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Yea, make some clear lexan covers!
-Jason
Thanks guys,
I just used that piece of accordion tube for the cross feed screw as a temporary protection measure. It will be replaced with something more suitable and not so f-ugly.
The z-axis screw unless using a line boring bar with the cutter located way back, is always out of the way and needs no cover at all.
Steve
I just finished this project. It is of course a small drilling and milling head with a rack and pinion quill. The motor is from a mini lathe.
The housing was taken from an old cheap import drill press. I cut it down and boxed it in. Then indicated the quill dead level and flycut the mounting surface.
It originally had a mt2 tapered spindle.
I made a new spindle out of some 1144 stress proof. It is a 3/8" end mill holder type spindle.
The spindle has 1 bearing at each end of the quill cartridge and I added a bearing preload nut. The splined drive has 2 bearings.
Steve
Also, tried out a simple line boring op. The machine makes it so easy!
Here is a boring bar reducer sleeve. It's made of delrin.
And a pic of a simple line boring setup on some pipe.
Steve
2 more pics of the milling head with a better angle as it was pointed out in another forum that it looked like the motor would interfere with other parts of the machine. No, there is no such issue.
The machine is now basically finished. Additional accessories will be added for even more functionality. Hope everybody enjoyed the build. Now it's time to put the beast to work.
Steve
All I have to say is WOW!!
I would never have gotten anywhere close to this w/o CAD and a ton $$$.
Great job!
-Jeff
Wow very cool machine. Is there anything U cant build??
Probably NOT. You ready for me to come pick it up now Steve, so you can start on something new...LOLOriginally Posted by Joezx10r
Hi Steve, Just got onto your thread on this m/c build. Rube gave me the thread ID, but I missed the blow by blow build notes from previous posts.
I'm awed at your build rate.
One thing with building from the ground up is you get to have a M/c that does what you want it to do, as opposed to buying one in and tolerating the shortcomings of design/cost problems, much like the Taiwanese mill drills with their cost cutting round columns that allowed the head to vibrate when doing even the most simple milling ops.
I will say that it does resemble a horizontal borer in parts, but that is the beauty of a custom build, looks mean less than capability.
The combination of pieces you used certainly makes for a neat M/c, and you are without doubt a workaholic bar none. LOL.
One thing you will definately want and that is a MUCHO BIGGO angle plate and at the same time a large rotary table.
I would also invest in one of those boring and facing heads.
They cost a bit more but are without equal for facing work.
This is not to be confused with one of those plain boring heads that only allow you to adjust the boring bar to get the diameter when the spindle is stationary.
This will enable you to face a bore square to it's axis with recesses as well.
The facing slide in the headstock is usually a feature of a horizontal borer and is powered to feed in both directions.
The horizontal borer is much like a vertical mill, but on it's side, so if you have work that is milled, drilled and bored, such as the cylinders in a model engine block, then a large angle plate makes this a piece of cake.
Where the hori borer comes into it's own is when you're line boring, where everything must be in line and square to each other, otherwise most of the operations are as per Bridgeport vertical mill type work.
The rotary table is vital if you want to work on each end of a bore, and ensure that end faces are symetrical where needed.
The fact that you can also use it as a CNC lathe, and in addition have a centre height capability to turn really big diametres is something that if you went to a M/c tool showroom would make the salesman scratch his head trying to match it, apart from a conventional plain hori borer costing an arm and a couple of legs.
Even a conventional hori borer can't really be adapted to turning properly, and CNC is probably not an option for one anyway.
I would have gone to a 3000 rpm 3 phase motor with VFD for the drive, but with at least a 10:1 primary speed reduction to get the low down torque needed when boring fairly large holes, like 100 mm diam in steel plate, which needs about 75 rpm maximum with High Speed Steel cutters, also if you are contemplating doing any iron castings etc, but that's purely a personal requirement.
Blue is my favourite colour too, and I've gone from battleship grey to gunmetal blue for my machinery repaint work, a bit darker than your blue, but not so sombre as the old time dark grey machinery colour from days of yore, although I would not fault the grey for Bridgeport mills.
Ian.
Hi Steve, Like everyone else here, all I have to say is WOW. Superb build, and great looking machine.
2 Questions:
1. What type of paint is that? I like the look of it.
2. Can you tell us the part numbers of the upgraded spindle bearings that you used? My mill needs some new ones, and the last set only lasted about 6 months.
Thanks,
Paul
Thanks everybody!
Hi Ian, this machine was fun to build. It is quite capable. The portable milling/drilling head works really well with it to.
The 3 speed planetary transmission can provide mucho torque at speeds as low as 20rpm. The transmission is my favorite part of this machine. It is dead quiet and smooth as silk. The clutch has already saved my arse a few times.
I do have a 360' cheapo table for it. Eventually once my wallet recovers as well as my motivation, I will completely redo the cross slide with a low profile rotary table as I know that is really a must have option.
If I add another stepper ( and I will eventually) to the headstock's z-axis it will be able to face parts without a auto facing head with cnc power.
Since the spindle is also stepper driven ( for indexing and 4th axis type milling work) it's quite a versatile little machine.
Paul,
It is just rustoleum Blue hammerite paint. The bearings are SKF abec 3 explorer series deep grooves. I should have gone with the tapered rollers. I don't have the part number handy but http://www1.mscdirect.com carries them in the size needed.
could you post more pics? i think i love and need this bit i am not sure?
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