[gopher]

ok guys i started lapping my y axis ways at 6am. its now 3pm. my arms are about to fall off. i cleaned it up, lubed it, and its still giving me trouble.

tighten gibs on the top or bottom, saddle is lose in the middle.

tighten gibs in the middle, saddle binds up on the top or bottom.

i actually think its worse now!



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[rewster]

ok guys i started lapping my y axis ways at 6am. its now 3pm. my arms are about to fall off. i cleaned it up, lubed it, and its still giving me trouble.

tighten gibs on the top or bottom, saddle is lose in the middle.

tighten gibs in the middle, saddle binds up on the top or bottom.

i actually think its worse now!



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Had the same problem.

Step back. Acquire 6-pack. Consume. Re-visit later. Repeat as necessary.

[gopher]

did you eventually fix the uneven tigtness just by lapping? what grit?

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[The Blight]

Please explain how you are doing this. It is quite possible that you are doing it wrong.

[gopher]

i blob on some compound on the dovetails. tighten the set scerws so its tight but not to tight so i cant move it. then push it back amd forth. retighten the screws if it get loose and add more compound if it starts getting dry. i try to focus most of the work on the front and back.

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[The Blight]

No wonder it's taking a damn long time!

I wonder if this is really a good way to do it. You don't have any control of where you are removing material, and you don't know if it's the correct place either!

I did a completely different way, and I will try to explain how I did it.
Just a note. I know there can creep in some error in this, but it gets pretty damn close! I can't detect large amounts of slop on my machine after I did this.

Note!!! Forgot to write this down somewhere, but it's really important! You will have to make sure that you are not grinding the Y and X so much that they are not perpendicular to each other any more! Measure along the way as you go! Same goes for both axis being parallel.

Step 1:
The first thing I did was to take the saddle, and sand down both X and Y axis dovetail on a precision granite plane (just the horizontal part where the two parts meet). Just so that I had a plane surface that I knew was flat.

Step 2:
Then I placed a couple strips of emery clots / sanding paper on the bottom of the saddle (Y axis) with some double sided tape, and proceeded to grind the dovetail on the base of the machine (just the horizontal part where there is contact. I didn't use the gib strip while doing this). This ensures that you have a completely flat horizontal surface on the Y axis dovetail. Remove the emery cloth / sanding paper that you attached!

Step 3:
Then I sanded down the Y, X and Z axis gib on the granite plane (any surface you KNOW is flat will do) to ensure that it was flat. With this done, I attached a strip of emery cloth/sanding paper to the gib strip with some double sided tape. This I used to grind the angled side of the Y axis dovetail on the saddle. This should ensure that you now have a completely flat surface on that as well. Remove the emery cloth / sanding paper that you attached!

Step 4:
With this surface flat, I attached a strip of emery cloth / sanding paper to the angled part of the Y axis dovetail on the saddle. I then used this to grind the angled part of the Y axis dovetail on the base. I did this without the gib (don't want the other side to dictate how flat this side should be.. at least thats my theory. I know it's hard to keep up the pressure, and it takes a lot of elbow grease). Continue grinding until you have a nice flat surface. Remove the emery cloth / sanding paper that you attached!

Step 5:
Now that you have these flat, you can again attach a piece of emery cloth / sanding paper to the gib strip, and place the saddle with the gib strip back on the machine. Tighten the gib strip just a hair, and move it back and forth by hand. This will grind down the other side of the Y axis dovetail on the base. Continue tightening until you can't feel more or less resistance on either end (move it further out then the end of the dovetail so that you are not just using the end of the gib strip for grinding the end of the dovetails!!!). Remove the emery cloth / sanding paper that you attached!

Step 6:
Apply the same process to the X and Z axis.

Step 7:
Beer! You have earned it! I use fair amounts of this during the process as well.

It takes a lot of time, but it's worth it. If you want, you can use lapping compound as well when done. I don't see the need for this as you will be creating surfaces where there will be no room for oil. Keeping them a little "rough" is good the way I see it.

Final note. Please comment, and tell me if there is a better way, or some way of improving on this. This is the way I did it with my machine, and I can't guarantee that you will have as good success with it as I did.

"Post quick reply" well thats a lie... Sorry for the wall of text.

[gopher]

Wow! This sounds good. im going to try it, tomorrow. need to drink beer today.

what grit paper did you use? im guessibg 220? did you do it dry? or wet sand? I would think sand paper is to fragile and that it would clog up fast?

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[The Blight]

I actually used 150 dry. I just used sand paper (pretty tough though) because thats what I had from a previous project.

I'm now envious because I don't have any! Got to buy some for this weekend I believe.

[gopher]

humm oki posted a couple you tube videos. obe about the lapping and one qbout the dro scale mounting. however the first video didnt go through, so heres the second one if anyone wants to see.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM4vdaMh-rw"]YouTube - x2 mini mill chineese scale dro mount y axis[/nomedia]

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[gopher]

heres the video showing the saddle and base

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOkitYfJum0&sns=em"]YouTube - hf minim mill x2 lapped way problems. . .[/nomedia]

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[pete from TN]

Looking at the video of the way scraping you did, I am almost surprised at how GOOD the original ways were from what I am reading. You are kinda too far out on one side which means you just made a dip in the center of the ways. If I were you and I wanted it RIGHT, I would seriously consider taking that base and saddle down to your local friendly machine shop and have them plop it onto their surface grinder and ask them to clean it up for you. I cannot imagine it would cost that much and you would be time ahead and KNOW it is right. I think you can spend a lot of time futsing with stuff when sometimes it is just better to take it down to a pro and have them fix it for you. I know I have a local machine shop that would do that for a pretty low price. Good luck and peace


Pete

[mwood3]

I agree with pete, at least get a quote for the surface grinding...im not sure if any old shop can grind those surfaces under the dovetails though...(i dont have much experince with surface grinding, just know what I hae seen) this might be why it wasnt done from the factory. another thing to mention is that the straight gibs can be a pain to set just right...

good luck

[The Blight]

Thats why I suggested grinding it down on the surface plate. I corrected the cross slide on my milling machine this way. It was just as bad. As far as I can remember, I got it within 0.0004 on the whole surface (no part worse than this).

Checking how much to remove the same way you did your measurements.

Measuring the base the way you did doesn't matter at all. It doesn't even matter if its way off as it can be corrected by tramming the mill.

Surface grinding that is not going to expensive (just the top parts of the saddle that is). Hell! I would have done it for free if you were close by! We actually have a surface grinder at work, and I don't know why I didn't use it. I'm pleased with the way it is at the moment, so I wont redo it.

Great video! Good camera control too! I enjoyed watching it.

[mwood3]

Thats why I suggested grinding it down on the surface plate. I corrected the cross slide on my milling machine this way. It was just as bad. As far as I can remember, I got it within 0.0004 on the whole surface (no part worse than this).

Checking how much to remove the same way you did your measurements.

Measuring the base the way you did doesn't matter at all. It doesn't even matter if its way off as it can be corrected by tramming the mill.

Surface grinding that is not going to expensive (just the top parts of the saddle that is). Hell! I would have done it for free if you were close by! We actually have a surface grinder at work, and I don't know why I didn't use it. I'm pleased with the way it is at the moment, so I wont redo it.

Great video! Good camera control too! I enjoyed watching it.

if one side of that saddle is way off compared to the other the table will be tilted in the x axis...you would have to tram the column to comp for that...you wouldnt want it to be too far off though or you wount get full contact on your flats, you would be riding on 2 edges...and most likely get some binding

[gopher]

ok thanks. can you believe my wife lefts me do this crap on the kitchen table, and helps film it! shes really great!

anyway im gonna try 1 more time with the sanding method, then if im still not happy with it its going the machine shop.

will report back in a few days with the results


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[The Blight]

if one side of that saddle is way off compared to the other the table will be tilted in the x axis...you would have to tram the column to comp for that...you wouldnt want it to be too far off though or you wount get full contact on your flats, you would be riding on 2 edges...and most likely get some binding

The saddle has to be parallel, the base doesn't. If the base was 10deg off, it wouldnt really matter. Tilting the collumn would correct it. It would look stupid though.

[sansbury]

There's no need to grind the dovetails--you can just re-machine them with a 60-degree dovetail cutter. You will need to make new gibs, if you make them out of brass it will improve the smoothness of the machine.

[The Blight]

It involves quite a bit of work I would say, but if you have the time, and equipment... From the last minute of your video it doesn't seem like it. Gets a bit harder with that in mind. So it might not be a "just do it" thing sansbury.

When doing what I did, make sure you are grinding both sides (the horisontal parts) of the dovetails at the same time. If you want to correct for it not being parallel, put more pressure on the side that is the highest.

I won't commit to anything now, but I will try to shoot a short video this weekend explaining the process a bit more. Won't be as good as yours, but I will try!

Sounds like my girlfriend is just as forgiving as your wife, and that can be seen by the amount of machines and stuff I have filled our living room with. She even suggested getting rid of the kitchen table to make a tiny workshop for me!

[mwood3]

Sounds like my girlfriend is just as forgiving as your wife, and that can be seen by the amount of machines and stuff I have filled our living room with. She even suggested getting rid of the kitchen table to make a tiny workshop for me!

you did notice the sarcasm and eye rolling she was doing right ? :stickpoke

[gopher]

im going to a place called expert machine repair at 10:30am. they seem to know their **** by looking at their website. im going to get a quote. hopefully it wont be too much.

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