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| Proxxon PD400 |
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| wongster:
Hi Andy, Yes sir, all axes lock were loosed. They're done via this tiny capscrews which I wonder if they're at all effective in locking up the axes. I was over at Dan Kautz' site for many times before deciding on the lathe. The excitement of having the lathe makes me forgotten to check back on some of the photos and comments he made. Thanks for pointing me back. I went through the manual again late last night (or rather this morning at 3am). Nothing mentioned about the 3 bolts on the front of the apron but a diagram pointed out that the "clamping screw" for the carriage is on the saddle between the ways. In the section that covers adjustments of "guide play", it shows that the adjustments are via the 2 sets of studs and screws on the gib plate underneath. So flipping the machine over is inevitable if the gib plate is the culprit for stiff movement of the axis. Let's hope it is not at this point but I'll keep it in mind. The leadscrew was observed for any movement when the half nut was engaged and disengaged. Saw some vertical movements. When engaged, the leadscrew was lifted up quite a bit. I'm trying to remove the carriage from the ways but it seems stuck at the end of the way. Wanted to see how the carriage works and if there is anything I can further adjust for smooth turning. The closest I can find is the article on mini-lathe.com. The article mentioned that the carriage is blocked by the serial number stamped at the end of the ways. Mine doesn't have that and I can't see anything that is blocking the exit of the carriage. Took the opportunity to clean up the leadscrew and apply way oil. Thank you for your taking time to provide me with all the information and suggestions. Hope you can also help me with solving the vertical movement of the leadscrew when the half nut is engaged. Regards, Wong |
| wongster:
--- Quote from: Miner on January 01, 2012, 09:45:10 PM ---You really should be using a proper way oil. It also helps to flush out chips etc. Grease will retain that contamination. Your slides will also work much smoother with a proper way oil. That's a fine and high quality lathe. It would be a shame to wear it out faster than nessisary. Pete --- End quote --- Thanks Pete. Since I'm not done with adjusting the lathe, I'll clean up the grease and apply the way oil I bought from A2ZCNC. |
| wongster:
An update. I bite the bullet and remove the lathe from the chip tray and flip the lathe over. The 2 setscrews and 2 bolts holding the plate are rather tight. I break the grip of the bolts and setscrews and retightened them. Now the carriage and leadscrew handwheels turn very smoothly. I'll do some test cut after lunch with my parents to see if its too loose. Thank you all for your suggestions and input. I'm sure I'll have more questions on using the lathe. Regards, Wong |
| andyf:
Hi Wong, Good to hear you have got it working better. :thumbup: Don't worry about the size of the capscrews which lock up the slides. They look no smaller than the gib adjusters, and it needs very little pressure at one point on on a gib strip to lock up a slide completely. It does seem that there might be some vertical misalignment between the half nuts and leadscrew. The effect of this will make the leadscrew harder to turn as the half nuts approach the bearing blocks at each end. There is probably of no way of moving the lever, shaft and cam cam which operate the nuts up and down. That leaves two ways of getting things right. First, the fixing holes for the bearing blocks may be slotted, so the whole leadscrew can be lowered slightly. Secondly, you could fit a shim between the apron and the saddle (but then the carriage handwheel pinion should be raised up a little to maintain proper mesh with the rack). If you can't work out a solution, it might be best to email Proxxon to find out what they suggest. Andy |
| wongster:
Hi Andy, I'm able to crank using the black handle at the end of the handwheels on both the carriage and the leadscrew from the tailstock end to the chuck end. Maybe the saddle plate is a little on the loose side that this is possible with the vertical movement in the leadscrew. I dropped Proxxon an email last night. Hope to hear from them when their office opens. They do not have a support email available by the way. Best is, the exploded diagrams at the back of the manual are all in German... I've bought the article from mini-lathe.com on modifying the saddle so that adjustments can be made from the top than to have to flip the lathe over everytime when need arises. Ran through the article once and saw that there are 2 gib plates underneath whereas the Proxxon has only 1. I'm also still try to figure out how to remove the carriage from the ways to help me understand how things work. So far has no success. May I know how to read the table on the lathe on suggested feed and speed? I want to test cut a piece of steel with diameter of 8.35mm. Any suggestion on depth of cut for machine of this size to start me off? Thank you once again. Regards, Wong |
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