an arbr used for holding a slitting saw blade, in this case.  I need to learn more about how to hold tools in horizontal mode.  I think that its just for "saw-blade" type of tools,,,

In trying to rotate the mill head to vertical mode I easily found the two  lugs on the front of the mill head, but it still wouldn't rotate.  So I had to read the manual (not an easy task as its kinda scattered all over various PDFs I have collected online).  I finally found a reference to a nut that lives between the spindle and the mill body.  You can see it here.  Sheesh.

Milling head in Horizontal mode...

And now in vertical mode!!

Oh, and this mill can be in ANY ANGLE in between too!  

I accidentally figured out how to remove the arbor... You have to unscrew the drawbar, shown here.

See the threads n the inside?  These lock onto the arbor tools

And Speaking of arbors..  I couldnt get the end cap off of this arbor.  I left it soak in penetrating oil and ordered a spanner wrench that should help.  I will have to look at drawings to see if I can get size of the arbor shaft so I can order cutters.

Close-up of the front of the spindle showing the inside taper.  Its a short taper,

With a collet inserted and ready to go!

Showing the keyway in the collet and spindle.

I went ahead and ordered a 1/2" end mill and a vise for the milling machine.  It occurred to me later that I really need to make sure that the motor runs before I get much further in purchasing tooling!  I also already purchased oil (5 gallon of SAE 30 non-detergent for the gear boxes) and special grease and grease gun for this thing!  Although, in retrospect, I can use those things on the late too I think.

I would like to get a bigger collet holder too.  The biggest I have is 1/2"!