[abfa9358]

Thanks all for your comments.

I made the bolt blocks and bolts for attaching to the steel block tonight. I recommend making the splatter nozzle it does work very well and uses very little coolant.

I cut the slots and profiles with a M6 HARDAL ripper mill which seemed to work very well.

[abfa9358]

Made a start on the side plates tonight, machined the ends and got the spot drilling done. I'll chop out the rough holes tomorrow ready for final machining. Quick video of the spot drilling is [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwGpiOoLbyQ"]here[/ame].

[abfa9358]

Aagh, roped into making cakes for the school cake sale tomorrow. But just enough time to sneak out and rough out the holes in the side plates prior to milling the bolt slots and holes for the bearings.

[abfa9358]

Bit more progress I've all but finished the side plates - just need to true the ends of the plates, clean up and press in the bearings. I'm pretty pleased with the hole machining on the mill, the bearing holes came out circular with no flat spots at the 0, 90, 180, 270 deg. points indicating that backlash is pretty much under control.

There's a truly out of focus video [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhFMOWR--UY"]here[/ame] of the chain to counterweight block being machined.

I'm liking the splatter lube system more and more, you can adjust it down to a small jet of droplets + air blast and lube the cut without flooding the mill in coolant. 3/4 of a jam jar (international standard unit of volumetric measurement) has last three evenings of milling. Next night mill is covered in a light film of oil rather than still swimming in coolant.

[Mad Welder]

Nice progress....

[abfa9358]

Tonight I was milling out the connectors between the bolts and the chains supporting the steel block and started to think what to do with the X2 mill which is now gathering dust. I tried to sell it + a whole host of other stuff a while ago and had no luck. I am looking around for a small tool and cutter grinder like a Deckel 90 or one of the small Vertex tool grinders.

Anyway, it struck me that with a bit of chopping, adding and taking away the X2 could be converted in to a little tool grinder with the added benefit of already being converted to CNC so small CNC surfaces grinding could be possible.

Bob Warfield's site gave me part of the idea, if you look about 1/3 of the way down the page, he managed to buy a universal vice from a guy on ebay - they still trade and have a site ....WWW.AMTOOLS.COM....

This vice could form the basis of the tool holder without all the effort of a Stent or Quorn type build.

So the concept is create a flat face to the rear of the y axis slide, remove the column assembly and cut the column down to about 1/3 to 1/4 of its length. Remount the cut down column and head on the plate but rotate by 90 degrees so the spindle axis is parallel to the Y axis. Mount a diamond cut wheel in the spindle and add the universal vice + a tool holder (ER20 collet chuck with parallel shank?).

Hmmm, I can feel a TurboCAD session coming on unless of course someone wants an X2 with ball screws, drives, motors, BoBs etc. etc ......

[abfa9358]

I was in France most of the week with work and today was our little ones birthday but I have managed to make a bit more progress.

The side plates are finished and have had the bearings fitted. To mill them I made some brass plugs and pressed them in to the bores in each plate. They were then gripped in the mill vice and squared up with a 20mm ripper mill. Also attached are pics of the other components.

Next week I think I will be squaring up the big steel block and fitting the chain links to it.

I've also started some of the CAD/CAM for the Howell V4 - I moved away from the Walleby.

So all in all not a bad week,

Software deployed at work = 1
Sticky birthday cakes made = 1
Happy 3 year olds = 1
Happy wife = 1
Progress in shed = 1

[abfa9358]

Just machined up the axles for the sprockets and fitted them in to the side plates and bearings. Everything fits well and spins with very little friction, I've made all the fits fairly loose so that I can nudge everything around when it gets bolted up to the Z axis motor mount.

Next job is to machine the sprockets add some grub screws and then fit to the axles. Then its jig plates and fitting the chains to the head.

On a different note, I've bought all the bits to have a go at a small high speed spindle. Not a new design just following what other people have done using RC BLDC outrunner motors combined with parallel shank ER collet chucks. Using the RC stuff makes control of the motor really cheap and easy. The PWM drive for the ESC is easy to generate from LinuxCNC and the Mesa 7i43 card. I probably should start a new thread for the build of the little spindle.

[abfa9358]

Back on it over the last few nights after a bit of faffing around designing raised beds and new borders for the garden in TurboCAD :tired: .....

Got the chain blocks mounted on the Z slide, bore the sprockets, finished the shafts, made some spacers and drilled the big steel block (still got all my finger tips!).

Also had a few more thoughts on the high speed spindle - in fact I've bought the bits since the counter balance is coming to an end. I'll probably start a new thread....

[abfa9358]

Got the weight attached to the chains tonight. All looks good and the motor makes much less noise when raising the head. At present the counter weight is around 50% the mass of the head and motor.
Link1
Link2

[abfa9358]

Finished the last stages of the conversion tonight, I fitted two guide rollers to the weight in order to prevent it moving around. The rollers are skate bearings with a steal rim in to which a groove is machined. The groove serves to retain an "O" ring which acts like a tyre and rolls against the mill column. I think I will create a build thread for the spindle.

[LongRat]

Really neatly done, no half measures. I admire your clear 'do it once, do it right' attitude. You won't have any problems with that set up I am sure.

[abfa9358]

Hey, thanks LongRat, very kind of you to say so!

Thread for the BLDC motor high speed spindle is here.

[FannBlade]

Thanks for the link. I will be watching both threads.

[abfa9358]

I think the conversion thread is probably going to cool off from now on. The little spindle is moving along nicely just the mount and the electrics to sort now. After that I'm going to build a PIC based tacho for the lathe and little spindle then I plan to make a start on the Howell V4 IC engine.

[Mad Welder]

Very nice.........and as LongRat already said no half measures.....a job done well, nice work.

[abfa9358]

So it's been a while since I last posted. Mill is working great! But what to do with the old lead screws?

Seemed a shame skip them, in the end I decided to make a sausage press out of the Z screw - I used a commercial chopping board for the moving and fixed pistons. Work great and saved a load of cash compared to buying one.

[LongRat]

Ha ha ahaaa, I still have my original screws too. My problem is I don't need a sausage press!

[digits]

Loving the sausage press! Like Longrat I probably don't need one either but CNC cider press sounds like a good up cycling project!

[abfa9358]

Cider press! Like that idea. Maybe there should be a competition for the best / most cunning up cycling of that box of bits that we all have at the back of the shed.

...and the sausage press works really well, it has transformed the home gluten free sausage making process.