Devon,
Like Cal: I don't really get why you would spend ~as much as a whole #12 in good shape~ to 'fix' an oddball
spindle. Some patient shopping will deliver every feature you've specified as 'nice to have' -- in C. So unless you
have boatload of R8
special tooling you're trying to adapt -- I don't see the motivation to undertake a
painful, spendy, risky alteration. Cal keeps mentioning "heat treat"
for a reason.
For instance, I'm pretty sure I saw a VN#12 right angle head on ebay yesterday. I searched "right angle mill heads"
and it popped up. The owner didn't know it was VN#12. I don't think that's <"dunno what model this head is for...">
odd among the rare accessories: dividing heads, vises, rotary tables, arbor, overarms, right angle heads and tailstocks
all come up rather often. As often as not, the model/maker info is flawed. So one cannot merely shop "VN#12" and
get a complete view of the pieces available.
On a more helpful note: I can convert Alibre 3d ACIS/.sat files into whatever, including knocking them into .dwg views.
IF you get that far. It certainly sounds like the road less traveled. Good luck on the journey.
I suspect you could drive to Cleveland <yeah, from="" ok="" ...="" pick="" your="" nearest="" vn="" liquidator,="" there="" are="" a="" few=""> --or pick a city with a VN liquidator closer to OK--
make a deal to buy a whole #12 head from an industrial liquidator, sell the rest of the machine back to them,
or --sigh-- whistle in a local scrapper, and still have $1000 left over from the cost of re-making an R8 spindle
properly.
--frankb
Short version review:
...
Some kind of non-sheep, non-goat situation was being used to "sort of" drive R8 tooling.
...
I was thinking about a community generated CAD spindle - I would be happy to shop them out and make up a few extras.
...
I don't think my version of Alibre exports to .DWG natively but you can get there from here with some utilities. (I had to move a file to .DWG a few years back and got it done)
...
Ps -I sure wish I knew where these accessory heads are for my 12 are....
</yeah,>