# Machining A Replacement Cross Slide For A Logan 11" (as Promised)



## Rex Walters

As promised, herewith are my experiences thus far machining a replacement cross-slide casting from Andy Lofquist at Metal Lathe Accessories to fit my Logan/Wards 11" lathe.

As I described in another thread, I want to replace the rather short cross-slide that came with the lathe originally. I want to replace it with a much longer one with tee-slots in the rear (so that I can use a rear-mounted toolpost, rear-mounted boring bar holder, _etc_., without necessarily removing the compound slide). Unfortunately, the drawings that Andy made are for a South Bend lathe which uses a different attachment mechanism for the compound slide.

As described in the previous thread, the trickiest thing to wrap my head around before getting started was how to mill the circular tee slot. Please see that thread for details.

This is just the first of likely several posts in this thread.

Here's a shot of the original cross-slide (with the guide nut installed):






The first thing I did was to mill the bottom of the casting to use as a reference surface for all subsequent tasks. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of this, but I just used a flycutter to flatten the "ways" on the bottom, then used an end-mill to clean up the center channel. I then used this bottom surface as a datum plane to mill the sides roughly square and the top roughly parallel.

At this point I discovered just how janky the cheap milling vice I purchased is — even with the quill of the mill trammed within a thou of the mill table, the vice itself was quite a bit out of tram (several thou). Sigh. Not a big deal at this point where I'm just rough milling. I'll deal with it later.

Next I milled the tee-slots in the rear:



After getting things in better tram, I used my nice carbide end-mill to better clean up the top (notice the vacuum sucking up swarf — cast iron is messy messy messy and even with ways covered it tended to get everywhere):




Next I cleaned up the sides a bit more (bad practice having the clamp jacks over a slot like that — should have used pieces of scrap to span the gap):




That carbide end-mill sure leaves a beautiful finish on the cast iron.

Now I was ready to start on the dovetail slot on the bottom. First I used some quarter-inch dowel pins and a micrometer to carefully measure everything on the original. Distance from the side to the bearing (non-gib) side of the dovetail, and distance between the dovetail sides. I also depth mic'ed the distance from the bottom bearing surface to the non-bearing parallel inside surface.

Once again I should have taken pictures of the measuring. I'll post some pics of the process tomorrow. The only remotely clever bit was using an adjustable parallel to measure the distance between the two dowel pins.

I used the straight carbide endmill to widen the slot roughly to size (to my great annoyance, I actually overshot a bit, but fortunately it was on the gib side). Then I got out the 60 degree dovetail cutter and went to work:




Because my workholding kind of sucked (I should have just clamped down on the top surfaces, but somehow convinced myself I didn't have room and needed clearance on top) I took very light cuts each pass.

After I had both sides cut I just had to try it out, of course, to ensure I hadn't done anything wildly wrong to this point:




It fit great, and more importantly, it passed my very basic tests:


I put a mag base dial indicator on top, and measured the deflection on a faceplate as I slide the top-slide for and aft (while pushing the whole top-slide to the right by hand to ensure it was bearing on the dovetail surface). Total deflection was just two or three tenths over about 5.5 inches.
I took the short gib from the original and ensured that there was room to slide it in on the right side with very little room to play. (I haven't machined the new long gib yet, so it won't fit vertically.)
That's as far as I've gotten so far. I will finally be able to get into the shop tomorrow to start on the remaining work:

Machining the angles on the short sides of the gib.
Boring and tapping the holes in the right side for the gib screws.
Boring and pressing a locating pin on the right side of the casting as well as a corresponding hole in the gib (to prevent it shifting fore and aft)
Machining the circular tee-slot to attach the compound.
Boring a press-fit hole for the center locating pin for the compound (and pressing in the 0.5" pin)
Boring and tapping the workholding holes on the top of the slide
Machining appropriate bits to attach the nut for the crossfeed screw.
Final lapping and scraping of all bearing surfaces (something I've never attempted)
Doubtless dozens of other things I'm forgetting (like painting — God I hate painting)
Whee!


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## Ulma Doctor

nice work, i'm looking forward to the progression.


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## clivel

It looks great so far Rex, I am following along with interest as I would eventually like to do the same for my Logan 200.
One question though, the swivel area on the original Logan cross-slide is raised above it's surface, is the new casting thick enough to ensure that the top-slide won't be sitting too low?

As I was typing this it occurred to me that rather than trying to cut the circular t-slot, it may just be simpler to look out for a South Bend top-slide instead.
Clive


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## Rex Walters

clivel said:


> ...  is the new casting thick enough to ensure that the top-slide won't be sitting too low?



Definitely. Actually, even after milling a considerable amount off the top and bottom I've left it a little thicker than the original (I'll have to readjust all my QCTP holders regardless). Original is about .900" from top raised lip to bottom surface. When I'm done I expect the new casting to be just over an inch.

I'm also enjoying the challenge of milling it for the stock Logan compound. I've not seen that documented anywhere, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
-- 
Rex


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## eeler1

The gib on mine has indents where the tightening screws are located, instead of a pin to prevent it slipping.  Might be one less hole to drill in that cast iron.  Just a thought.  

Nice write up and pics.  I'll be watching to see how it works out.


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## Rex Walters

eeler1 said:


> The gib on mine has indents where the tightening screws are located, instead of a pin ....



George Thomas felt the pin important enough that he devoted a few pages of his book (The Model Engineers Workshop Manual) to the topic!

"The usual arrangement is for the gib-strip to be held into contact with one side of the dovetail slide by means of pointed screws which touch the bottoms of dimples as shown at (1). These would be quite effective if the slide never had to move, but movement is what the slide is for! When the slide is wound along in either direction, the frictional drag against the gib-strip will produce a wedging action at the tips of the screws which will, in turn, tighten the slide. There have been many complaints on this score from readers in the past and the remedy is a simple one — fit a dowel into the gib-strip and so prevent any end movement in relation to the screws."​



Makes sense to me, so I'll add a pin as he suggests (and I note that my old cross slide _did_ have a pin, despite the fact that the machining "does not readily lend itself to quantity production methods").

That chapter also reminds me that I want to add gib locks as well (added to the list). I'll probably add two locking screws, fore and aft.

(That also reminds me that I want to make a handwheel to manually turn my feed-screw on my lathe. That will allow me to do precise movements in Z along the bed by simply engaging the half nut.)

I milled the bevels on the gib this morning. I'll post photos after lunch.
--
Rex


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## Rex Walters

Here's how I used 0.250" dowels to measure the original cross-slide:

First I measured used a depth mic to measure the distance from the bottom surface to the inner surface. Then I measured the distance from the side to the edge of the dowel. I just milled the bevel in the new slide at the same depth, and kept moving the cutter horizontally each pass until the side t0 dowel-side distance on the new part measured the same as the original.



Then I used an adjustable parallel to span the gap between the two sides. Then I mic'ed the width of the parallel. Again, I milled the new part until this distance was the same.


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## Rex Walters

After milling the dovetail in the bottom of the new casting, I took some time to lap the bottom using coarse sandpaper on my surface plate (with water as a lubricant).

Next up was to mill the bevels on the gib. I had to decide whether to build a one-time-use fixture to hold the gib, or just use available tooling and figure out some way to hold the gib at the required angle to the tool. I opted for the latter.

The simplest thing I could think of was to again use dowels and my adjustable parallels (handy little suckers):



This isn't the most secure workholding in the world, but I figured it would suffice. At first I only hand tightened the parallels by squeezing the wedges with my fingers, but eventually I wised up and started tapping them tight with a small tack hammer. Also, I eventually learned that (unlike the picture shown) I should ensure that I locate the outermost dowels as close to the front and back edges of the slide as possible (to provide better support at the ends of the gib).

Then I took extremely light passes (0.005" at a time) with pretty slow feed rates (power feed). I was careful to mill in the correct direction (table moving from left to right, with the cutter moving from top to bottom as photographed above) so that the gib was pushed back into the dovetail as the leading edge of the cutter hits the gib.

It was probably unnecessary to mention this, because only a _*complete idiot*_ would risk throwing a part just to save a little time by milling in both directions and taking too heavy a cut.




Ahem.

For what its worth, I'm *very* fortunate that I didn't chip my expensive carbide end-mill or (much worse) injure someone (me!) when the part was thrown. Even though I only had the slide lightly clamped, I was still surprised that there was enough force to pull it out of the clamps.

Lesson learned. This was when I got out the hammer to better tighten the wedges and started taking my time with light, light passes. I even slowed the feed a bit more once I started taking wider cuts as the quill was lowered.

Here's what it looked like as I was taking 0.005" at a slow feed rate (just to show how little I was actually taking off each pass).





On the first edge, I didn't mill down to a sharp knife edge. I left a tiny little bevel on the edge to ensure that I had enough material to mill the other side. I figured I'd be knocking the sharp edges off with a file when I was done anyway.



For the other edge I just flipped the part and stole the idea from Paula on the South Bend forum to use some 3/32" rod as a spacer to lift the part enough to mill. Then rinse and repeat.



Like spelling "banana," the only tricky thing about the second edge was knowing when to stop. 

I wanted to ensure that the gib was narrow enough not to bind top-to-bottom in the slot, but I didn't want to mill off any more than necessary. This didn't need to be a super accurate measurement, I just didn't want the gib to bind. The solution was pretty simple, just use another piece of the 3/32" rod as a gauge on top:



The camera angle is pretty awkward, but in person it was obvious that the gib was higher than the gauge rod (the square wasn't vertical):
	

		
			
		

		
	




I just kept milling until the square tipped the other way. Here's a shot from the other side once I was just about done (I think I took off another 0.005" just for good measure). You can clearly see that the squares are touching at top, but there's a gap at the bottom.



Finally, here's a shot showing the finished gib in place on the slide (finished except for cutting it to length — I did that off camera):



In this final shot of the gib in place, you can see one little detail I forgot to mention. When I cleaned up the casting scale in the slot on the bottom of the raw casting, I was left with a trench quite a bit deeper than the original part. At first I just started milling away on the roughly-formed ways to lower the gap, but eventually I chickened out. Instead of reducing the depth to final dimension, I reasoned it was okay to leave a little more "meat" on the sides. The trench isn't a precision bearing surface anyway, it just needs to provide clearance. Here you can clearly see the little "extra" gap I'm talking about (I don't think it will hurt anything):



Next up is to bore and tap the holes for the gib screw, gib pin, and lock screws. I also need to make the lock screws.

Enjoy!
--
Rex


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## eeler1

I had no idea, was wondering why you were doing it that way!  I'll defer to George.


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## wa5cab

Rex,

The height of the underside of the cross slide is important (I won't say critical).  The cross feed nut attaches under there and the threaded hole in it must line up with the height of the cross feed screw.  You can always shim down.  But you can't shim up (you can't buy negative thickness shim stock).

Also, when deciding where to put the hole to mount the cross feed nut, be sure that there is adequate clearance for the nut to run off of the screw threads before it runs into the top of the dovetail area.  The gap between the dovetails sure seems to start a long way back.  And also be sure that the nut runs off of the end of the feed screw before the cross slide runs off of the dovetails or into something.


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## Rex Walters

wa5cab said:


> You can always shim down.  But you can't shim up (you can't buy negative thickness shim stock).



Joke #1: "If you cut a rope to0 short, you can always splice some more on, but if you cut it too long there's nothing you can do about it."

(Of course there is a "negative shim stock" equivalent. It's called an "end mill." ;-)



wa5cab said:


> ... be sure that there is adequate clearance for the nut to run off of the screw threads before it runs into the top of the dovetail area.  The gap between the dovetails sure seems to start a long way back.  And also be sure that the nut runs off of the end of the feed screw before the cross slide runs off of the dovetails or into something.



Joke #2:

"Ask me what the secret is to telling a great joke."

    "What's the secre—"

"Timing!"

I'll post some photos shortly that explain what I mean here. I'm pretty sure I've got a way out, but I'll post some photos shortly that explain what I mean.


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## Silverbullet

I also have a 11 inch Logan lathe. I love that little old girl I think mine would like the same thing . Adding room for tooling on the back is nice to have. I always wanted to add a taper attachment to her too. So maybe I'll do both if I can ever get the time . Too many projects .


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## Rex Walters

Today's lesson is: don't try to do too much in one session! (You'd think I'd have learned this lesson by now.)

I was delayed getting into the shop today due to so some money chores taking far longer than seemed reasonable.

So I was both feeling rushed _and_ in a foul mood at the same time when I started work on the slide today. The results were predictable. I only wish I'd read Robert's last note before getting started (though now that I think about it, I doubt it would have made a difference).

Before I quit yesterday, I bored and tapped 10-32 holes on the gib side for the gib screws and lock-screws. Andy's drawing called for nine evenly spaced holes, but since he didn't include either lock screws nor a pin, and since my slide is precisely 11" long, I thought I'd make my life easy on the DRO and tap ten holes spaced exactly 1" apart (at inches 1 through 10 from the right hand side:




Then I used my adjustable parallels yet again to hold the gib in place as I drilled a hole for the pin, and marked the locations for the detents with a transfer punch. I'm using 1/8" dowel pin to pin the gib, so I first drilled a 7/64" hole all the way through the side of the slide and through the gib. The pin hole was exactly 7.500" from the left end as seen in the photograph below. I then used a transfer punch to mark the locations of the previously tapped 10-32 holes into the gib.




Next I removed the gib and enlarged the marked locations with a prick punch. I later enlarged these detents on the drill press with a random large drill. Probably overkill to have both a pin *and* depressions for the gib screws, but overkill is my middle name. After drilling the depressions, I lapped the gib with sandpaper on my surface plate to remove any surrounding areas of metal that were pushed up by the process.






Next I broke out my "under/over" reamer set, and reamed the hole in the slide one thou undersized (0.124"). The hole in the gib needed to be oversized for a slip fit, but I couldn't use the slide itself again to hold the gib in place (using my trusty adjustable parallels) because I needed a press fit in the slide itself.

(Here, right here, is where I should have called it a day, cleaned the shop, had a beer and a good meal with the family, then had a good night's sleep. Sigh.)

Here's the first questionable decision of the day (fortunately it ended without incident): Unsurprisingly I didn't feel up to milling a fixture just to ream one hole larger in the gib, so I decided to free-hand it. I chucked a 0.126" reamer in the mill, broke out a pair of heavy leather gloves, and manually held the gib roughly in proper 60 degree orientation (figuring a reamer is reasonably self guiding as long as I hold it close, and I only need +/- 0.005" or so anyway). I'm not sure which would be more likely to grab, a twist drill or a reamer, but using a reamer with a moderate speed on the mill and the leather gloves I managed to enlarge the hole without so much as a scratch, much less a trip to the E.R. Whew!

By now I was in full-on, damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead mode, so I decided it was time to press in the gib pin. I don't actually own a press, but hammers, punches, and vises I have in spades, so here we go!

My dowel pins were considerably shorter than the depth of the hole, but I figured after driving in the pin as far as it would go with a vise, I could use a pin-punch to drive it the rest of the way. Wrong! Hardened against hardened is always a bad idea. I had exactly zero success driving the pin any further with a punch, but I did manage to make a beautiful couple of dings on the side of the slide.

A short walk later (there may have been some cursing involved) I realized that I should have just pressed the pin in from the other side (of course!). 

At this point I had a (short) pin pressed in such that it was just proud of the side of the slide (with a couple of gorgeous "newbie tattoos" surrounding it) and nothing extending into the dovetail. After a head scratch, I realized that pressing in another pin from the other side would push the first one out sufficiently to grab onto it and remove it, so I put my steel jaws back on my vise (I normally keep my homemade copper jaws on the vise), grabbed a nut, and had a go:




Worked just fine for the first sixteenth of an inch or so. After removing it from the vise to inspect progress, and then re-setting to push it the rest of the way in I had some trouble. The first sixteenth moved without severe pressure, but now it wasn't moving. I took it off again to inspect and the inner pin seemed to be going in straight. Nothing seemed amiss so, or course, I just assumed it needed more pressure (of course!).

Remember that little extra depth I had in the dovetail slot? (Last photo in comment #8.) In re-inserting the part into the vise, I managed to put it in deep enough that the vise jaw was catching on that step. So by cranking harder all I was managing to do was bugger up the outside (and bottom) of the slide with a nut-shaped outline — this came back to haunt me later.

Eventually I realized what was going on, and lifted the part a littler higher in the jaws. Then it was smooth sailing: I got the inner pin pressed in as far as I could get it with the vise jaws, and the outer pin was pushed out enough that I could grab it with the vise and remove it by taking a dead blow hammer to the part itself.

I could only push in the inner vise pin so far from this direction, and it had mushroomed slightly from the pressing, so I broke out a dremel tool and diamond bit to have at it. After about ten minutes of "fettling" the gib seemed to fit quite well, with no discernible slop. Joy!

I took the slide with the gib in place over to the lathe and tried it on the saddle. It slide on nicely until it got to the pin, then it bound slightly. Not enough to prevent it from sliding, but clearly it was binding and something was amiss. I thought maybe the pin was just slightly misshapen and keeping the gib from settling into the dovetail properly, so I broke out the dremel again as well as my optivisor with the extra loupe in front to really see what I was doing (no pictures of this — I look too ridiculous).

Back to the lathe. No joy. Still binding.

Eventually I copped to the fact that the "nut impression" on the side of the slide had actually created a couple of burrs or raised areas on the bottom of the slide (the bearing surface). After giving the slide a quick once-over by lapping again with sandpaper, I was extremely relieved to find it now slid freely with no binding. The burrs were raising the slide just enough to cause it to bind in the dovetails — it wasn't a side-to-side fitting problem, it was an up-and-down problem.

At this point I had to break out an indicator and see how I was doing. I was absolutely astonished to discover that by pushing and pulling on opposite corners with the slide fully retracted (completely covering the saddle) I only saw about 0.0025" total indicator movement. All the tramming effort appears to have paid off, smooth sliding with only a couple thou of play (before I insert any gib screws) is far better than I'd hoped for.

Woo hoo! Success. Time to clean the shop and call it a day.

Nope. "I just need one more hole in the slide to attach the cross-feed nut — that can't take too long!"

To cut to the punchline, I now have the nut in place, and the slide is working fantastically well with the cross-feed screw engaged and feeding smoothly, and with no discernible lateral play once I adjusted the gib screws. 

Getting to that point will be another comment in this thread though. You know you've gone a step too far when you're not even willing to document the process in the same comment!

Onward!
-- 
Rex


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## Rex Walters

Oh: Forgot to mention that I plan to use positions 2 and 9 of the ten holes for gib lock levers (that I need to make on the lathe). The remaining eight holes are for gib screws.

Also, it's important to put the gib pin someplace other than the exact center. It helps with "bi-lateral ambiguity" — between the dimples and the pin it's brain-dead simple to figure out the orientation for the gib whenever you're reassembling the slide.


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## Rex Walters

Silverbullet said:


> I think mine would like the same thing.



While I can't claim victory quite yet, I'm increasingly convinced this is going to be a fantastically useful upgrade to my lathe. All I can say is "go for it!"

Andy's castings are very, very nice. Assuming my build is ultimately successful, I'll post measured drawings at the end of this thread. As should be obvious, I'm not working to precise drawings currently. Instead, this is effectively a prototype using measurements from the (far different) original part as well as (occasionally) dimensions from Andy's drawings. I don't want to post any drawings yet as I'm still making changes (AKA "mistakes").

I love my lathe too — it's absolutely my prize possession. I'm a user, not a collector though, so I have no qualms about replacing parts and modifying the original machine.

Andy also sells a casting to use as a taper attachment. It should be as simple as tapping a couple of holes in the back of the cross-slide to attach the taper attachment. I've tried to keep the design consistent enough that you can still use Andy's other castings without changes.

Regards,
-- 
Rex


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## 4GSR

Nice write up! Thanks for sharing.

Now all you have to do is scrape and fit the slide to the saddle.....


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## Rex Walters

4gsr said:


> Now all you have to do is scrape and fit the slide to the saddle.....



Actually, there was a whole lot more to do before scraping and fitting. Several adventures along the way that I'll start writing up shortly, but after a furious few days of working on it for 4 to 8 hours a day, *I've successfully finished the cross-slide and gib!* The compound slide fits beautifully and the cross-slide functions as well as I could have hoped. _Now_ I'm ready for scraping and fitting:




Woo hoo!
-- 
Rex


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## Rex Walters

Okay, now that I've given away the punchline, here's the rest of the story (apologies to Paul Harvey).

Before reading the following, please remember that this is the continuation of the day I worked too long and made all sorts of mistakes. Still, the great thing about metal is that there is almost always a way out after mistakes (even if you have to braze on some more material).

I knew that all I needed to do was attach the acme nut and the slide would be basically functional as a boring table (i.e. without the compound slide). I just had to give it a shot.

The first thing to figure out was how far forward I wanted to put the hole to attach the cross-feed nut. I wanted to get as much travel as conceivably possible (hopefully reclaiming a little travel I lost with my home-made cross feed dials). I slid the nut onto the cross-feed acme screw and measured the distance from the dials:




I measured multiple times and thought through it carefully before boring the hole, but 4.250" from the dial end of the casting seemed to be the optimal distance (with about 1/16" to spare).

I knew the new part was considerably thicker (about 0.100") than the original, though, so I had to get the hole in the nut positioned correctly vertically. So I measured the distance on the original part:




The distance on the new part was quite a bit thicker, but as I wise-cracked earlier I just needed to mill a pocket in the underside to the correct depth:




*WRONG! Wrong! Wrong!
*
Of course, as anyone taking their time would have realized, the dimension that matters is from the bearing surface to the mounting surface of the cross-feed nut:




So now I got to use *both* a negative and a positive shim. ;-)




Finally, with the shim in place and the nut attached, the cross slide was actually feeding as I turned the crank. Success! Let's call it a day!

Whoops. Oh darn! (I may have used other words in the shop). When I screwed the slide all the way closest to me, it started binding about a quarter inch before hitting the dial:




(Note the gap between the edge of the fixed part of the dial and the casting.)

Had I mis-calculated? Measured wrong? Do I need to move the hole?!! Argh!!

A few deep breaths and a walkabout later, I finally realized that the acme nut itself was hitting the curved part of the slot in the saddle. That was easy to fix with that most precision of tools, the bastard file:




_Now_ with the nut attached I could retract the slide all the way to the dial. Whew!




As I think I already mentioned, even without the gib screws in place to tighten things up, I only had 0.002" to 0.003" of play even with my full weight pushing and pulling on opposite corners. With the gib screws in and adjusted, turning the crank was as smooth and silky as I could have hoped for. _Now_ I could (and did) finally call it a day.

One further note: it was quite obvious that even with the gib screws adjusted, it was quite a bit tighter at the far side of travel than with the front of the slide closer too me. Close observation showed that the flat horizontal area of the fixed ways (on the saddle — not the dovetail sides, but the horizontal bearing surfaces) closest to me were visibly worn more than the areas further away. 

This makes sense on such an old lathe since most of the time you are turning with the compound toward the front of the lathe. Since the farther side was less worn, it was effectively lifting the slide and tightening it on the dovetails. I'd felt the same thing since I owned the lathe, even with the original slide, and I thought for sure that I just hadn't done a very good job adjusting the gib screws. Now I know _exactly_ why scraping and flattening the ways is such a big deal!

I tried to photograph the wear, but it was too hard to see with available light and the camera on my phone. Believe me, there was no way at this point in the day I was going to break out the SLR and a couple light stands!

Anyway, as long as the day had been, and as many screw-ups as I managed, I still ended with a functional boring table at the end of the day. Yay!

Note that I've re-used the beat up old screw to attach the cross-feed nut from the original part. Someday I may replace it with a new screw, but I'm more interested in utility than beauty most of the time, so we'll see if that day ever comes.

I've also marked the rough location where the compound will go. Unfortunately, the slot for the compound looks like it will interfere with some of the 5/16-18 tapped holes that Andy calls for in his drawing for other parts he sells (like ball turning attachments, etc.). I'll figure out alternate ways to attach things as I add accessories.

[By the way: Dykem Brite-mark paint sticks are awesome. The marks last much better even around oil and many solvents. My sweaty hands can erase the marks from a sharpie pen, but those paint-stick marks don't come off unless I make an effort to remove them.]

Onward!


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## Rex Walters

Okay, today was the final day of machining. The first thing I decided to do was *cut off the ears*! Since I wanted to mount my compound further back on the casting, the ears looked funny. I figured that straight and square is probably more useful most of the time for workholding or whatever anyway.




Next I needed to bore the 3/8" hole that holds the half-inch pin (hardened and press-fit) that the compound swings on. I used my 0.374" reamer to make it one thou undersized for a press fit.

Then it was time (deep breath) to start milling the circular tee-slot. The first step was to use a 5/16" end-mill to mill a circular slot (the slot is 3/8" — the smaller cutter allowed me to clean up the chatter on the sides). Plunge cuts are a lot easier on the machine, so I adjusted the stop and just plunged all the way around before following up with a clean-up pass to get rid of the ridges:




Then I took the part off the rotary-table, flipped it upside down, and bored a 3/4" access hole to insert the square-headed bolts that hold the compound. I also need the hole to get the tee-slot cutter up into position. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of boring this hole, but it was a pretty simple operation.)

The tee-slot cutter has a neck that is narrow enough to fit in the 3/8" slot I milled, but the 1/2" shank wouldn't fit so I had to use my grinding wheel to grind flats on either side of the cutter until it would fit:




I was a little worried that with so much of the shank removed, the R8 collet in my mill wouldn't be able to hold onto it very well, but that ended up not being a problem at all.

I was finally ready to start milling the tee-slot. The most puzzling part of the entire process (that had me mystified until I posted the question to the smart folks on this site). Okay, gibs locked in X, Y, and Z. Deep breath, look for anything stupid before I start removing metal — I've too much invested by this point to want to start over with a new casting.

This is only about the third time I've used my rotary table for anything. I'm not exactly the world's most experienced machinist — I bought my lathe a couple years ago and have only owned a mill for a couple months. I've tried to swallow my pride and publish all my mistakes as well as my successes so that others can avoid some of my more foolish errors.

Here's my initial setup when I started milling the slot:




Now, notice that long bolt protruding from the table clamp on the right? See how far it is from the cutter? I've got tons of room, I thought. I'm milling a circle so there's no way it will interfere with movement, right? Wrong. The center of rotation is precisely 1.260" to the right of the cutter, so as I started rotating that thing clockwise I eventually ran into a problem. Unfortunately because I was removing a ton of metal in one swell foop with the tee-slot cutter (unavoidable) I had quite a bit of tool pressure and didn't notice the problem until well after that bolt hit the spindle and shifted the work significantly.

In my defense, with the captured cutter, there was no easy way to do a complete 360 with the quill fully lowered so I was completely dependent on my faulty thinking — there was no easy way to do a n0n-cutting pass with everything in position. Sigh.

Anyway, I had to reset and re-center everything with better work-holding (after hack-sawing the bolts shorter):




That worked a treat (but notice the marred quill).

I had successfully milled a circular tee-slot with a captured cutter! That was pretty cool.

I've been wanting to make an aluminum sub-table for the rotary table to make this sort of workholding easier, but, of course, I wasn't willing to put this job on hold for that one.

Another shot of this the tee-slot milling:




Next I had to put the old cross-slide back on my lathe to make the center pin for the compound. This was a pretty simple bit of turning (that I forgot to photograph). It was just some 0.500" drill rod, with a 3/8" stub for a short length for a press-fit into the cross-slide.

Only a complete idiot would overshoot to 0.373" instead of 0.376" as planned. Loctite to the rescue (laugh)!

I also hardened the pin with a torch. Just heated to cherry red and dropped it in a can of water. Chucked it back up in the lathe and cleaned off the blueing with scotch-brite. Pretty! (And *hard*.)




Here's the underside (with the gib in place):




And with the gib removed:




Here's a terribly blurry photo of the gib pin:




And finally, here's the assembled cross-slide with compound on the lathe itself:




I left the milling marks from the 3/4" end-mill on top because I think it looks kinda cool. Originally I'd planned to fly-cut and maybe lap or scrape the top surface (maybe I will someday, but I'll have to remove the compound pin with heat first).

Obviously, the first job for my new cross slide is to turn down the gib screws a bit so they don't stick out (as well as making lock screws) but overall, I couldn't be happier.

I *do* plan to scrape and fit the dovetails and ways, but since I've never tried my hand at scraping before I want to get some practice with a simpler project first (the transfer block casting I bought seems like the perfect thing). I also plan to create measured drawings of my final design (or at least the design I'd use if I did it over again) in case anyone else has a similar-sized Logan and wants to attempt the same.

This was far and away the most complex part I've made in my short time machining. Couldn't have done it without sites like this and some truly superb YouTube publishers (Mr. Pete, Tom Lipton, Tom's Techniques, the Keiths — Fenner and Rucker, the Tool and Die guy, Dan Gelbart, and many others).

Very happy with the result!
--
Rex


----------



## wa5cab

Rex,

That's great looking work.  And better than I could do I'm sure.  But I have to ask one question as devil's advocate.  In the first photograph in your previous post (showing a top view of the saddle with the cross-feed nut all the way toward the dial), are there still cross feed screw threads in the nut or did it just run off the threads?


----------



## hman

Wowsers!  Great job!  And whatever mistakes you made on the way were of the non-fatal, low-cost learning variety.


----------



## Rex Walters

hman said:


> Wowsers!  Great job!  And whatever mistakes you made on the way were of the non-fatal, low-cost learning variety.



Ha, thanks! Nietzsche learning.

Thanks. Just realized I still need to scribe marks for the compound. Like Paula, I will also scribe four lines at the four points of the compass. Then it's really and truly done.
-- 
Rex


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## jeff_g1137

Hi
Very nice work, i will have to look into getting  the castings for my lathe,  a denford viceroy 10 x 22", the cross slide on my lathe as ears or wings.


----------



## Rex Walters

wa5cab said:


> In the first photograph in your previous post (showing a top view of the saddle with the cross-feed nut all the way toward the dial), are there still cross feed screw threads in the nut or did it just run off the threads?



If I understand your question correctly, the cross-feed acme screw is threaded almost the entire way back to the dial end. The threads continue under the covered portion of the saddle, so the nut still has all threads engaged. I'm not sure that question makes sense, though, because if it ran out of threads I wouldn't be able to retract the slide any further (since the remaining part of the rod is as large as the major diameter of the thread).

Did I misunderstand the question?


----------



## wa5cab

No.  I just didn't know that the Logan was originally built that way.  On the Atlas machines, if you start cranking on the cross feed in either direction, the nut will eventually run off of the threads.  So unlike with carriage traverse, if you engage power cross feed in either direction, the only way that you can hurt anything is to run the tool post into the work.  The Logan carriage covers the cross feed screw much further toward the centerline than does the Atlas. Or maybe it sticks out much further toward the operator.  On the Atlas, where the threads stop going toward the operator, the diameter of the screw reduces to the thread minor diameter or a little less.  I was wrong in assuming that the Logan did, too.  Learned something new.


----------



## Rex Walters

Ah. That makes sense.

On my Logan (actually a Montgomery Wards 11" Powr-Kraft circa 1941) you can crank off the back side, but it's not possible to crank off the screw on the near side. If you look at the first photo in comment 18, the threads on the cross-feed screw continue well under the covered portion of the saddle.  Since the lathe _does_ have power cross-feed without a clutch, it does seem like a better design if it were possible to run off the screw on the near side as well. I could machine a new screw, but the saddle would also have to leave more room uncovered.

All in all, I love this lathe. To be fair, it's the only one I've ever owned. The only other lathe I've ever actually used is the Jet 14" at the local TechShop in San Jose.

My only small gripes with the lathe were:

Dials read radially rather than diametric, and the dials were so small that they were hard to read. [Fixed with new hand-made dials!]
The zero locks for the cross-feed and compound dials are just radial grub screws, which interfere with the view of the dials. I much prefer the axial twist-lock mechanisms on big-boy lathes. [A future project?]
The cross-feed screw cover that screws onto the back of the cross-slide appears to be zinc or some other non-ferrous material — it won't hold an indicator base. [Fixed with the new cross-slide!]
Reading the compound angle is a real pain. The witness mark on the cross-slide and the compass gauge marks on the base of the compound slide are both on the far side of the lathe where it's hard to see (even if they weren't old and covered in grime). [Partially fixed with the new cross-slide.]
The quick-change gear-box interferes with the carriage feed handwheel when it's at the extreme left end of the lathe. Not a problem when using a chuck, but with collets it's a real inconvenience (I have to extend the compound slide much farther than I'd normally like for maximum rigidity.  [No solution yet.]
Regarding 4: The existing compound angle gauge marks just go around the back half of the compound base. I'm starting to think about a new project to re-do the compass gauge marks on the compound base. I want the tics to go the full 360 degrees around the base, and I'd also like to make them higher contrast somehow. Some complete idiot was over aggressive trying to clean up the existing base with sandpaper and a wire wheel, and some of the tics are almost completely worn away.

My current thinking is actually to make a plastic collar that goes completely around the base (I *really* like the look and high-contrast of the Harding micrometer dials). If I had a manual engraving machine, I could just laminate some thin white plastic over a black plastic base and then just engrave the letters and tics. I could do the tics easily enough with my vertical mill, but the numbers will require some kind of pantograph engraving setup (unless someone has a better idea). I'm now on the lookout for a small, cheap, used engraving machine (or plans for the same). I'm also thinking about designing a small sliding vise with a pantograph for the vertical mill to use for engraving one letter/figure at a time (ambitious dreams).

Regards,
--
Rex


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## Redlineman

Well;

Pretty brave stuff to undertake, and quite a nice result. Kudos! Dang... I've got to get my lathe done!!!!


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## eeler1

I saw a guy, here I think, make a protractor-like device for setting the compound, using the flat on the cross slide body as the reference surface.  Kind of a stepped contraption, iirc.  Been thinking about that since, like yours, I have to get a flashlight and magnifying glass to read the angle marks on the compound, and also read from the back side of the machine which means I can't put it against a wall.  All your slots offer even more ways to do it like that.  

I like your collar idea too, but would still have to figure a way to see it easily from the front.  I'll be watching your progress on this.  Thanks for the clear pics and write-ups.


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## Rex Walters

Just a quick update after actually using the new cross slide for a simple bit of turning. [I'm making an extended Y-axis crank bushing for my mill to get a little more travel — but that's a topic for another thread.]

It turns out I was over-optimistic on the amount of adjustability available with my quick-change toolpost holders (AXA sized offshore knock-off of an Aloris QCTP). 

As I mentioned, the new slide is quite a bit thicker (taller) than the old slide. I didn't think it would be that big a problem, but I was wrong. Many of my tools bottom out when adjusting before getting to center hight. I actually had to grind away the top half of a parting tool yesterday, just to get it down to center height.

So I'm going to have to skim a bit more off the top of the new slide before engraving the witness marks for the compound. Because the tee-slots are already milled, though, I can't take too much material off the top of the slide before the bearing parts of the slots become too thin to use. I don't want to thin them much less than 1/8". I'm probably over-cautious since there is normally something on top for the clamping bolts to bear against, but I expect there will occasionally be times when I'm clamping something hollow on the tee-slots.

Since I've also already milled the dovetails on the bottom, I can't take material off from the bottom (the dovetail slots would become too wide).

I suspect I'll have to take some material off of the compound as well. This isn't the end of the world, though, as my compound has seen a lot of use — taking some material off the top of the compound would actually help to clean it up.

So remaining work on the slide includes:

- Adjusting the thickness/height.

- Adding witness marks for the compound protractor gauge (and re-marking the protractor on the compound somehow so it has marks the full 360 degrees around the compound instead of just in the rear).

- Scraping the dovetail ways flat on both the slide and the saddle. [I've been practicing scraping on my "transfer block" casting. I think I'm getting the hang of it.]

- Painting. [I'll definitely wait until I strip and re-paint the compound and saddle as well. Maybe someday. I hate painting.]

- Making a rear-mount toolpost holder. [That will be another thread.]


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## 4GSR

Here's some pictures of the compound slide I did last year.  Might give you a few ideas on placing the marks and stamping the numbers.


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## Rex Walters

4gsr said:


> Here's some pictures of the compound slide I did last year.  Might give you a few ideas on placing the marks and stamping the numbers.



Hey, thanks, Ken! That's awesome. Nice job stamping the numbers. I've made a few dials now and while the scribed lines come out great, I've never been completely happy with the stamped numbers (I've made a variety of jigs to hold the stamps). I may eventually build GHT's "universal pillar tool" just for this sort of thing, but I'm currently leaning toward engraving or laser-cutting flexible plastic laminate to make the protractor dial (a black plastic base with a white laminate on top).

You put the protractor marks on the cross-slide and the index marks on the compound. I'm planning on going the other way around (same as the original). 

Since I already milled off the "ears" on the cross-slide, doing it your way isn't feasible for me. There is no circular raised area on my cross slide, and since I milled off the ears, the circular bottom of the cross slide (see photo below) is the full-width of the cross-slide. I plan to put index marks on the top horizontal surface at "North" on the compass (on the far side of the compound where it was on the original) and at "South". I also plan to put in index at "East" and "West," but they will go on the _vertical_ surfaces on the right and left (hopefully that makes sense).




Regards,
-- 
Rex


----------



## Rex Walters

Rex Walters said:


> You put the protractor marks on the cross-slide and the index marks on the compound. I'm planning on going the other way around (same as the original).



Oh! Wait, you made a compound-slide not a cross-slide! Sorry — I misunderstood.


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## 4GSR

Rex,
I did make a cross slide and compound slide.  The project started out just making a new compound slide.  But when I really got into it, the cross slide was in as bad shape as the compound slide was.  I had enough ductile iron purchased, so I made a cross slide, too.  Yes, I used ductile Iron!  Wish I had enough DI to make my slide as long as yours for a back tool rest as you did!
The degree marks on your Logan are laid out just like they are on my big Lodge & Shipley, marked on the cross slide.


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## Rex Walters

More progress.

I was able to get about 0.180" back in tool height adjustment bymilling a small amount off the top of the cross slide and both the top and bottom of the compound.

This was _just _enough to be able to adjust my 5/8" tool bits and cut-off tools to center height without the tool-holder bottoming out. Whew.

Hopefully nobody is following along, but don't do what I did and assume you have enough adjustability that the extra thickness in the cross slide won't be a problem! Once I'm satisfied with everything, I'll post drawings of what I should have built (considering this one a prototype).

Here's what it looks like now:




Other than the fact that my compound-slide looks kinda like a freshly-shorn marine, I think it looks pretty spiffy, and it works a champ (I still need to make my gib lock levers, though).

I couldn't remove any more off the top of the cross-slide because the tee-slots (both straight and circular) were getting uncomfortably thin (about 0.160"):




Other than the slightly funny look of the compound, the only other issue I ran into was with the square-headed bolts and captured nuts that hold the compound onto the cross slide:




I had a nasty surprise when I first re-assembled everything and tried to face a piece of aluminum. I swiveled the compound to 30 degrees (60 degree mark on the rear of the compound) and tightened the two lock-nuts on either side as shown above. Then I put a turning tool in the QCTP, loosened the top of the toolpost and swung the tool around for a facing cut. When I re-tightened the toolpost, though, the entire compound spun a bit to the right!

Get out the wrench and crank down on the nuts a bit more. Huh. Feels a little weird when I torqued the nuts down. Is there some swarf trapped somewhere? (No.) I was able to lock it down tight enough that it wouldn't turn, but it definitely bugged me (everything was slathered in oil, but still). Then I try to advance the compound slide. _Very _tight. Huh. Did I over-tighten the gib screws? (No.)

Eventually I copped to the fact that removing material from the bottom of the compound meant the square headed bolts were now too long. As I drew them up with the nuts, they were hitting the top of the slot in the compound (which acted almost like a gib screw and made the slide hard to move).

So I cut the screws a bit shorter and found a 5/16-18 die to cut the threads a little farther along the shaft. (As an aside, I don't know what those screws were made from but it was the easiest machining I've ever performed -- the die cut so easily and smoothly I couldn't believe it.)

Anyway, all is well with the world again. After a slight tangent adjusting my spindle take-up nut, my lathe is now fully operational again. 

I think my next task is to make a bunch of ball-handles for various things (gib lock levers, a better carriage lock handle, and replacement gib locks for my mill). I've been in conversation with Jim Sehr who has a brilliantly simple design for a ball turning attachment, and has also taught me several interesting things (like "timing" front and rear mounted tools for production operations).

I've done enough scraping now that I at least know how to do it. Flat to maybe 20 ppi isn't terribly difficult, but I'm struggling to two sides of  my transfer block perpendicular and flat within a couple thou. Dovetail ways are definitely still beyond my skill level at the moment, and the Russian straightedge I bought off of ebay doesn't seem to transfer dykem-hi-spot very well, so I think I'll hold off on scraping the ways for a good while longer and get back to actually using my lathe!

I also need to make my rear-mount tool holder. That will be useful for making ball handles, so that may be next in the queue before the ball turner. This hobby needs a shorthand term for making parts for tools to make tools to make parts for tools.

Regards,
-- 
Rex


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## tertiaryjim

Rex Walters said:


> This hobby needs a shorthand term for making parts for tools to make tools to make parts for tools.


I think the term your looking for is  MACHINIST
Really enjoyed your thread. 
I want a machine with a cross slide like yours. May have to start looking for materials.
I too am learning to scrape my machines and have had some great results and a few screw-ups that must yet be corrected.
It' all a learning experience.
Jim


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## ACHiPo

Late to the party, but really nice work Rex!


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## Silverbullet

You could use a qctp or a four way , even a second compound. Nice job on the build. I bet the studs were leadloy 12l14.  I used lots of bars of that in a valve shop on turret lathes. It's just so nice to work with. I could cut 1" acme threads on ten inch shafts with a die head in about a minute or less. Brass is another of my favorites. I may still get the ruff casting for my logan 11" someday if I get back straightened out. Two very good neurosurgeons said no more surgeries on my spine it can't take anymore the last one said. At least now I have proof the butcher that did the first two really did turn me into a quadriplegic. I got back to walking with a cane but the damage caused me to walk back into a wheelchair. Life's good to me YA think.


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## Scruffy

I refer to making parts, for making parts,for making parts as the snowball effect. It will sneak up on you.
Loved your build and detail.
Ron in ohio


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## rambin

wow that's some sweet looking work... gonna be one hell of a lathe when your done!  and I just love those dials that a person can actually read. to bad no ones reproducing them commercially.


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## Happycamper

I earmarked this post just so I could refer to it when I build a cross slide. So... here I am ready to start and I can’t find the MLA web site to order the casting. Anyone know what happened to them?


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## Rex Walters

His website appears to have disappeared, but I know someone who received some castings from him recently. He may have retired but I’m not sure.

PM me if you’d like the last phone number I have for Andy, but his snail mail address is:

Metal Lathe Accessories 
Andy Lofquist 
PO Box 88 
Pine Grove Mills, PA 16868


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## Silverbullet

Happycamper said:


> I earmarked this post just so I could refer to it when I build a cross slide. So... here I am ready to start and I can’t find the MLA web site to order the casting. Anyone know what happened to them?


Let us know if you find him. I'd like the same for my 11" Logan. I Put it off to long , hope not . My luck tho.


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## Happycamper

I emailed Andy at mlatoolbox@verizon.net and received the below reply from him:

     Yes, they are available.  Probably it was the S-4382 cross slide you saw.  Price of casting and drawing is $56.00.  Shipping $14.35 to U.S.A. addresses.  Payment by check or PayPal.   Andy Lofquist, Metal Lathe Accessories (814) 234-3543

I don’t know what else he might have and as I recall, there were two cross slide castings but I don’t know which one for the Logan. Also, it seems as there was gib stock available also. I plan to call him tomorrow and I’ll know more.

Regards,

J.Hawk


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## Happycamper

Ok, the web site for MLA is:  www.mlatoolbox.com       Andy’s email is mlatoolbox@verizon.com


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## markba633csi

Pretty nice Rex, not a beginner's project for sure;  more like "advanced intermediate", many opportunities to mess up.
I don't have the patience to stop and take pictures when I build stuff. Gotta work on that. 
Mark


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## Rex Walters

markba633csi said:


> Pretty nice Rex, not a beginner's project for sure;  more like "advanced intermediate", many opportunities to mess up.



Thanks! Trust me, I’m still very much a beginner and an amateur to boot. 

I just trust my inner Nietsche: that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And I’ve had my share of close calls. My setup for splitting some durabar diagonally on a little 4x6 bandsaw to make some straightedges comes to mind — don’t do it the way I did!

Glad to hear Andy is still selling his castings. The part number J. Hawk shows above (S-4382) is indeed the part I ordered from Andy.


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## Jimsehr

You can still find Logan  production cross slides on eBay. I fact I have two in my stash . I think one is for a 12 inch Logan and another fits a 11 inch Logan. And there are three on eBay two that fit 11 Inch Logan’s and one that has no dial just a handle for front and back stops.


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## tmenyc

Yes, I saw those, thanks!  I am fervently hoping to not need a new cross-slide... so far there is neither evidence that I do nor to counterindicate the purchase of the new gib and gib screws that I hope to install this week sometime.

Later:  with apologies, I thought this ebay reference was to my cross-slide issues, not Rex's wonderful rebuild.  
Tim


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## Happycamper

Buy it on eBay? Where’s the fun in that? I’m a hobby Machinist. I can make anything! Well, I’m going to try to anyway! That’s the good thing about being retired, plenty of time. First you have to think about it, then do a little work, and then think about it some more. Anyway, I can certainly see why someone would buy one off eBay when they didn’t have time to futz with it.... been there done that,

J.hawk


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## Rex Walters

While I am rebuilding my lathe, too, this cross-slide wasn't really part of the rebuild. The original cross-slide works fine, I just find it too short, wanted a rear tool post for a cutoff tool, and didn't like the non-ferrous (zinc?) cover on the back. This longer cross slide is great for mounting a rear tool post, fixtures, jigs, whatever.

If I did it over again (unlikely!) I'd probably make a real tapered gib, and I'd try to figure out a way to make the compound easily removable. I'd probably be better off with a fixed tool post for at least 80% of what I do, for example. It would be nice if I could easily take the compound on and off.

STOP IT, REX!! First I need to get the dang lathe back to operational before I start thinking about further improvements! <laugh>


----------



## Happycamper

Rex, thank you for your help and inspiration. Finished my cross slide two days ago and got my DRO reconnected. The DRO was one reason I wanted to do this slide in order to relocate the gib screws and compound lock screws. It works well with the gib screws and lock screws on the left side and gives me more room on the right side to mount the scale. The only problem I had was in machining the dove tails. I used Paula’s method of indexing dove tail dimensions off a pin in the cross slide nut screw hole which is centerline. What I didn't take Into account was that on my lathe the gib side of the saddle’s dove tail was 1/16” more narrow than the other side. After machining the dove tails in the cross slide, like  you I had to try it out. Since the casting is a little narrower than the stock slide, I wanted the right side to be a little over on the right side in order to mount the scale. When I tried it out, the nut hole was to far to the left and too much to the left of the saddle base. I fixed it by milling a gib for the right side and JB welding it along with pinning and using the gib spreader clamps I made to clamp it in place until the JB Weld set up. I then machined it down to correct dimensions. It then fitted perfect. The base on the saddle was at 3.410  wide and the new slide was 3.445 and finished height of 1.065. Thanks again for your very informative ‘how to’!

J.Hawk
Happycamper


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## Rex Walters

Awesome. I like the DRO cover and the yellow color.   Good to know everything worked out with the screws on the headstock side.


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## Happycamper

Thank you! It’s a gold color and I’m having trouble matching it, as if it matters if the color matches or not!


----------



## NeedAHobby

Rex Walters said:


> After milling the dovetail in the bottom of the new casting, I took some time to lap the bottom using coarse sandpaper on my surface plate (with water as a lubricant).
> 
> Next up was to mill the bevels on the gib. I had to decide whether to build a one-time-use fixture to hold the gib, or just use available tooling and figure out some way to hold the gib at the required angle to the tool. I opted for the latter.
> 
> The simplest thing I could think of was to again use dowels and my adjustable parallels (handy little suckers):
> View attachment 106122
> 
> 
> This isn't the most secure workholding in the world, but I figured it would suffice. At first I only hand tightened the parallels by squeezing the wedges with my fingers, but eventually I wised up and started tapping them tight with a small tack hammer. Also, I eventually learned that (unlike the picture shown) I should ensure that I locate the outermost dowels as close to the front and back edges of the slide as possible (to provide better support at the ends of the gib).
> 
> Then I took extremely light passes (0.005" at a time) with pretty slow feed rates (power feed). I was careful to mill in the correct direction (table moving from left to right, with the cutter moving from top to bottom as photographed above) so that the gib was pushed back into the dovetail as the leading edge of the cutter hits the gib.
> 
> It was probably unnecessary to mention this, because only a _*complete idiot*_ would risk throwing a part just to save a little time by milling in both directions and taking too heavy a cut.
> 
> View attachment 106123
> 
> 
> Ahem.
> 
> For what its worth, I'm *very* fortunate that I didn't chip my expensive carbide end-mill or (much worse) injure someone (me!) when the part was thrown. Even though I only had the slide lightly clamped, I was still surprised that there was enough force to pull it out of the clamps.
> 
> Lesson learned. This was when I got out the hammer to better tighten the wedges and started taking my time with light, light passes. I even slowed the feed a bit more once I started taking wider cuts as the quill was lowered.
> 
> Here's what it looked like as I was taking 0.005" at a slow feed rate (just to show how little I was actually taking off each pass).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On the first edge, I didn't mill down to a sharp knife edge. I left a tiny little bevel on the edge to ensure that I had enough material to mill the other side. I figured I'd be knocking the sharp edges off with a file when I was done anyway.
> View attachment 106124
> 
> 
> For the other edge I just flipped the part and stole the idea from Paula on the South Bend forum to use some 3/32" rod as a spacer to lift the part enough to mill. Then rinse and repeat.
> View attachment 106126
> 
> 
> Like spelling "banana," the only tricky thing about the second edge was knowing when to stop.
> 
> I wanted to ensure that the gib was narrow enough not to bind top-to-bottom in the slot, but I didn't want to mill off any more than necessary. This didn't need to be a super accurate measurement, I just didn't want the gib to bind. The solution was pretty simple, just use another piece of the 3/32" rod as a gauge on top:
> View attachment 106127
> 
> 
> The camera angle is pretty awkward, but in person it was obvious that the gib was higher than the gauge rod (the square wasn't vertical):
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 106128
> 
> 
> I just kept milling until the square tipped the other way. Here's a shot from the other side once I was just about done (I think I took off another 0.005" just for good measure). You can clearly see that the squares are touching at top, but there's a gap at the bottom.
> View attachment 106129
> 
> 
> Finally, here's a shot showing the finished gib in place on the slide (finished except for cutting it to length — I did that off camera):
> View attachment 106130
> 
> 
> In this final shot of the gib in place, you can see one little detail I forgot to mention. When I cleaned up the casting scale in the slot on the bottom of the raw casting, I was left with a trench quite a bit deeper than the original part. At first I just started milling away on the roughly-formed ways to lower the gap, but eventually I chickened out. Instead of reducing the depth to final dimension, I reasoned it was okay to leave a little more "meat" on the sides. The trench isn't a precision bearing surface anyway, it just needs to provide clearance. Here you can clearly see the little "extra" gap I'm talking about (I don't think it will hurt anything):
> View attachment 106131
> 
> 
> Next up is to bore and tap the holes for the gib screw, gib pin, and lock screws. I also need to make the lock screws.
> 
> Enjoy!
> --
> Rex


The Idea with the Squares is genius.


----------



## Rex Walters

NeedAHobby said:


> The Idea with the Squares is genius.


I'd love to say it was my genius, but it's a safe bet I either read about it in a dusty old book or heard about it from a crusty old-timer.


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## Richard King 2

Rex...LTNS or talk.   I was thinking about your today as a matter of fact.   I saw on a Facebook post where some guy inherited some machines in Santa Maria, CA .  I mentioned I had friends in the bay area  that might be able to help with honest values as he wanted to sell the machines and was clueless.  I expect him to message me and I was going to give him your email.  How the heck are you and are the guys in your club, OK??   I have had some issues with my toes because of diabetes but have them on the mend.   The wife and I have our 3 shots.  I have been staying busy teaching inside my shop here in MN.


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## Rex Walters

Richard King 2 said:


> Rex...LTNS or talk.   I was thinking about your today as a matter of fact.   I saw on a Facebook post where some guy inherited some machines in Santa Maria, CA .  I mentioned I had friends in the bay area  that might be able to help with honest values as he wanted to sell the machines and was clueless.  I expect him to message me and I was going to give him your email.  How the heck are you and are the guys in your club, OK??   I have had some issues with my toes because of diabetes but have them on the mend.   The wife and I have our 3 shots.  I have been staying busy teaching inside my shop here in MN.


Rich!

Nice to hear from you as well. Feel free to give your friend my contact info.

I'll move the rest to email.


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