9x49 mill from QMT (Warning - pic heavy)

[Silverbullet]

Congratulations , super looking mill.

 

[xplodee]

I see a lot of people complaining about cosmolene being difficult to remove on new machines.

Fwiw, LPS #2 takes it right off. Even old cosmolene. Better than mineral spirits even.

 

[Lonnie]

That's good to know. I'll have to pick some up and keep some on hand for next time.
The stuff that was on the rotary table cleaned up fairly easy as did my lathe when I got it. The cosmolene that was on the mill seemed like it was baked on.

 

[xplodee]

While I don't love the green, I also don't love the highly textured off-white of the PM machines. I wish they were a smoother gloss and grey! beggers can't be choosey though, the machines are wonderful regardless of their color.

 

[Lonnie]

No more cranking!!!

 

[scwhite]

Today wasn't as productive as I'd hoped but I did get some more done. I was able to get the X and Y axis DRO scales on as well as the display. Figured I'd start with the easy axis and go from there. I put welding magnets on either side of the table and set the scale on them. It worked great for getting my bolt holes marked. I installed the reader with some aluminum angle iron I had. Never got a picture of the reader angle mounting because it's pretty basic. If someone would like a picture of it just let me know and I'll take one for you.

The Y axis was a little more tricky but the link Mark posted had some great ideas. I decided I would build something rather than try to fit all the angle plates together that come in the DRO kit to make it work. I also wanted the mounting to be solid. I found a piece of aluminum and slotted it out to fit around the lead screw.

I then moved the Y axis in all the way and back out to find where I needed to mount the reader so it was centered. It needed to be mounted on the right hand side of the plate so I took it out and trimmed off the left side and added some slots for the angle plate to mount to. I installed the plate and mocked everything together to find the best place for mounting the scale.

If you didn't notice, The counter-sunk cap screws on the plate were replaced with hex head bolts. Seems I drew the cut-off on the wrong side of the plate. I didn't have enough meat left to counter-sink again so just I just wacked my head against the wall and went and found some bolts that would fit......

I figured I'd wait till tomorrow to tackle the Z axis so I mounted the screen and arm to the mill. Once I have the Z axis mounted, I'll get the cables tied up and out of the way properly.

And just another one of the scale mounting.

The more I work with this mill, the more I'm liking it. I'll get my vise mounted in the center of the table tomorrow. I mounted it the way it is so I would have enough movement for checking scale mounting.
Hopefully over the next couple of days I can get a proper electrical box put on with a few 120v plug-ins for the power feed and DRO. I think I'm going to put 6 plug-ins on it for expansion. I do plan on adding a Z power feed and may even add one on the Y as well.

That's a good looking milling machine