Wow, amazon.ca over charges for that VFD It is ~$60USD on ebay
I am able to do 99% of my mill work on one pulley with adequate torque 25-120hz range
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First mill chips
- Thread starter DavidR8
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Wow, amazon.ca over charges for that VFD It is ~$60USD on ebay
I am able to do 99% of my mill work on one pulley with adequate torque 25-120hz range
No doubt metric is better but I'm with you, beyond a metric rule (cm and mm) I cannot think in metric. Mostly because I don't care to. There will be the occasional UK or somewhere else in the world member that tries to ridicule us on still using the old system but I remind them there are 2 types of countries; those that use the metric system and those that have landed on the moon.
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Somewhere in one of your gazillon posts you showed a picture of one of the dials on your mill/drill. I tried to find it with no success. What I recall is that it showed .025mm as the increment for each line. 0.001 inches is equal to 0.0254mm. 0.0004mm is equal to 0.000015748031 inches. If that is the case your dials have 0.001 increments even though it says 0.025mm.
Also on my mill/drill one full turn of the dial on the X & Y axis is 0.125". This was confusing to start with. One full turn on the Z axis on mine is 0.100".
Also on my mill/drill one full turn of the dial on the X & Y axis is 0.125". This was confusing to start with. One full turn on the Z axis on mine is 0.100".
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Funny you mention this.
I was thinking about it and the 2.54 conversion factor for cm to in. I then realized that I wasn’t thinking clearly when I said it was metric. Obviously the increments are .001 but for whatever reason they denoted them as .025”
Thanks for correcting and confirming my faulty thinking
Edit: I verified this morning that indeed, the markings are .001". Also discovered that the dials can't be zeroed out. Oh well, can't win them all.
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Last edited:
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That seems a bit weird. You sure there’s not a set screw disguised as something else somewhere or one of those friction-spring things in the dial that just hasn’t moved for 30 years? Not questioning your intelligence here, just seems like a pretty basic feature on an otherwise fairly well-appointed machine.
-frank
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I was rushing out the door to work but took a few minutes to drop an indicator on the table and confirm the travel so I may have missed how they might move.
I'll have a closer look tonight as you're 100% right it is a bit odd. I will look in the manual to see if movable dials are mentioned.
I will say that counting tick marks without being able to zero the dials is a bit of a challenge.
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The dial's can't be zero'd out. They are held in place by a roll pin. The dials also hold the lead screw in place relative to the table and have slots that the handle fits into. I have been thinking about how I could modify the dials so they could be zero'd out ever since I got my mill/drill. I don't have the means to precisely mark new dials in .001 increments. One full turn of the dial is .125" A new dial would need to be marked with 125 increments. I'll figure it out one of these days.
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From one newbie to another newbie. Now you need to start practicing. Start with your lathe. Get some pvc pipe and practice turning and threading. Both external and internal. It doesn't matter what diameters you are turning to or the threads you cut. You are just learning the process. Coat your practice pieces with dichem to give you a visual. Especially when threading. You can also use a colored marker. With threading practice even and odd TPI. The process is a little different for each. Don't make the sessions too long. An hour at the most. Do this each day to see what you remember from the previous day.
After a couple of sessions switch to metal pipe. Now you will experience how much spring there is in your setup. Measure the diameter of the pipe. Make a cut. The depth of the cut is not important. Say .010 or .020. Measure the pipe again. You will discover that your actual cut was slightly less than you attempted. This is the spring in your set up. All lathes have this. Your mill will have spring too. Knowing the amount of spring for a given cut is important when you are trying to turn to a precise diameter. Unless you want to make a multiple passes to sneak up to your precise diameter. Sneaking up is very time consuming. There are ways to lessen the amount of spring but you can never eliminate it. Besides more turning experience you will now be gaining experience measuring. Being able to measure accurately I consider to be the holy grail of machining. You have to master the art of taking consistent measurements. Accurate measuring and learning to deal with spring gave me fits when I was first starting.
Next move on to solid steel bar to practice turning to a diameter and threading. For example get a piece of 5/8 bar and turn the end down to 9/16. Now thread the bar to fit a 9/16 nut. Keep doing this for smaller and smaller thread sizes. Cut the end off and start again.
To practice internal threading you should start with a larger diameter bar. 1 1/2" to 2". Bore a hole to the smallest size that you can get you threading boring bar into but still to the minor diameter for a common bolt size. Thread the hole. Then increase the hole up the next bolt size and so on.
An hour a day for two weeks and you will have this down.
Over on the mill start by just making cuts to get the feel of the machine. Then move on to milling to precise dimensions. Making a cube is good practice. I wish that I had done this. Do both conventional and climb milling. Practice drilling and taping holes in precise locations. Practice cutting slots and dovetails. Unless you have something else to make I would start making toolholders for your QCTP. You can never have enough toolholders Making toolholders is really good practice.
This is very important. You will messup and make mistakes. Things won't come out the way you would have liked. Don't despair. You will get better as time goes along. Even the most experienced master machinists messup and make mistakes at times.
Most of all have fun.
After a couple of sessions switch to metal pipe. Now you will experience how much spring there is in your setup. Measure the diameter of the pipe. Make a cut. The depth of the cut is not important. Say .010 or .020. Measure the pipe again. You will discover that your actual cut was slightly less than you attempted. This is the spring in your set up. All lathes have this. Your mill will have spring too. Knowing the amount of spring for a given cut is important when you are trying to turn to a precise diameter. Unless you want to make a multiple passes to sneak up to your precise diameter. Sneaking up is very time consuming. There are ways to lessen the amount of spring but you can never eliminate it. Besides more turning experience you will now be gaining experience measuring. Being able to measure accurately I consider to be the holy grail of machining. You have to master the art of taking consistent measurements. Accurate measuring and learning to deal with spring gave me fits when I was first starting.
Next move on to solid steel bar to practice turning to a diameter and threading. For example get a piece of 5/8 bar and turn the end down to 9/16. Now thread the bar to fit a 9/16 nut. Keep doing this for smaller and smaller thread sizes. Cut the end off and start again.
To practice internal threading you should start with a larger diameter bar. 1 1/2" to 2". Bore a hole to the smallest size that you can get you threading boring bar into but still to the minor diameter for a common bolt size. Thread the hole. Then increase the hole up the next bolt size and so on.
An hour a day for two weeks and you will have this down.
Over on the mill start by just making cuts to get the feel of the machine. Then move on to milling to precise dimensions. Making a cube is good practice. I wish that I had done this. Do both conventional and climb milling. Practice drilling and taping holes in precise locations. Practice cutting slots and dovetails. Unless you have something else to make I would start making toolholders for your QCTP. You can never have enough toolholders Making toolholders is really good practice.
This is very important. You will messup and make mistakes. Things won't come out the way you would have liked. Don't despair. You will get better as time goes along. Even the most experienced master machinists messup and make mistakes at times.
Most of all have fun.