Intro on Shopmaster owner

uberlinuxgeek

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Feb 7, 2013
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Hello,
Just figured I would put up here that as of November I have 2014 Shopmaster patriot cnc 3-1. Have been using a Bolton 10-22 manual lathe and lms mini mill, Taig lathe as my main peices.
I purchased knowing the specs that would meet my requirements. But also figured there would be growing pains with a China build machine. And there have been. There has been excessive backlash which I have been dialing in via more rigid brackets and replacing some balls in the ball screws with more appropriate sized ones. The worst issue so far has been the lathe spindle not meeting spec, was to be 1.125 inch but ended up less than 1 inch, removed some bad ridges to get a little over 1 inch and waiting on Shopmaster to get spindles from China the right size. They offered for me to ship back to bore to size but can't take the machine down for the time so going to wait till they have some. The lathe function does meet specs but the mill does not. Sag on the 5th column end keeps the machine from tramming proper unless you lock the 5th end in and drop the other end to bring in spec also tram was not possible front to back till I shimed the column plate with a 5 thou shim. Going to work on adding rigidity to 5th column end and a proper shock to support the weight from sag. The company has been good to work with on resolution of issues, and I am sure will be a fine machine once all worked on. Let me know if you have any questions on it. Figures they would release a new model to start shipping end of January
 
Here are some pics, also I added a temporary shock on end to help with sag. I also added a digital readout to help with tram as once I have in tram at one height I zero the dro on both ends and then I can raise the height and if both dro are the same it is still on tram.

uploadfromtaptalk1422399336564.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1422399487470.jpg
 
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