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It's CNC Jim, but not as we know it...

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Joules:
I put an order into ArcEuro yesterday and it turned up this afternoon, great service.   Part of the order was for the mill, the rest of the ER11 collets I don't have, a new ball raced collet nut and a mini live centre, it just wasn't worth making for the price.  I shall be making a fitting for the overarm support to take the centre.   The new collet nut is quite a bit smaller than the old one, with the added advantage that you can pretty much tighten them up enough to use with just your fingers.  The extra clearance round the nut was worth the cost alone.

Further mods are on going, including adding an old DRO.  The wire sensors are causing some issues as they are quite big and I would rather fabricate brackets that pick up on existing fasteners, than drill and tap new holes.  The mounting plate for the read head is laser cut from perspex and mounts where the vertical head used to go.  I need to find a new location for the switch panel as a 25mm digital dial gauge is due to mount there for my Z indication.

Joules:
This afternoons work, getting the little centre drilled and tapped M4.  The centre has a spigot size of 10mm, the bearing in the over arm support is 10.5mm.  I didn't want to sleeve the centre or risk contacting the support bearing.  A Delrin spacer was made to pick up the front of the support and offer a snug fit to the centre, it is then all pulled together with a small drawbar.   The drawbar was cobbled together with a thumb wheel I had in my bits box a stub of brass and an M4 socket head screw, cut down.  Pictures below show the parts and fitted to the overarm support.   I end up with a maximum of 140mm between centres, but don't expect to make components over 100mm in length with this setup.  I haven't checked alignment yet, but as I only have about 0.25mm clearance in the supports brass bearing, pretty much what I have is what I got.   The profiles can be adjusted to run true to the stock even if the mill centres are not true to the arm.   I will see how the Delrin part works out, if it flexes (not expected) I will machine an alloy version, the actual loading on the live centre should be very low.   

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