MadModder

A kind soul on another forum gave me some possible ways to mount the bed to the brackets, including a couple of links.  It definitely pointed me in the right direction. 

That led me to a trail of bread crumbs, which told me that I needed to measure the slot width - it's 8mm.  Searching for an 8mm t-slot nut with an M5 thread led me to the fact that 8mm is the width of the slot on a 3030 extrusion.  Searching for 3030 T-slot nuts led me to this, https://www.ebay.com/itm/157340497226.  Which allowed me to verify that these T-nuts had mostly the same dimensions as the ones that came with the clamps, the T-nuts in the link are M5 - the ones from the clamps are M6.  (I've got enough issues with M5 screws, M6 would be worse.)  One "Buy it now" transaction later and VIOLA, I have a plethora of T-nuts on the way.  Although mounting the bed to the brackets, and the X-axis lead-nut to the bed, will take a healthy bite out of that plethora - I should have enough left over to allow me to clamp objects to the bed for years to come.

I also got my M5 grease zerks today, more stuff that can come off the ToDo list.

So yesterday I managed to get at a pair of hydraulic fittings that would allow me to release any trapped pressure locking up the turret - the only problem being that they are 'bulkhead fittings' and trying to undo them they just rotate in the bulkhead and I can't get my arms round the intervening metal work (one side is in the lower part of the control cabinet and the other is in that lathe enclosure.

Then I had a brain wave (or so I thought) the control valve in question is a 'Ceetop' variety mounted in the same lower control cabinet on a manifold plate as they are. If I slacken the four mounting screws a bit with the power off so no pump running, the valve will no longer seal to the mount and any pressure will be released - have a picture of the valve in question:

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So I slackened the mounting screws and tried levering the turret spindle as per my experiment on the spare one on the floor. Absolutely solid - no movement what so ever - very odd. So I thought OK re-tighten the valve back to it's sealing mount and try driving the solenoids electically.

At this point there was a nasty squelching sound and oil pouring in vast quantities into the cabinet and on to the floor 

I suppose that the valve is not seated properly - I'll investigate when I've cleared the mess up

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Quick power off and large numbers of workshop rags applied to the flood. Luckily I recently bought a bail of washed rags. I've left it to soak up for the moment.

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As you can see, the base of the cabinet is going to be fun clearing up!

No Steve I've no intentions of using that turret - I only got it with a load of spares I bought from a chap in Ireland. It has proved useful as a diagnostic aid though.

When I packed in a couple of weeks ago, the turret disk was stuck mid motion - now it has relaxed into the rearmost (locked) position (presumeable under pressure from that spring), and hydraulically I cannot drive it forward into the fully unlocked position (I'm referring to the front curvic / hirth coupling which is not the one in the pictures above) so I am more convinced that I have a valve issue. First approach is to uncouple the appropriate hydraulic hose but to say that they are hard to get at is an understatement. Somewhere I have a hydraulic piping schematic - hopefully that will let me relax pressure further down the line but it's a bit of a jungle of pipes at the manifold where the valve are.

OK I've been away from this for a couple of weeks to let things soak in in my brain. Sumarising, the tool turret seems mechanically stuck in that the hydraulic cylinders cannot move the central shaft forwards or backwards. Now I call these hydraulic cylinders but actually they are machined cavities in the casting with the central shaft acting as the piston / rod. There is a powerful spring pushing the shaft rearwards aided by one half of the hydraulics with the other side of the double acting 'cylinder' pushing it forwards when a tool change is called for.

So is it a stuck valve maintaining locking pressure, or something internally physically miss-placed?

As an aid to seeing what is going on I dug out my 'spare' turret and rigged it so that I could try moving the shaft with a crowbar against that spring. The whole thing is plonked on the tool disk face with the central shaft pointing upwards and it's too darn heavy for me to shift it so in fact in this experiment the tool disk and central shaft are staying still and I'm raising the rest of the turret upwards by leverage - this direction corresponding to 'forwards' were it mounted in a lathe.

Rear Hirth coupling disengaged (this is the one that applies rotation to the tool disk) - ignore all the detritus on the coupling, this has been sitting open in the workshop for months:

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Rear Hirth coupling engaged by crowbar:

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So it is possible to mechanically move the shaft on the 'spare' turret with the hydraulics disconnected - I could hear the gurgling of the residual oil as I did it !

This gives me confidence to perform the same experiment on the actual turret in the lathe which is the next step I think.

While I was inside the 'spare' turret I think I've found out why the chap couldn't get good tool alignment with it - there's a massive crack in the casting !

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Hi Folks,
Spring is here, meteorologically speaking, and I hope to soon be back to a video every week! There is upcoming field work as well, to get a head start before it all starts to grow like mad! This week I dive into the D type replica engine fitting, and make good progress. I use the two slot method to get the bearing plate adjustable in two planes and also add a slot for chain tensioning, but I stall out when the only milling cutter I have of the right size turns out to be as blunt as my A*se!! Thursday is antique repairs and another wide variety of antique metalwork to fix and fettle ready for the upcoming antique fair season! Thanks for watching and see you all next week!
Phil, in warmer and dryer East Yorkshire!