Folks

a little background -

I am a retired Mechanical Engineer Tech. I have been teaching shop for six years at the high school level in Iowa. This year, I am teaching a power course. I want to help the kids build a scale model of an old time factory. We will use a scale model steam engine (from Graham Industries - driven by compressed air) to turn two overhead line shafts. The line shafts will drive two rows of machinery below them. The kids will design, build and millwright the machines. The machines will be small (they would fit in a 5” x 5” x 5” cube). Each machine will perform a simple operation on a work piece as it passes down the conveyor line (which they will also build).

The kids will machine from scratch all the parts that go to build their factory machines.

I am avoiding CNC for this course. My kids are struggling with math concepts. As you know, kids are fascinated with the process of machining. It has big draw power. But their math abilities are weak. Making chips will be the carrot. Crunching the math for setup and manually driving the tables will be the stick. This is going to be fun.

what i need!!!!

I am late in getting started on this. The kids are raring to go and I am still ordering stuff. I am going to use Taig manual mills and one Lathemaster model ZAY7045FG mill. I am trying to determine the limits of the Taigs - i will shift tose jobs to the lathemaster. One limit may be the durability of the Taig table. Is it aluminum or iron?

Second - we will be boring and reaming in brass to 5/8" dia x .75 deep. Assuming I can get around the Z constrictions on the Taig, can it handle the job - or will I just see belt slippage?

Has anyone bought a Lathemaster model ZAY7045FG mill recently? Mr Bertrand at Lathemaster sounds like a good guy - but not in a hurry. I'm in a hurry - the fault is mine. Any suggestions on how to expedite?

thanks

Shopsteam

eBay..

The machines will probabally work just fine, you will need to use slower feedrates.. And step SLOWLY into the large bores...

I do not have a mini machine, but small machine = small cuts = steady but complete

Folks
I am late in getting started on this. The kids are raring to go and I am still ordering stuff. I am going to use Taig manual mills and one Lathemaster model ZAY7045FG mill. I am trying to determine the limits of the Taigs - i will shift tose jobs to the lathemaster. One limit may be the durability of the Taig table. Is it aluminum or iron?

The Taig mill table is anodized aluminum. Table durability isn't really an issue, generally.


Second - we will be boring and reaming in brass to 5/8" dia x .75 deep. Assuming I can get around the Z constrictions on the Taig, can it handle the job - or will I just see belt slippage?

The Taig really isn't good at boring, the slowest speed on the manual mill is 525 rpm, which is just too fast and results in vibration. You really won't enjoy drilling holes much over 3/8" on the Taig, unless you drill pilot holes, and 5/8" drilling is mush too large. As for reaming, again 525 is fast in some material, although not too bad in others. The main problem is the length of reamers. Definitely get the ER16 spindle if you can as it allows a greater range of tooling to be used (although you can only get aftermarket boring head adapters for the standard 3/4"-16 spindle AFAIK)

Nick

One limit may be the durability of the Taig table. Is it aluminum or iron?


If the kids are going to be making chips I would suggest putting a fixture plate on top of the mill table. These aren't too expensive and can be viewed as sacrificial. Mistakes will happen...

These are quite reasonably priced:
http://www.whitewolfairsmithing.com/taig.htm

If the kids are going to be making chips I would suggest putting a fixture plate on top of the mill table. These aren't too expensive and can be viewed as sacrificial. Mistakes will happen...

These are quite reasonably priced:
http://www.whitewolfairsmithing.com/taig.htm

i second that its alot easyer to replace a tooling plate then to replace the table and i am about sure a couple of the student will drill further then they are suppose to