- Joined
- Sep 8, 2019
- Messages
- 4,392
I agree with you that you probably over-torqued those nuts but was it necessary? If the compound is not seated well on the cross slide or if the parts of the compound are not machined for a good fit then things can move, even with a lot of torque on the nuts. If you had to crank down because things slipped in use then its time to evaluate fits because it should not take a lot of torque to lock down the compound. The wrench for mine is 3" long and mine has never moved, even with 0.100" depths of cut in steel.
I would third the plinth idea.
What brand and size of machine do you have to be taking .100” cuts in steel? Our instructor in school did that on a Bridgeport, but he told us not to exceed .030” on the large domestic machines. Of course, when he wasn’t looking I cut .040” out of curiosity and impatience.
I just saw the word plinth for the first time in my life yesterday, and it was on this forum. It would appear that a plinth is a rigid spacer that is used to mount a tool post without a compound slide. I have a cross slide DRO, but it appears to not involve the compound at all.