Buget Warco Major 5 axis conversion

[Tweaky]

Ok so now I can get my work-piece accurately positioned, I made the upper and lower bearing blocks, which house the needle roller bearings for the rotating ballnut.



Ah!, having milled the bearing pockets, I checked the bores and was happy (0.01mm undersize), BUT, I measured the bore at the top and when I tried to fit the bearings.... nogo.:cry:
As Robin alluded to previously, the milling cutter shies away from the work, so my bores were both tapered! ..... bugger.
Spent about two hours with a 1" milling cutter in hand, scrapping the bore to make it parallel... what a pain!
I had used a 1/2" cutter, and ran the code 3 times on the final cut!?
I guess a different method is required next time.

The upper block also houses the two thrust roller bearings and this is closed by a plate, which is also the motor mount.
The bearing blocks mount into a 19mm plate which will attach to the front face of the head. They mount “into” the plate so that the ballscrew is as close to the spindle as possible.

Next I cut the plate, and for the first time clamped the work to the bed.
What a difference! (thanks Robin).


The cuts where sooo much better, cleaner, faster and so much quieter.
And I still have more overhang to remove as I am still using a collet chuck (no metric tools yet for the 3 morse collets).
I was really happy for a few seconds, them I realised that this has severe consequences for my planned 4th & 5th axis, something I guess a lot of you already knew.
Maybe it will work OK with small cutters running at high speed, I will have to wait to find out.

Amazingly the blocks fit snugly and the shaft is in alignment!:surprised:


Next job is to modify a timing pulley to fit over the 37mm barrel of the ballnut, and then cut the depth stop lug off the front of the machine, and fit the assembly to the machine.

Cheers for now