Another homemade milling machine

[shipto]

Sorry hit send before I finished:
This being the case I can now look at modifying the head casting to take the milling head once the machine is working reasonably well.

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[mexican jon]

Made the base while at work today and fitted the column to it tonight. I could do with a decent square as it seems a tad off but I cant be sure my set square is accurate, however there is one major problem with the 76x38 when its tight it is spreading around the bed at the bottom but not at the top so the head is being taken off square so I either need to use something better or weld something in to stop the bottom spreading.
In pic 3 I show the table in about the position it will be on the knee and the hole in the base is where I am planning to put the lifting screw for the Z axis, I would welcome opinions on wether I should move that forward nearer to the center of the travel? my first thoughts where that the screw should be reasonably close to the column to ensure the knee would move smoothly but I am not too sure now.

I've got some spare spare round bed castings if it would help with the mounting of the head ??? yours for postage? just checked and there is a bed as well 

[shipto]

Thank you Jon but I have the castings

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[shipto]

  I am happy now because I put the knee on and did some clocking, with a tool in the collet and everything tightened up I got .07mm twisting it from side to side not sure how that compares to other small millers but it seems pretty good to me and it should improve once I get the origional head casting sorted rather than the bit of channel the best bit though was from the knee to the column and putting weight on the knee I got .01 if you want to be picky .02 but that was a lot of pressure.
Sorry Vtsteam but it seems my gut feeling on the position of the lift screw was correct I thought I would test with a jack and on center it locks up on the column I could move it forward a little but since I have already drilled the hole I will stick with that.
Tomorrow I will cut some bits of tube to mount the motor.

[vtsteam]

Sorry Vtsteam but it seems my gut feeling on the position of the lift screw was correct I thought I would test with a jack and on center it locks up on the column I could move it forward a little but since I have already drilled the hole I will stick with that.

No need for apology, it's important that the knee actually be able to slide on a mill!

[shipto]

This is where the motor will sit just need a coupler.

[shipto]

Made the coupling and fitted it but needed to have a bit more height even had it running so I am a happy almost mill owner 

[shipto]

Well it has made its first cut which was for mounting some cross pieces ready for the bed bits.

[awemawson]

Excellent!

All the old tool makers in the Whitworth / Maudsley era made a machine and used the machine to make better machines ad infinitum, and now you're on the same track 

[vtsteam]

Yes but remember, the first cut is the deepest.

Congrats Dwayne!!

[shipto]

Thank you both

Yes but remember, the first cut is the deepest.

I hope not VT  I was taking it easy with these cuts as the X axis hasnt got the screw fitted yet I was relying locking up the gib to keep it in place having said that it cut very well and I probably could have taken deeper cuts.

[howsitwork?]

Well done

[shipto]

Yes but remember, the first cut is the deepest.

Congrats Dwayne!!

Grrrrrr I have that bloody song going through my head all day. Thanks Vtsteam

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[Fredbare]

Well done Shipto, been following this with great interest. Thanks for sharing.

John

[tom osselton]

Yes but remember, the first cut is the deepest.

Congrats Dwayne!!

Grrrrrr I have that bloody song going through my head all day. Thanks Vtsteam

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Try this one!
She's got a lovely set of coconuts!

[vtsteam]

Put de lime in it. 

[shipto]

I'm not listening 😂

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[shipto]

I have all the supports in place but while using the machine I found it impossible to find the right place for the lifting screw (well jack at the moment) too far forward and it lifts the front and locks up on the column on the way up too far back and it locks up on the way down there is a sweet spot but obviously this changes when you move the Y axis.
So during a repetative drilling job at work I started to think about it and looked at the column on the drill which has a big lump of cast iron hanging from a round column much like the mill and the lifting mechanism is part of the casting so I am going to see if putting the screw back in the place that Drummond intended it to be will solve the problem.
I need to slightly redesign the bottom a little as the hole that the screw will need to go through is being used to secure the column. With this in mind I dug out a bearing housing which will make a support for the bottom of the column.

[vtsteam]

Longer bearing on the column would prevent locking. But that would reduce the lift range.

[shipto]

Yes if moving screw to inside doesn't help I can machine the Drummond tail stock to bolt it onto the knee which will add just short of 2 inches and if I put it at the top it won't effect travel.

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[shipto]

Busy weekend not just with the mill but found time to get some things sorted I bored out the old bearing housing and added it as support for the bottom of the column also opened out the origional holes and tapped them to M10 so it should be secure enough. I have the handle for the screw located at the top for now which will be a pain in the backside to use but one of the first jobs once table is finished will be to make a couple of bevel gears with a 2.5:1 ratio to match the M20 screw. I am pleased to say however that it seems to work well with the screw inside the column sorry pic is a bit dark.
On the subject of the table I got a temporary end plate made so I can use it to start milling the bits for the table and in the meantime I need to find a local tin basher to make a tray.

[shipto]

Realised tonight while drilling holes for bed parts there is a bonus to having the screw inside the column  I can rotate the knee and reach past the end of the table, not sure I will ever have a use for the capability but still.

[shipto]

I am really happy with it now, started to mill for the T slots and apart from a little mishap where I hadnt locked the rotation up it cuts lovely

[shipto]

Have two of the three parts for the bed milled now, it did show up a problem for me to fix under the bed casting the nut is trapped and was held in place with a m4 grub screw which turned out not to be man enough for the job so it was replaced with two m6 grub screws one to hold and another to lock. I suspect that the X/Y table will not last too long guess I better put a axminster or similar one on my Christmas list.

[shipto]

Table is together and hopefully tray is in hand very soon. Replaced the gib screws on the X axis from 4mm to 5mm and put a bit of scrap aluminium on it to test the squareness of the X to Y and I think it is slightly out but not too much that I cant fix when it becomes a problem.