Setup and Continuing Saga of the Charter Oak 12Z

[coolidge]

I've not used a DRO on a lathe yet. I do know that having one on the mill makes things easier/faster, so looking for the same benefits on the turning thingie.

Gotta put up a huge curtain rod for the Boss this morning, then I'll get back to the mill.

Coolidge: Do you know if you have to remove the head for the belt drive conversion? I'm trying to decide when exactly to do the head oiling system mod and if I can kill two birds with one stone. I'm not taking this monster off twice.

I turned some fixture pins last night with a critical OD dimension, it had to fit snug and I held that dimension to within 4 tenths with the DRO confirmed by my Mitutoyo mic. Fit was perfect, I can't image how hit or miss that job would have been without a DRO. Once I set X I just churned them out one after another.

Bill I would say technically no you don't have to remove the head so long as you can lower it enough so that its easy to work on. Mechanically there is no reason to remove it.

 

[wrmiller]

Well the scales are mounted and the reader brackets fabricated. I was running out of material on the Y axis, so it is a bit of a kludge but it is solid. I'll forget what it looks like in a couple of days... :lmao:



Friday I will fasten down the cover for the Y axis. This axis absolutely needs a cover as it gets buried in chips and oil on Blue. The others are out of the direct line of fire. Then I will tackle the display mount and run the cables.

Tomorrow is for stuffing the bird, then me (in that order) then lapsing into a turkey coma on the couch in front of the football game. Looking forward to it. )

Have a good holiday tomorrow everyone!

 

[GA Gyro]

Well the scales are mounted and the reader brackets fabricated. I was running out of material on the Y axis, so it is a bit of a kludge but it is solid. I'll forget what it looks like in a couple of days... :lmao:

View attachment 88467View attachment 88468

Friday I will fasten down the cover for the Y axis. This axis absolutely needs a cover as it gets buried in chips and oil on Blue. The others are out of the direct line of fire. Then I will tackle the display mount and run the cables.

Tomorrow is for stuffing the bird, then me (in that order) then lapsing into a turkey coma on the couch in front of the football game. Looking forward to it. )

Have a good holiday tomorrow everyone!

SIL (sister in law) is hosting THXgiving this year... all I have to do is bring a couple of side dishes... which will take about 45 min in the morning.

The part about lapsing into a turkey (triptophane) coma sounds good about now... been getting folks heat systems ready for the winter.
Hopefully I will not have any calls over the weekend, need to get the mill stand made.

A wonderful Turkey Day holiday to all the folks at Hobby Machinist forum...
We have a LOT to be thankful for!

GA

 

[darkzero]

Hey Bill, just a heads up in case you didn't see already & was still interested....


From another thread:

FYI, Glacern's BF sale is going on right now until 11/30. All the shell face mills are on sale but not the shell arbors. And only the integral 3" FM45 is on sale for $139. They used have the 2" & 2.5" integtrals on sale for this price too, not sure why they decided not to put them on sale this year.

 

[wrmiller]

Hey Bill, just a heads up in case you didn't see already & was still interested....


From another thread:

Yea, saw that. Thought I was mis-reading it at first, then figured that the 2.5" might be more popular and they don't NEED to put it on sale.

But all for naught at the moment. In my looking for a big(er) lathe thread I posted that I kinda blew this (and the next several) month's play money by telling Matt I'd take one of his Taiwan specials.

 

[wrmiller]

No pics today, my little shop is a wreck as I have begun moving machines around.

I did manage to finish the DRO install and move El Hefe to his new home which is just a few feet to the left and forward a bit. Being on wheels is a huge advantage when you need to move your machines around, but it is not as simple as it sounds. I think I said it before, but trying to move this guy is like dancing with a buffalo i.e., he pretty much moves where HE wants to go, not where you want him to. But, I finally managed to push/pull/swear at him to get him into final position. I moved him to make room to bring Blue back over to that side of the garage so I have both mills sitting next to each other. I will do the same with the lathes when the new one shows up. When the 1340 gets here, the Jeep is going outside. There just won't be enough room otherwise. What the heck, it's a lease...

On the CO I also moved the remote for the VFD to the bar I mounted the DRO display on which is attached to the back of the column. I just don't like electronics on the head. It's not smart to mount circuit boards onto a vigorously vibrating piece of iron and expect it to survive very long. I suspect this is the reason my rpm display flaked out on the PM25.

If I get things somewhat back together tomorrow I will post a couple of pics of the DRO install and VFD move.

 

[maker of things]

Try one of these. I can slide my 12z and 1440 with little effort (no wheels). Home improvement stores usually have them by the shovels. Tru Temper calls it a pinch point crow bar.

 

[GA Gyro]

Try one of these. I can slide my 12z and 1440 with little effort (no wheels). Home improvement stores usually have them by the shovels. Tru Temper calls it a pinch point crow bar.

AS I remember.... that is also called a RR prybar... it is 5-6 ft long and hefty!

And yes, they will pry/move a surprising amount of weight... I have one.

 

[brav65]

No pics today, my little shop is a wreck as I have begun moving machines around.

I did manage to finish the DRO install and move El Hefe to his new home which is just a few feet to the left and forward a bit. Being on wheels is a huge advantage when you need to move your machines around, but it is not as simple as it sounds. I think I said it before, but trying to move this guy is like dancing with a buffalo i.e., he pretty much moves where HE wants to go, not where you want him to. But, I finally managed to push/pull/swear at him to get him into final position. I moved him to make room to bring Blue back over to that side of the garage so I have both mills sitting next to each other. I will do the same with the lathes when the new one shows up. When the 1340 gets here, the Jeep is going outside. There just won't be enough room otherwise. What the heck, it's a lease...

On the CO I also moved the remote for the VFD to the bar I mounted the DRO display on which is attached to the back of the column. I just don't like electronics on the head. It's not smart to mount circuit boards onto a vigorously vibrating piece of iron and expect it to survive very long. I suspect this is the reason my rpm display flaked out on the PM25.

If I get things somewhat back together tomorrow I will post a couple of pics of the DRO install and VFD move.

Hey Bill things are looking great with the new mill. You mentioned above that your RPM display went bad. Mine stopped working on Thursday. I have checked all the connections on the control board, with no change. Matt suggests I check the sensor on the spindle. I started to take the pulley off last night, but hit a road block. I took out the set screw holding the pulley, but it is still stuck on the shaft. It looks to be pressed on, I just don't want to damage anything. I will need to get a pulley puller. What was wrong with your display? Mine just reads zero, but lights up when I turn on the machine.

 

[wrmiller]

Hey Bill things are looking great with the new mill. You mentioned above that your RPM display went bad. Mine stopped working on Thursday. I have checked all the connections on the control board, with no change. Matt suggests I check the sensor on the spindle. I started to take the pulley off last night, but hit a road block. I took out the set screw holding the pulley, but it is still stuck on the shaft. It looks to be pressed on, I just don't want to damage anything. I will need to get a pulley puller. What was wrong with your display? Mine just reads zero, but lights up when I turn on the machine.

Mine is completely wacko. Sometimes it is blank, sometimes it shows all of the LED elements, sometimes it shows zeros, sometimes it shows all eights... (you get the picture). And it is not the sensor on mine.

As things settle down I will pull the display board out of the box and look real good at it under my magnifier. Hopefully that will uncover the problem. Until then, the motor runs fine. I just go by pitch now and the beat frequency off the spinning endmill (trick my old mentor taught me).