Thread: my first mill

Hi Aaron,
I know one member with a 9' planer, he is a fair way from you though. We have discussed planing my LeBlonds ways. He goes by the user name Mark Gray, he was at one of the scrapefests.

If you can live with it for now i can use my shaper once it is scraped in, but that will be a few years away....

Ew

Hi Aaron,

Not sure how I'd mount it, I'd have to take a closer look. It's a mag chuck of course, and we would need to shim it level as best we can.

Some of that damage is way too deep to easily do much about, so I'd be thinking how to approach that side of the repair before going too far down the track.


Ray

Hi Aaron,

How wide are those grooves? The ones I had a go at were much wider. I've no idea where I got the size from but I was more in the 5mm wide ball park.

Stuart

Looking at those photos there is no way you are going to restore that table to a pristine surface, so I'd stop even thinking of doing so right now. Too much metal has to come off.

That leaves filling with a metal-filled epoxy or just accepting they're honourable scars caused by dishonourable operators, cleaning it down, maybe giving it a light grind, and using it. That, frankly, is what I'd do.

My B/port has a couple marks in the table done by a previous owner. They don't affect function. Ditto for my toolroom mill Natasha, one of her tables has a milling cutter scar. The previous owner had the top ground, it's flat & serviceable, life goes on. The other table is perfect but I suspect that's because it has almost never been used as it takes up an extra 100mm of not too generous Z space.

Too many people in my experience over the years want machines to be in pristine, just left the factory condition. Rarely happens unless you're very lucky or quite wealthy. The rest of us have to get on with using them as intended and ignore the blemishes.

You can PM me about the planer info if you wish.

PDW

Originally Posted by PDW

Looking at those photos there is no way you are going to restore that table to a pristine surface, so I'd stop even thinking of doing so right now. Too much metal has to come off.

That leaves filling with a metal-filled epoxy or just accepting they're honourable scars caused by dishonourable operators, cleaning it down, maybe giving it a light grind, and using it. That, frankly, is what I'd do.

My B/port has a couple marks in the table done by a previous owner. They don't affect function. Ditto for my toolroom mill Natasha, one of her tables has a milling cutter scar. The previous owner had the top ground, it's flat & serviceable, life goes on. The other table is perfect but I suspect that's because it has almost never been used as it takes up an extra 100mm of not too generous Z space.

Too many people in my experience over the years want machines to be in pristine, just left the factory condition. Rarely happens unless you're very lucky or quite wealthy. The rest of us have to get on with using them as intended and ignore the blemishes.

You can PM me about the planer info if you wish.

PDW

ya thanks pdw. Well put. A bit of reality. I was having a look this arvo. I was thinking of plugging some of the holes but really im not shore if its worth the trouble.
there is about 30 small holes and 10 bigger ones the bigger ones are not as deep just made with a bigger cutter.
Ill have a look at what epoxy"s are available.

Stu i didnt have the glasses but the lines are i think between 0.5 and 1 mm.

taking 2 mm of would get rid of most of it but there would still be plenty of bogged up ones.
aaron

just a few photos.
SAM_0956.jpgSAM_0958.jpgSAM_0959.jpgSAM_0960.jpgSAM_0961.jpgSAM_0962.jpg
Had the vertical head off the machine. in the first pic there is a damaged aluminum piece that surrounds the drive gear.
not to good damaged i think from careless removal of head.

Originally Posted by azzrock

Had the vertical head off the machine. in the first pic there is a damaged aluminum piece that surrounds the drive gear.
not to good damaged i think from careless removal of head.

Aaron,
There should not be a problem with that damage - it's just a guard to contain and direct oil splash within the head.
How far are do you intend to pull it down?
And - dare I ask - has the saddle been lubricated with grease?
Hopefully not, otherwise things may become a little more 'interesting'.
Cheers,
Bill

Hi again. can any body give a tip or two on removing the collet adapter sleeve from the vertical head?
its a mt4 sleeve. Ive had a few quick shots at it but really now need it out of there.
Ill get the camera warmed up later.
aaron

Originally Posted by azzrock

Ill get the camera warmed up later.
aaron

Aaron,
Do not try to get it out with the camera!

Seriously, this can be a major pain to remove.
I have read of people trying with a combination of heat, cold and force.
You have probably already got some penetrating oil (or PB Blaster etc) between the adapter sleeve and the quill and let it soak.

My thought is to extend the quill as far as possible and lock in position, then slowly warm the projecting quill and spindle until the spindle it is too hot to touch (around 60-70 degrees C). Probably it should be heated slowly (over hours rather than minutes), using a hot air gun on low, because the heat has to soak in through the quill and get past the bearings to warm the spindle, and it is probably good to avoid large thermal gradients in that beautifully made assembly. The ultimate aim is to get the spindle hotter than the adapter sleeve, but during this heating phase it would be hard to avoid heating the adapter along with the spindle. Then when its all hot, blast the inside of the adapter with something very cold -a can of freeze spray or CO2 snow or ... (liquid Nitrogen would do it without heating the spindle!).

At this point you would need to have every thing ready and to hand, because once you start to chill the adapter there will be only a short window of time while the adapter is cooler than the spindle, then the whole thing will quickly equalise in temperature. Ideally you would have a helper to apply the cold while you ready yourself with the spanner on the extractor nut. If you can lay your hands on a large belleville washer to put under the nut, you could pre-tension the thing to take advantage a momentary loosening, otherwise just do up the nut hard before you start. Failing all of that that you may need to remove the spindle.

Best of luck.
Cheers,
Bill
PS just about to post when it occurred to me that if you can get a large thick washer under the extractor nut you may be able to get a 3 jaw puller onto it, bearing against a pin reaching down to the flat face of the drawbolt. That may be more effective than the extractor nut.

Originally Posted by WCD

Aaron,
Do not try to get it out with the camera!

Seriously, this can be a major pain to remove.
I have read of people trying with a combination of heat, cold and force.
You have probably already got some penetrating oil (or PB Blaster etc) between the adapter sleeve and the quill and let it soak.

My thought is to extend the quill as far as possible and lock in position, then slowly warm the projecting quill and spindle until the spindle it is too hot to touch (around 60-70 degrees C). Probably it should be heated slowly (over hours rather than minutes), using a hot air gun on low, because the heat has to soak in through the quill and get past the bearings to warm the spindle, and it is probably good to avoid large thermal gradients in that beautifully made assembly. The ultimate aim is to get the spindle hotter than the adapter sleeve, but during this heating phase it would be hard to avoid heating the adapter along with the spindle. Then when its all hot, blast the inside of the adapter with something very cold -a can of freeze spray or CO2 snow or ... (liquid Nitrogen would do it without heating the spindle!).

At this point you would need to have every thing ready and to hand, because once you start to chill the adapter there will be only a short window of time while the adapter is cooler than the spindle, then the whole thing will quickly equalise in temperature. Ideally you would have a helper to apply the cold while you ready yourself with the spanner on the extractor nut. If you can lay your hands on a large belleville washer to put under the nut, you could pre-tension the thing to take advantage a momentary loosening, otherwise just do up the nut hard before you start. Failing all of that that you may need to remove the spindle.

Best of luck.
Cheers,
Bill
PS just about to post when it occurred to me that if you can get a large thick washer under the extractor nut you may be able to get a 3 jaw puller onto it, bearing against a pin reaching down to the flat face of the drawbolt. That may be more effective than the extractor nut.

ok bill thanks. I have tried to remove it. not T tried but Ive had a little go at it.
I built a dam in the bottom of the adapter. Filled it up with freeze spray and gently tried a slid hammer type rig. to remove the sleeve.
i should easily be able to drum up a belleville washer to help. ill start to muster suitable pullers and read your post again.
cheers

Aaron,
have you tried running the motor yet?
I've rewired and tested the single speed motor I spoke to you about that suits your VFD - if yours fails to run successfully or too 'weak'.
After BobL's tests, yours should run OK set to 29Hz base frequency in Y configuration, just producing about half the maximum design torque. The advantage would be that you can retain the two speeds of course.
Let us know how you go.

i havent tried it yet joe. but really need to to get my colchester running.
So initially the loss of toque is fine.
I have been very busy preparing for a big adventure this summer.
When i get a spare min i often find some thing out the back related to
do. if i only it did not take me forever to figure out how to spell words like
initially . Id have loads more time
aaron

The sleeve is still stuck. I have a puller set that i thought might work. unfortunately were not smaller enough.
I havnt even got the nut to budge yet

puller.jpgdeckel1.jpg