-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
How to tram junk
- Thread starter Tb1988
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2020
- Messages
- 2,047
It is not a RT, it is a swivel base.........
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2014
- Messages
- 2,859
I would not be too dismayed about the condition of your bed. My Bridgeport looks like somebody routed PCBs held on the table. You can see the conductor outlines in the table. But since everything was cut into the table, not peaks, it's actually fine. I've never detected a problem because of table condition.
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2019
- Messages
- 2,298
My guess is that no one using that machine knew how to angle the head. It has probably never been moved from the factory setting and is likely just fine as is. I would still check it though just for peace of mind.
Get some way oil into all of the lube points before doing much moving of anything. That poor thing is probably starving for a drink of oil in its moving parts.
Start by getting that vice off the table so you can clean and then stone the entire table surface, Once you start working with the stone you will see a shiny ring around every dent. When you make a dent the material does not go away it gets pushed into a ridge around the dent. All you want to do with the stoning is to remove the ridge around the dents. As soon as you see the stone getting to the undamaged surface of the table STOP, any farther and you are creating a low area that will haunt you forever. The low part of the dent will still be there and is not an issue. DO NOT try to make the dents go away, you only want to remove the high spots. Do not try to work on dents one at a time. work on the table as a whole. Concentrating on very small areas is almost sure to end up with a wavy surface.
As for the vice, first give it a good cleaning. The jaws are removable and you should be able find new ones. If you can not find new ones that a set of jaw faces will be a great first project. Having a swivel vice is a very handy thing at times. I would still look for a good used non swivel vice for everyday use.
When done wipe all of the WD40 off and give it a good wipe with way oil to protect it from rust. WD40 dries into a hard nasty substance.
Get some way oil into all of the lube points before doing much moving of anything. That poor thing is probably starving for a drink of oil in its moving parts.
Start by getting that vice off the table so you can clean and then stone the entire table surface, Once you start working with the stone you will see a shiny ring around every dent. When you make a dent the material does not go away it gets pushed into a ridge around the dent. All you want to do with the stoning is to remove the ridge around the dents. As soon as you see the stone getting to the undamaged surface of the table STOP, any farther and you are creating a low area that will haunt you forever. The low part of the dent will still be there and is not an issue. DO NOT try to make the dents go away, you only want to remove the high spots. Do not try to work on dents one at a time. work on the table as a whole. Concentrating on very small areas is almost sure to end up with a wavy surface.
As for the vice, first give it a good cleaning. The jaws are removable and you should be able find new ones. If you can not find new ones that a set of jaw faces will be a great first project. Having a swivel vice is a very handy thing at times. I would still look for a good used non swivel vice for everyday use.
When done wipe all of the WD40 off and give it a good wipe with way oil to protect it from rust. WD40 dries into a hard nasty substance.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2023
- Messages
- 369
I second Flyinfools suggestion.
As to the vice, that vice is still better than no vice. After you tram the mill to the mill table first, then you can address the vice problems.
Yes there is a lot of material missing from the bottom of the vice. These can just be swarf collection grooves. After all, small chips need somewhere to go when you go to put something in the vice and you want it tight against the bottom.
Seriously, you could probably fill them in with jbweld, as a last resort, and then mill back off, and get a usable vice for rough work. Or just a work holding vice for the workbench for hand work. It’s heavy enough not to move around much.
Of course, for the price you paid for it ( great deal). You can afford to put some big money into a new vice, if you want, but wait til you get the mill cleaned up and tested out first.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As to the vice, that vice is still better than no vice. After you tram the mill to the mill table first, then you can address the vice problems.
Yes there is a lot of material missing from the bottom of the vice. These can just be swarf collection grooves. After all, small chips need somewhere to go when you go to put something in the vice and you want it tight against the bottom.
Seriously, you could probably fill them in with jbweld, as a last resort, and then mill back off, and get a usable vice for rough work. Or just a work holding vice for the workbench for hand work. It’s heavy enough not to move around much.
Of course, for the price you paid for it ( great deal). You can afford to put some big money into a new vice, if you want, but wait til you get the mill cleaned up and tested out first.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2016
- Messages
- 13,376
Rotary table . What you have there is just a swivel base . Nice to have when you need it but does use up some of your Z axis .
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2019
- Messages
- 2,298
You can clean up the jaws of the vice that you have. use the same procedures as for the table. Once you do that you can see what you have to decide if the jaws are good as is or need to be replaced. You might be able to flip those jaws upside down to get the better edge up near the top.
As mentioned with all the holes cut into the vice you could clean it real good and fill them all with JB WELD epoxy. where the holes are in an edge just use masking tape to act as a dam so you can fill it up. Having all of that area smooth will make cleanup a lot easier after a job and also make setting up easier by having a nice flat bottom. If you are drilling thru a part you either use parallels to hold the part up off the bottom of the vice or a piece of sacrificial material under the part so that you can break thru and not hit the machine. I keep a lot of scraps of wood, plywood, MDF etc. around as sacrificial material for under parts. The parallels are also used to get the part up above the top of the jaws so that you can machine across the top and not hit the jaws.
You can get jaws that are hardened, plain steel, or soft jaws. Hardened are the best for normal work, hitting them with a cutting tool will break all but carbide tools, they are not intended to ever contact a cutting tool. Steel jaws are able to be machined a bit, will not instantly take out HSS cutters but will wear faster than the hardened jaws loosing accuracy over time. The soft jaws are intended to be machined. They are usually made of aluminum, sometimes brass or copper. They are for those times when you have an odd shaped part and you can then machine a matching pocket into the jaws to get a good grip on the part. There are other times when you have a very small part and there is no way to make the cut without cutting into the jaw. Soft jaws are relatively inexpensive and are semi disposable. They are not good for everyday use as they will wear and deform quickly.
As mentioned with all the holes cut into the vice you could clean it real good and fill them all with JB WELD epoxy. where the holes are in an edge just use masking tape to act as a dam so you can fill it up. Having all of that area smooth will make cleanup a lot easier after a job and also make setting up easier by having a nice flat bottom. If you are drilling thru a part you either use parallels to hold the part up off the bottom of the vice or a piece of sacrificial material under the part so that you can break thru and not hit the machine. I keep a lot of scraps of wood, plywood, MDF etc. around as sacrificial material for under parts. The parallels are also used to get the part up above the top of the jaws so that you can machine across the top and not hit the jaws.
You can get jaws that are hardened, plain steel, or soft jaws. Hardened are the best for normal work, hitting them with a cutting tool will break all but carbide tools, they are not intended to ever contact a cutting tool. Steel jaws are able to be machined a bit, will not instantly take out HSS cutters but will wear faster than the hardened jaws loosing accuracy over time. The soft jaws are intended to be machined. They are usually made of aluminum, sometimes brass or copper. They are for those times when you have an odd shaped part and you can then machine a matching pocket into the jaws to get a good grip on the part. There are other times when you have a very small part and there is no way to make the cut without cutting into the jaw. Soft jaws are relatively inexpensive and are semi disposable. They are not good for everyday use as they will wear and deform quickly.
- Joined
- May 7, 2023
- Messages
- 2,517
Thank you, this was driving me nuts.
- Joined
- May 7, 2023
- Messages
- 2,517
I disagree with this.
We tram the heads of our mills anytime there is a critical job to do and they are sometimes out. A crash will surely throw the head off, but even hard use can cause this.
A machine that badly misused is sure to be out.