New to me BusyBee benchtop mill

[schor]

So with everything trammed up I figured I would try to mill something. I found that everything just jumped around everywhere. Nothing smooth at all. Tried to dial in the perfect speeds etc and nothing worked. So I noticed some vertical play in the quill and tried to tighten things down a bit more (I really had it fairly loose before) and I noticed everything released on the drawbar and holder. Pulled the drawbar out and noticed the roll pin was broken and there were only 2 threads hitting the holder. At least 5 threads were gone.

I am going to make a new longer drawbar. The current one is mild steel. Any reason I would want to go harder with the drawbar? Should I use the rollpin like the orig or make the whole thing solid? Right now it is a hex 19mm top piece on the rod with a rollpin holding the hex head.

Thanks for any comments.

 

[fastback]

That is a very nice looking mill. It really cleaned up well. Hope it runs as good as it looks. Good luck with the new machine.

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Hey Schor

I don't think there is anything wrong with a pin on a knob like that - a solid piece would be a lot of cutting! ... But really nice

I'm glad you sorted that out. How does the table itself feel? How much backlash does it have?

Bernie

 

[schor]

I had some 11/16 hex stock around, not exactly the same as the 19mm one that was on it, but I think I can live with it. Hopefully I'll get some time tomorrow to turn up a new drawbar.



I do have some backlash, not sure how much, can measure that eventually. But knowing how much doesn't fix it. )

Overall it seems good but really hard to say given the vertical play in the spindle. That caused no end of chatter and bouncing around. I'll get the drawbar made and give it another ride and report back.

 

[Maxx]

Have you pulled out the shaft from the hex bar?
Couldn't you just make a new shaft and loctite and pin in the new one?

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Was the vertical play in the spindle itself, or quill?



Bernie

 

[DAN_IN_MN]

So with everything trammed up I figured I would try to mill something. I found that everything just jumped around everywhere. Nothing smooth at all. Tried to dial in the perfect speeds etc and nothing worked. So I noticed some vertical play in the quill and tried to tighten things down a bit more (I really had it fairly loose before) and I noticed everything released on the drawbar and holder. Pulled the drawbar out and noticed the roll pin was broken and there were only 2 threads hitting the holder. At least 5 threads were gone.

I am going to make a new longer drawbar. The current one is mild steel. Any reason I would want to go harder with the drawbar? Should I use the rollpin like the orig or make the whole thing solid? Right now it is a hex 19mm top piece on the rod with a rollpin holding the hex head.

Thanks for any comments.

What direction were you feeding the material? If you were feeding it the same direction the cutter was turning, aka climb cutting, backlash will be be brought out.

Try conventional milling or feeding the material against the rotation of the cutter.

 

[schor]

Thanks Dan, I tried both, I wish I took a video, the whole machine was shaking, and I tried for hours with different cutters, speed, cutting fluid, coolant, ... I think it comes down to the vertical play I had in the spindle, close to 0.1, the cutters were just bouncing around. With the drawbar not engaging it was basically impossible to mill anything.

I started on the new drawbar, just got in from turning it down to 3/8. Will tap it tomorrow and then size it for length.

What direction were you feeding the material? If you were feeding it the same direction the cutter was turning, aka climb cutting, backlash will be be brought out.

Try conventional milling or feeding the material against the rotation of the cutter.

 

[schor]

So here's some pics of the drawbar build. I couldn't wait till tomorrow. I took videos to an might make a drawbar build project out of it.

 

[jack3140]

Sure Jack- just PM me your email and I'll send them right out.


Bernie

sent you pm hope it gets trough regards jack