Mill Column Mods

[digitalmdj]

Here is a picture of the new Miil Guides I am installing. They are 5 inchs longer for a total of 20 inches and fit tighter in the bore by .001. They are chrome plated 1045 steel. We started to make the new lift screw using B7 5/8"-8 acme all thread. The lift motor is a 1/6 hp 57 RPM 115volt gear motor. The lift nut will be modified by boring out the center and threading the flange and installind a bronze nut that is taped to size.

[fireman26]

Hey,
What are you planning to do with the old parts you are removing? I have a Shopmaster 2000 without the Quadralift and want to modify it. I would be interested in taking the old parts off your hands. Plus maybe some close up pictures and maybe a drawing or two!

Jeff

[sharpshooter90]

Fireman,
Here is a message I copied from the Shoptask users group- maybe his web site will help you in building your own.

1498.4 in reply to 1498.3

I am working on a home brew Quadralift. So far I have only a pile of parts. I based my design on the pictures available at this website: http://www.ktmarketing.com/quadraliftpictures.htm There are enough detail photos to begin scaling if you import these JPGs into AUTOCad. You need to be careful on the perspective forshortning at the vanishing points. By careful scaling vertically and comparitive measurements from your ShopTask you can come up with a reasonable design. I will have to take the mill head off to find out what the bolt patterns are then put it back together to drill the plates!

[digitalmdj]

Fireman where do you live. I dont think I will be using the posts for anything. They are 32mm OD and 15 inches long. You have to pay for the shipping. I can also make a template of the upper and lower plates so you have something to go by. All the other parts are just junk and not worth salvaging. The bolts are going to be replaced but the old ones are a low grade of steel and not worth the trouble. I will post some more pictures as we go. Its a piece at a time from here on out. We have to machine new bushings for the mill gear box and repair two badly machined holes in the casting. I also had to fix the mill hand feed backlash and that took some thinking to get around the problems in the poor design of the pinion shaft. There wasn't enough room to shim the pinion shaft in. So I had to use a counter bore and a needle thrust bearing to get enough room on the pinion shaft to move it closer to the bull gear to remove the backlash. Also new bushings to take up the slop that the poorly fitted primitive bushings had. I will take some pictures this weekend even though we are not done yet to show some progress. We are planing to make our own gearbox housing but for now we are stuck using the thin casting that the shoptask was sent with. I guess when we get done we will have enough tooling to compete with shoptask . So we might have to import the castings from china and build our own machines here in the United States. They left us with no choice with the quality problems we now know how to build our own machine and get the parts we need from suppliers in the United States. Use your own ideas and if you need help on parts just ask.

[fireman26]

digitalmdj,
Any idea how much it would cost to ship them to Sherman, CT? Fedex Ground is probably the cheapest.
Jeff

[digitalmdj]

It won't be to much but you will have to wait until we machine the ends on the new posts first. My friend is behind on some of the machine work and I will have to wait a week or so to finish the posts. Then I can send them to you.

[fireman26]

Just let me know when your ready.

Thanks,
Jeff

[digitalmdj]

A friend couldn't get to some of my stuff so it will be another week until I can give him the posts to drill and tap the ends. When its free you can't complain.

[digitalmdj]

Here is a picture of the new material I am using for the support for the mill column. It's 50% lighter and just as strong. The original is bent and not straight. I needed a extra few inches for the new end support also. I will be able to mount the motor where ever I want.