New crazy idea....

[pete from TN]

I was milling some aluminum with my Lathemaster mill last night and thinking about my pending cnc conversion of this mill and the issues some have talked about concerning the y axis travel. I dunno what mine will be once it is cnc converted but I started thinking about the position of the spindle relative to the center of the table when the table is generally in the center of the travel in x and y. My spindle is about 2/3 of the way toward the front of the machine instead of the center. So I started thinking about a way to fix that. It occurred to me that it might be possible to machine a heavy steel plate maybe an inch thick or more that would basically go between the base and the column. The plate might be drilled for the base bolt pattern and then bolted down to the base and then drilled offset towards the rear maybe two inches or so and then tapped to accept the bolts that will hold down the column. This would make for a more useable travel towards the rear of the y travel and also make for tramming the head a little easier. I know that there would be some amount of considerable force applied to this plate but since it would be basically sandwiched between cast iron surfaces and using some seriously beefy grade eight bolts, as long as you did not lever it too far off the rear it should be fine. What say ye? any opinions? It sure would be nice to be able to use some of the y travel that is mostly to the rear that I seemingly never use. It would also give you that much more space under the spindle not that it is really ever an issue in this particular machine. Thanks for any input...peace guys...


Pete Matos
865-363-9218
Matospeter@charter.net