Problem- Eldorado Bridgemill mill head removal

[leeharrysouth]

Hi all. I have an 05 Shoptask with the quadralift mill head on it. I bought it new and over the years have tweked it to my liking. I do have an issue with the lathe headstock alighnment and now I have the time (retired) to fix it. I need to pull the mill head off the machine. I figure the best way to do this is to remove the motor and mill head support beam. then simply put a strap around the mill head casting closs up to the quadralift assymbly, unbolt and pull the head off. I can then align the lathe headstock as needed and give it a good run in to make sure it is to my liking. then replace the mill head. Has anyone removed the mill head on this model as I have outlined? Any suggestions or comments.


thanks,

Johnny

[sharpshooter90]

Originally Posted by leeharrysouth Hi all. I have an 05 Shoptask with the quadralift mill head on it. I bought it new and over the years have tweked it to my liking. I do have an issue with the lathe headstock alighnment and now I have the time (retired) to fix it. I need to pull the mill head off the machine. I figure the best way to do this is to remove the motor and mill head support beam. then simply put a strap around the mill head casting closs up to the quadralift assymbly, unbolt and pull the head off. I can then align the lathe headstock as needed and give it a good run in to make sure it is to my liking. then replace the mill head. Has anyone removed the mill head on this model as I have outlined? Any suggestions or comments. thanks, Johnny

An 05 model should be a Bridgemill. You can do the job without completely removing the head-
Raise the head to its max height and lock down the tailstock support. Make a temporary support under the mill head casting. Remove the 4 big bolts holding the lower plate to the lathe spindle casting, and the 2 allen bolts holding the sheet metal housing to this plate. Now simply turn the lift screw as if you wanted to lower the head- this will raise the quadra lift assembly off the lathe column and you can go about your lathe alignment.

[leeharrysouth]

Thanks sharpshooter. Good point about brasing the mill head and simply jacking up the quadralift to allow adjustment of the lathe headstock. I wonder if the mill motor should be removed prior as it puts so much weight on one side of the mill head. In other words a unballanced condition. The only issue I can see with this option is that the brasing would have to be removed and mill bolted down to check lathe spindle alighnmet weather using dial indicator or taking a cut. I have found over the years that the best way to check alignment is to chuk up a one to one and one half inch dia. piece of metal about eight inches long. Take a light cut and measure its dia. for taper at both ends. I guess I could use my engine lift to hold the mill head stedy and then jack the quadralift up with bolts loosly in place. Then lower the mill head and bolt it down to take each test cut. Seems as though it would just be eaier to lift the mill head off and cover the top of the lathe headstock to do the job. Maybe I am looking at this too hard. Your input will be most apreciated.

Johnny