[turbotoys]

I just received shipment of my mill a few weeks ago and am very disappointed in the quality of the mill.

Upon receiving the mill i noticed some gouges near the ways and e-mailed charter oak about it and Paul replied that it wont effect the operation.

Upon tear down to put the cnc conversion in it I noticed that the slide in the lower part of the z is loose - I can wobble it so I tightened up the Gib so that it can slide with a little effort. Now as the slide gets within 6" of the top it binds and I cannot get it to go passed the spot.

Any suggestions on a fix for this without having to send this whole mill back? It seems to be binding the same spot where the deep gouges are on the top. I have all ready took a file to try and cleanup the gouges but didn't improve anything.

Attachment 200938
Attachment 200940

[victorofga]

try to scrape it..
grind a scraper of a flat file and give it a try.. that's the only way.. there must be a blue colored paint like something.. that apply thin and put on slider.. that blue stuff shows where need more scraping..
make little spots crossing each others, likely 1/4x1/4 area or larger little.. lookalike a checker pattern.. that holds oil better..

don't assemble fully but try after a little scraping.. put onto slider and the adjustable wedge and try.. til you can slide troughly with same effort..

to sending out for milling can be very costly compared with machine price..


edit

even it were not binding, scraping definitely helps to hold oil on the surfaces..

[turbotoys]

I wouldn't feel comfortable with scraping it nor should I have to - It is brand new from Charter Oak. If anything, its going back in their lap and they can send me one that doesn't bind. Too me it looks like the way was damaged and someone tried to fix it - either in the factory or in charter oaks facility.

[victorofga]

youre right since its a new machine it should work..


you asked to fix without sending back..

I just was thinking what if...
I was thinking what if it were mine.. you already identified the problem..

yes I noticed those marks, and they shouldn't be there as a new machine.. I tried to answer for your question.. based on, if it were mine..

those gouges possible made some ""swelling"" on the angled sides, you can see with a tool...
Straight Edge Vintage Machinist Toolmaker Straight Edge 5" Long | eBay

or using a ground hss bar..

youll see as material proturing.. light comes trough at the edge..

very possible where the gauges are, under them on the angled part you need to file a little and it will works..

of course you can go on the rout to sending back and waiting for its comes back..
personally me, I like to work with if already it is in my house..


paul possible young and didn't worked with cast iron before.. that's why he was thinking it shouldn't affect the free movement..

its not bad.. the handscraping is disappeared ... grinders already makes better works like in the late 70's when I worked with metal in machineshops..
so even paul were machinist he possible didn't learned it..

[victorofga]

I just checked their site.. beyond this minor issue, I think you got a good deal.. they retrofit with servo control.. for this workenvelope I think they have good price..

[turbotoys]

Thanks for the quick reply on this - before I made this thread I removed the material that was protruding from the gouge. I put a straight edge on there like you suggested and it is perfect - I think there is more to this binding then just the gouge. I took a red sharpie and marked up the ways and then ran the saddle over it to see where the low spots vs high spots were and it removes the marker in just a few spots and from the look of it there are a few spots where it is rubbing hard on the main surface - not the angled section. I would love to fix this this but I don't want to affect the accuracy of the column and like i said before its new - I should be able to plug this in and use it.

I may contact someone local to see how much it would cost to have them fix this.

I sent an e-mail to charter oak - guess we'll see what they say.

[victorofga]

I like that sharpie thing..
it shows you were thinking same way...

well.. top might be different settings.. means they roughed them out, and for finishing they clamped again, but somehow not same way..

if it is not the small spot only... then I tend you send back to charter oak.. they might argue the price you can get locally..

it is not simply rework the prism, but it must be 90 deg very much to the base..


the worst I seeing of cases like yours, that you purchased a machine, it is in your house, in your shop and you cant use..

just sending forth and back takes days..
to finding a shop and the shop makes it locally also can take days mightbe a week..

since it is heavy, the shipping wont be cheap so, when price calculated it also need to take into account.. so eventually the local fix can be affordable..

[Runner4404spd]

the ways on that machiner are supposed to be ground. those look like they were chiseled into place. i would send it back and not worry about it. the only problem your going to see is the next one will be pretty much the same if they come from the same lot of mills. i had to lap in my ways on my IH but i got the last of the pre ground way machines. once its lapped in everything moves nice and smooth, again you got a new machine and this shouldn't be an issue for you.

from what it sounds like to me is that the column when ground wasn't sitting flat and was allowed to sag in a spot and now you have a low and high spot that need to be addressed. yeah it sucks but there may not be anything at all that you can do about the quality of machines coming from china. i wonder what the current fix is per charter oak.

[tyler774]

Would you be able to verify the sides of the dovetail are parallel to each other and not tapered. Thats what I would be looking at first. I'm thinking you would need 2 short sections of ground shafting or large dowels to fit in the dovetail then measure over them with a micrometer. Compare measurements at either end of the slide.

If your dovetails are indeed parallel you probably just need to break in the slide assembly for a while in a looser state, then you could likely snug up the jibs.

I own one of the turn key mills, purchased a few years back from Gene & Tommy. Some one that has experience with a conversion can likely add to what I've mentioned above.

Good luck.

Tyler

[turbotoys]

Heres a few pics with some dykem. I have a pic of both sides of the ways. I am searching for some dowels to check the dovetails.

Attachment 201092
Attachment 201094
Attachment 201096
Attachment 201098

[Runner4404spd]

looks like a crappy chinese grinding job. sure the ways are ground but they aren't flat. anyway, if you don't want to send it back i think lapping it in is your only option, or have ground and or scraped locally. you can always lap it first and see if it works, if not then send it out for grinding. scraping would be the ultimate but probably prohibitively expensive.

[victorofga]

im careful with opinion.. but white spots showing as IF ... the slider sit up on the top..

still im tending to say, a shop can mill it and you can scrape the milled surface.. from a good milled surface the scraping not hard..
its actually hard if one try to align with scraping.. but making just a minor scraping to keeping oil.. that don't keeps long to make don't even hard..

but again it is only my opinion.. in trade school we had to make it..

if angles are matching then with dowels you can make measurement about paralellity.. that also would be interesting to know..
for dovels might some endmills ?

thank you for update..

[Charter Oak]

We are going to do our best to get you up and going as quickly and accurately as possible (obviously with no extra cost to you). I received the "Dykem" pictures last night. We will all look them over today and come up with a solution, even if it means replacing the entire mill. I'm sorry that you are experiencing this delay getting the mill running and I'm sure that you have projects that you would like to be using it for.
I'll call later today to discuss options.
-Paul