Compound table conversion of an old Deckel mill

[John11668]

So onwards and upwards as they say.
Material procured and I set off to turn rough cast blocks into some nice rectangular pieces . When I say “turn” I was being literal because the milling machine was tied up , and its high speed head would have been making sparks fly at 2000rpm, so my Colchester Bantam lathe was pressed into service to reduce the blocks to size and to bore good fitting locations for the ball nuts.

In addition I needed to skim a larger seat for the “Y” nut so the toy Seig SX2 mill came into play too. I have to say that as a toy milling machine it made a pretty reasonable job, and in particular I found it was superb as a drilling machine when I came to drill and tap for the fixing bolts .






The “X” nut block was a simple replacement, marked off and drilled using the old Alloy block as a template and jig. It barely cleared the underside of the table when fed from end to end , but by dressing a few high spots and lumps with the grinder, it then traversed freely. I may just take a light skim off the underside with the toy mill to ensure that nothing catches
The “y” nut mounting was quite a lot more fiddly though, as I had to bore it fairly precisely in order to avoid shimming underneath it to align it with the ballscrew and nut . Nevertheless, and maybe more by good luck than good management , the nut slid quite easily into its bore with the block tight down onto its seat . Four M6 cap screws secured it firmly to the saddle and I intend to fit a couple of dowels for additional rigidity.

So with the new blocks fitted this






Becomes this





And this




becomes this





All reassembled and now seems good and tight, so will now reinstate the homing switches , (I bought some more substantial ones from RS) adjust the settings in Mach 3, and give it a cutting test.
I have to say that I am finding this very absorbing . Lockdown certainly has advantages when it comes to getting around to completing those projects which have been lying on the shelf for years .





Then back to Cambam to see if I can make something useful happen