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When faced with the similar problem (Myford ML7) I bought a couple of block-and-tackle pulleys from Amazon for ~£5 each and hung them from some 4x2 across the eaves of the shed. Not claiming it was the best* way, but it got me out of a pinch.Quote:
Originally Posted by routercnc
* Nor the worst - that'd be my lifting of an air conditioning unit 10ft off the deck using a ladder-against-the-wall, some rope, a load of buckets and a hose-pipe.
Hi Jonathon,
Thanks for the info. I've actually got a set of carbide tools on back order. It was a set of 9? for ~£52 but they came 'free' as part of the Warco lathe bundle, along with bits I was going to buy anyway. I also bought a nice cut off tool for about £30.
Should get me started but I'll look into Aliexpress as well once I know what I really need for tooling.
Hi Doddy,
Sounds like an interesting way to do it! My garage is part of the house so wouldn't want to put load on the first floor joists. I had a look at crane hire and there is a hire place about 2 miles from me at £35 for one day for a 1 tonne engine crane. If this includes delivery (not clear on the website) I'll go for that.
Well I had lots of problems trying to dial in the bracket using shims. Eventually realised that I'd counterbored the bolt holes quite deep leaving only a bit of material at the bottom of the hole and every time I tightened the bolts it was extruding aluminium out of the bottom surface - this varied the height each time!
Anyway, I started again and made up a new bracket. This time it had 4 grub screws to do the levelling and shallow counterbores with smaller holes. I wanted to get each side of bolts and grub screws in a line, but there was not enough space. So I had to offset them a bit. Before levelling I ran an end mill down the grub screw holes to clear the paint off the cross slide to make sure they were biting onto the metal, not the soft paint.
Didn't take too long to dial in left to right:
Attachment 19401
Attachment 19402
Instructions say within 0.1 mm - I managed to get 0.01mm so OK there. Then dialled it in front to back.
At this point I realised there was another problem. The slide I'd been supplied had a travel of 100 mm but the cross slide travel was 115 mm. Although I might not use all the travel, it bothered me that at some point in the future I might damage the read head. I phoned Warco and they did say this was the model they fitted to this lathe. I mentioned that I'd be happier with the 150 mm travel model, even if the scale stuck out the back ~30mm and they were OK to swap it (just £5 more). I should get that next week so I stopped that job.
The longer slide was next. I made some brackets with grub screw levellers in:
Attachment 19403
Attachment 19404
Clearing the paint with an end mill:
Attachment 19405
Attachment 19406
Attachment 19407
After ALOT of messing about, clamping, adjusting, shimming I managed to get the other end pretty close to level then drilled the tapped hole. Once this was bolted I set about dialling the scale in vertically (slots in scale ends) and fore/aft (grub screws):
Attachment 19408
Attachment 19409
I'm thinking about using a cable guide for the 2 cables. I don't like the idea of them being loose and getting caught in a bird's nest and pulled into the chuck, or sliding around on the drip tray.
Attachment 19410
Now for the drop link bracket:
Attachment 19411
Last part to make will be a space block between this drop bracket and the read head. I measured 6.86 mm gap so I'll machine something to suit. I think there is a tolerance fore/aft on the read head so as long as it sits somewhere in the middle of the channel on the scale it should be OK.
Attachment 19412
Then I'll tackle the cable guide shelf and start routing the cables off to the tail stock end and behind the splash guard up to the read out. This will mount somewhere up on the left side near the motor controls.
Finally finished both DROs at last!
Z axis
Here is the spacer plate between the drop down bracket and the read head. This needs to be reasonably accurate in thickness to put the read head in about the right place on the scale:
Attachment 19525
Checking to see if it would work - also to see if the numbers went the right way (positive to the right). It wasn't obvious which way round the read head should go and there was no mention of anything in the instructions for the scales:
Attachment 19526
Attachment 19527
Bump-stop to bump-stop is a bit less than the quoted travel (450 mm) unless you angled the top slide round and included that as well(~70mm), otherwise all good.
I'll stop briefly here to point out that initially I was uncertain about fitting DROs given that it is likely to go CNC in the future. However I'm glad I did because the handwheel graduations on Z are not something logical like 10 lines of 0.1mm (giving 1mm per big number). No, they are 10 lines of 0.25mm, which means each big number is 2.5mm. I guess they are trying to get a metric-ish imperial system. The X axis cross-slide had a different number but was also not 0.1mm per line. Can safely ignore all that.
Back to the Z axis DRO. I added a 60mm x 60mm x 3mm aluminium angle bracket to run the energy chain in. This bolted to the holes used to fix an optional mill head attachment.
Attachment 19528
Attachment 19529
Note that I had to cut the energy chain open to lay the cables in as it was not the type with slots in. I couldn't feed the cable through as the connectors on the end were too big.
I think the angle bracket shelf will attract swarf etc. so thinking about a plastic curtain arrangement of some kind hanging off the top of the saddle. Not decided yet.
X axis
I wasn't happy with the original 100mm scale so swapped it for the 150mm model. This hangs out the back a bit so needed a bracket making:
Attachment 19530
Attachment 19531
Attachment 19532
Seemed to have made a Minion!
Attachment 19533
Attachment 19540
Here it is fitted:
Attachment 19534
The other end was just a simple round spacer tube.
Dialling it in:
Attachment 19535
In this shot you can also see I swapped out the cross slide locking bolt from a cap head to a hex head, otherwise I wouldn't be able to use it. May swap the gib bolts in the future too.
Last bit to do was fit the splash cover. After looking at lots of options I decided to go for a bracket off the back of the scale. Here roughing a pair out of a bit of box section:
Attachment 19536
Done:
Attachment 19537
Attachment 19538
Attachment 19539
I'll leave fitting the display readout until the lathe is set up on the bench - hope to do that this weekend.
It is interesting to see how you have done this, as I have the Sino DRO as a factory fitted option to my Amadeal 290-VFF.
I notice that the bracket on the cross slide will limit the tailstock. On my machine the read head is fitted into the recess of the saddle. This means that the tailstock can get closer to the chuck (only about 10mm further away than without the DRO). I seem to do a lot of centre drilling of short pieces, and I prefer to do it with as little stick out of the quill as possible.
Here are a few pictures to show you what I mean.
Attachment 19541Attachment 19542Attachment 19543Attachment 19544Attachment 19545
You may note that the cap-head screw that stops the tailstock smashing the DRO scale is bent and needs replacing. Also the gib screws are not accessible with a hex key and the cross slide lock can't be used. If I need to adjust the gib or lock the cross slide the easy answer would be to replace these with hex head screws, then you could just pop a spanner on them.
I think the spacers that the factory fitted are a bit naff and would look better as a single piece. I may make something better if I ever dismantle the DRO fitting. The other thing I would do is tidy up the cable routing and use P clips rather than cable ties.
As a last note - the red things are plugs in the T slots to stop coolant pissing over the apron and onto the floor and/or me. They are only red 'cos that's the colour ink I had in the 3D printer.
Cheers,
Rob
Hi Rob,
Cheers for that. Yes, I looked at different ways to mount the cross slide read head because I didn't want to lose tail-stock travel, plus was worried about it smashing into the DRO. I tried to fit it as yours is to get more travel but it wouldn't fit. I can't remember if it hit the gib lock screws, or it didn't allow enough cross-slide travel. Maybe I'll look again in the future now I have the extra 150mm version.
I also looked at adding a hard bump stop strip behind the DRO (to do the same job as your 'bent' screw) but it was all getting complicated. At the moment it will hit the plate that the read head sits on, which will probably put it out of alignment if it is hit hard enough.
Some lathes have the gib screws on the head stock side, which would make this installation much more compact/safe.
I'm thinking of leaving it for now, getting it set up and levelled, then having another go in the future once I've tried it all and looked at what tailstock travel I have / need . . . watch it be like this for years!
Lathe is bolted to bench, cleaned, ways oiled, QCTP fitted etc. and I've made my first part!
Attachment 19602
Made an adapter to connect DTI to adjustable holder:
Attachment 19603
Question on DROs - my X axis reads in radius which is less convenient as I always think of round parts in diameters.
Attachment 19600
The instructions that come with it suggest it can switch between R and D by pressing X and then 1/2 button. A symbol should appear in the display |`/. However, symbol does not appear and it remains in radius mode and just halves the readout value.
The instructions also say "When the DRO is set as a lathe meter . . ." - not sure how to do this. Is this the problem? It also says applies to D60-2L and D60-3L models. Pretty sure mine has an M at the end not L (it only briefly appears on the screen on startup, and the rest of the display is branded as Warco, no model number).
I'm hoping this function is possible - I'd be disappointed if Warco supplied this 2 line read out display (which can only be for lathes can't it?) and it does not have this function.
Any one help with this? I'll give Warco a call this week.
Second question is about the QCTP. I've adjust the tool to the centre height of the work but every time the cam is operated the thumb wheel can easily turn, altering the height. Should it come with a locknut under the thumb wheel or I am using it wrong?
Attachment 19601
Different DRO than mine from Warco so can't help there (not looked into functions much anyway 😳)
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...4bdf676a99.jpg
My quick change holders have locknuts on top of the knurled discs to stop them moving...
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...c314922ef5.jpg
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Cheers Neil
I'll add locknuts to my tool holder then
Your DRO has a large R button maybe that does R/D? Don't have that on mine so hope there is another way.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...558bf88176.jpg
Maybe I should read this?! This is the page from mine about RAD/DIA
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...0b6f5fb176.jpg
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