[akraven]

Sorry missed the question the first I read it. I have not removed the spindle head. How did they keep the shim in place considering that the head was supposed to pivot and would shift any shim? Any new updates?

[FannBlade]

New mill tower got finished today. Weld then ground flat...all no charge!!!! Although he did say I owed him a favor now...then showed my some rust on his truck


Got the lathe painted today.


I used Locktite Brushable Ceramic. This is the hardest thing I've ever used. This stuff is SO thick you can't hardly get it out of the can let alone spread it with a brush.
BUT It is a really HARD finish.
More food for thought prices for this stuff is all over the board from $37.95 to $176.00 for a 2lbs kit. I paid around $41.00 shipped.
Don't think you are getting a qt. it's 2lbs. That equates to paint just above the picture on the can and when mixed with hardener appears to be just short of 1/2 qt..


Finish is terrible it just doesn't go on to smooth.










Some electrical getting started. VFD mounted on back out of the way. Need to order ext cable to move panel to the front.

[akraven]

Thats some interesting paint you have there Fannblade. Glad its tough cuz it sure is rough
The tower came out really nice with nice welds. Progress!

[FannBlade]

Glad its tough cuz it sure is rough
The tower came out really nice with nice welds. Progress!

I know I can't hardly look at it,kinda makes my stomach turn a little!
He did great job on the welds,he even TIG'ed the corners to give me room for bolt heads. He's going to bring a 12" precision Starett level over next week so I can get it leveled.

[FannBlade]

Little more head way today. Started putting thing back together to see how things are going to fit up. Tomorrow I will re-install spindle and work on getting motor in place.

[smallblock]

Fannblade,
I'm a bit confused- What is the purpose of building that extra tower and mounting the mill head on the tailstock end? You still have the same issue of too much distance from the quill to the table, plus, now you must leave the tailstock off, or lose most of your milling capacity, as the carriage will hit the tailstock long before it goes under the mill spindle.

[FannBlade]

I hear ya, there are some cons. Luckily tail stock will lift off so I can keep it out of the way when it's not needed. I plan on making a tool holder to handle all my center drilling.
I'm rarely more then 5" off the chuck so don't have much use for a live center etc.

As for the new post it's 4" shorter than the old location and that should help with height issue. I may make another one that is 4" shorter then the one I have now so I can hit the table. If doesn't work out I can always just move it back on top of the spindle.

[FannBlade]

Little update:
Got the spindle back together and the motor mounted and even had a new belt that was the right length (wrong width) so I could run in the spindle so I could recheck bearing preload.
Actually think the pulleys will work out fine as is for speed, I will need to pickup a tach to check speed.

One problem I have is spindle bearing oil since I have removed the drive gear(s) I will no longer have a splash effect to lube bearings.
My question is would there be any problem if I filled the spindle housing 1/8" to 1/4" above the bottom bearing race to give a more consistent lubrication...but that would only leave around 1" to 2" of empty space for foaming and heat. Any thoughts?

[miljnor]

Nice! can't wait to see the finished product!

[FannBlade]

Nice! can't wait to see the finished product!

I can't wait either.

Today I decided to move lathe to the new shop area and finish painting walls so I could get all the electrical run,cabinets moved and hang some lights.




BUT due to my excellent foresite, planning and my immense amount of knowledge. Some dumb a** (I won't name names) was to stupid to think about how I was going to squeeze 47" deep unit through a 36" door!

PLAN B.........Learn to use tape measure! :drowning:

[miljnor]

oops!

sorry to hear that... I did that exact same thing building my first mill at my shop only to take it home and have it NOT be able to go through the garage door because it was 6" to high. And my mill weighed in at 800lbs+ to transport back and forth to work.

I feel your pain.

[FannBlade]

oops!

sorry to hear that... I did that exact same thing building my first mill at my shop only to take it home and have it NOT be able to go through the garage door because it was 6" to high. And my mill weighed in at 800lbs+ to transport back and forth to work.

I feel your pain.

Some things seem so simple! :idea:
Did you ever get it in or did you have to leave it at work?

[miljnor]

I had to take the mill apart to get it out of the enclosure then cut all the mounts off and re-cut and weld new ones on. That gave me about 4" then I cut the top off of the enclosure and shortened it another 3". Haven't re-made the top yet but it doesn't spit much in the way of chips out the top.

I'm looking at a tool changer for it, when time permits. So I will revisit the top, after I determine what I want for a tool changer.

[FannBlade]

Got couple things done in the last few days.
Keyboard tray
E-Stop
PC hooked up
Hooked up stepper motor to make sure it would work with the PC I'm using and it worked. I did have a problem at first with stepper stopping after few seconds, come to find out I must have hit the dip switches for the amp settings...once reset all seems good.

Motor mounted. When I ordered motor this mount was shown in "recommend" Items and was only $8.00 wasn't sure it would fit but i'm glad it did sure made life easy.










LED fans I laying around.


Thought this one was blue...but it will work.

[FannBlade]

Got the control panel made today. It's 1/4" clear lexan and I painted the back with some good ol Krylon satin black for plastic.

VFD mounted.

[FannBlade]

Not much head way. Nascar took up most of the weekend. But did add some switches while waiting out the rain delay.


LED switches on the left:
1. PC Power
2. Reset
3. Hard drive #1
4. Hard drive #2

LED indicators
1. PC Power
2. Hard drive activity

[LUCKY13]

Filling it will oil high should be fine as long as you use the right oil. THe head on the RF-45 mill fills close to the top, but none foming oil, and a vent is needed.



Your build looks great, cant wait to see when finished.


Jess

[FannBlade]

Filling it will oil high should be fine as long as you use the right oil. THe head on the RF-45 mill fills close to the top, but none foming oil, and a vent is needed.



Your build looks great, cant wait to see when finished.


Jess

Thanks! That's how I will handle it.

Hoping to work on that in the morning. Going to get some pipe fittings, one 90 and straight with cap so I can fill it above cover plate. My plan is to set height to actual fill line to make it easy to check.

Also have a LED temp sensor I will install to keep track of oil temp. Nothing to base before temp. on but will be fun to see it heat up.

Started to hit me today that it's going to take a LONG time to wiring all this.

[Mad Welder]

Great build and WOW can you paint....that's some detail with the clock cogged wheels and lightening bolt....looking forward to the progress...great build :cheers:

[FannBlade]

Thanks. Keeping a keen eye on your build also.

Today:
Took spindle housing back off. I have a slight noise that I think is coming from the pulley rattling against the keyway so I'm going to add couple set screws. Just to be sure I decided to pull bearings and replace them while it's down. I'll pop in a pair of Temkins.

Gutted all the gears and stripped the paint back to bare metal...I just couldn't take looking at it another day, have bad feeling I will strip lathe in the morning.

Now that the housing is full of holes I will have to make some aluminum covers and gaskets to seal things back up. Visions of a scratch built housing roaming around in my head.

Just to make things more complicated I'm going to start planing a CNC router capable of doing aluminum. Wife said NO to the Tormach 1100!