[CS900]

Ok...so got a little more done over the weekend. I've been thinking about how i'm going to assemble the saddle and realized that having the longer Y axis rails is really beneficial. I think my plan right now is to mount the blocks and rails to the saddle and then bolt the y rails down to the base and then bolt the table to the x rails. I think this is a lot more realistic than trying to bolt the rails to the bast and table and try to slip them into the blocks on the saddle. So I need enough travel on both axis to be able to access all the screws. That's not a problem on the table as it' got lots of travel already, so this weekend I focused on the Y axis.

Now I know these look a little silly, and by no means to I plan on machining anything on them, but they will make installation a snap.
fitting the bracket for match drilling...


Rails all trimmed to length and new brackets all mounted up...



I also have been reading the installation manual for these rails and it seems the "right" way to do it is to capture the master rail so it can't shift under load. Now I'm way to lazy to machine the base for a nice reference edge and make a bunch of clamps to pinch it in place...so for the fun of it I took one of the pieces of rail that had been cut off and drilled a 1/8" hole in it. Well wouldn't you know it drills like butter! the rails must be case hardened around the ball carriers. So I've now drilled the master rails for 3 1/8" roll pins. that should keep it in place!

[gearhead406]

Ok...so got a little more done over the weekend. I've been thinking about how i'm going to assemble the saddle and realized that having the longer Y axis rails is really beneficial. I think my plan right now is to mount the blocks and rails to the saddle and then bolt the y rails down to the base and then bolt the table to the x rails. I think this is a lot more realistic than trying to bolt the rails to the bast and table and try to slip them into the blocks on the saddle. So I need enough travel on both axis to be able to access all the screws. That's not a problem on the table as it' got lots of travel already, so this weekend I focused on the Y axis.

Now I know these look a little silly, and by no means to I plan on machining anything on them, but they will make installation a snap.
fitting the bracket for match drilling...


Rails all trimmed to length and new brackets all mounted up...



I also have been reading the installation manual for these rails and it seems the "right" way to do it is to capture the master rail so it can't shift under load. Now I'm way to lazy to machine the base for a nice reference edge and make a bunch of clamps to pinch it in place...so for the fun of it I took one of the pieces of rail that had been cut off and drilled a 1/8" hole in it. Well wouldn't you know it drills like butter! the rails must be case hardened around the ball carriers. So I've now drilled the master rails for 3 1/8" roll pins. that should keep it in place!

How much longer did you make y rails. I'm doing same thing. Thinking of making a rack on back of table for tool changer so need some extra room. Everything is looking real good so far.

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[CS900]

How much longer did you make y rails. I'm doing same thing. Thinking of making a rack on back of table for tool changer so need some extra room. Everything is looking real good so far.

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Thanks. Overall they are about 22.5 in long. its about 3.5 inches longer than my original plan. That's a great idea though I could make a simple tool changer at the back end of the table. I'll never machine with the table out that far, but it would be great for a "pick and place" tool changer.

[edm737]

Good job. Coming along nicely! Be handy having that extra travel for setting up.

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[CS900]

Ok...so got some good progress done and will hopefully get a bit more tomorrow.
Got started on the Z axis mount. I was originally going to reuse the stock dovetail mount and just mill it down to size, but that would require me to trim the dovetails on the column as well. So I started from scratch.
Getting started:


I ended up reusing the stock mounting studs. The factory trimmed the bolt heads so one "side" is shorter than the others. Made for easy mounting. I ended up machining the slot about .001 smaller than the bolts and drawed them into place with the nuts.



So far so good, and everything fits:


Getting started on the Z axis...


The 20mm rails give plenty of clearance.

[CS900]

more progress...got the base pretty much ready for the epoxy granite.
started with cutting PVC to cover the column bolts and the base mounting bolts.


the PVC were hot glued in place and filled with wax to help seal it up. I found that the rubber cement was a little to thin to encapsulate the bolts.



I also partitioned off the area for the y axis ballscrew with some scrap poly carbonate that i had kicking around. My initial attempt to seal everything up was a disaster! Hot glue just was too thick to fit down in the gaps, but to thin to be able to build up to bridge the gaps. What a mess!


So a little aluminum foil tape later and it looks much better. still not great, but good enough. I think she's all sealed up and ready for epoxy granite! hopefully tomorrow is the day!

[CS900]

well tonight was the night! I made the composite 7lbs at a time.


The first few mixtures were a bit epoxy rich which worked out well getting it in to the nooks and crannies. My starting formula was 8.6% epoxy, 26.9%sand, and 64.5% gravel. At the end i was doing 7.7, 24.3, and 68.


I'll be happy when it's cured, i need my space back!


Almost filled..


But then i ran out of clean rocks! So now I wait for it to cure and then back to the fun.

[CS900]

Not much progress made tonight. I removed the plastic block offs and weighed it for fun. 184 lbs of vibration dampening goodness!

[CS900]

Ok...i need you guys help for a second...I've got the base mounted and i'm ready to start shimming the rails. So the first step is to ensure the master rail is flat. So I think my approach is ok, but would like opinions. What I have done is ( i think) created a poor mans repetometer.


By sliding the two bearings i can measure the deviation of the "slave" bearing in relation to the "master" bearing with the indicator on it. So sliding it down the rail, i'm measuring negative deviation


So if my logic is correct is seems my rail is bowed down quite a bit! Also seems my little extension are a bit low, yikes!

[edm737]

Ok...i need you guys help for a second...I've got the base mounted and i'm ready to start shimming the rails. So the first step is to ensure the master rail is flat. So I think my approach is ok, but would like opinions. What I have done is ( i think) created a poor mans repetometer.


By sliding the two bearings i can measure the deviation of the "slave" bearing in relation to the "master" bearing with the indicator on it. So sliding it down the rail, i'm measuring negative deviation


So if my logic is correct is seems my rail is bowed down quite a bit! Also seems my little extension are a bit low, yikes!

Are you able to put your base on your big mill and measure it on there? Check your table on your big mill first to make sure the gibs are all tight.

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[CS900]

well, the big mill is actually a wells index 55 made in 1952. That said it's got a bit of wear on the table. Not sure i'd trust it to measure this.

[CS900]

So after thinking about it for a while i think i came up with a better approach, but absolutly would like to hear feedback still. My reasoning was that if the base is indeed bowed i could loosen all but the back bolt which would allow the rail to become straight again. So i did, and using the same method as before verified no real deviation from point to point on the rail. I then went back and measured the deviation using the rail as my straight reference.


Sweeping to the end net me about .004 deviation, which seems more realistic than what i was seeing before.


So this confirms the convex bow in the rail i was seeing before, and i think i can just shim the rail based on the deviation measured from this method. Thoughts?

[gearhead406]

So after thinking about it for a while i think i came up with a better approach, but absolutly would like to hear feedback still. My reasoning was that if the base is indeed bowed i could loosen all but the back bolt which would allow the rail to become straight again. So i did, and using the same method as before verified no real deviation from point to point on the rail. I then went back and measured the deviation using the rail as my straight reference.


Sweeping to the end net me about .004 deviation, which seems more realistic than what i was seeing before.


So this confirms the convex bow in the rail i was seeing before, and i think i can just shim the rail based on the deviation measured from this method. Thoughts?

That is what I did with mine . But I'm no Pro.

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[ianagos]

I think the proper way to measure would be to set up a straight edge like a granite parallel or something known straight and measure against that. I don’t know enough to accurately measure without a good reference surface.

[CS900]

ok...so one long lunch later I'm feeling better about things. I took the rail to the surface plate and the total deviation was under .002" cool...it's as flat as I could ask for.

So I put the rail back on the base and tried a method suggested on another forum. Place the indicator right next to the bolt head, zero the indicator and torque the bolt down. Any measured deviation is what needs to be shimmed. So I started in the center of the rail and worked in either direction bolt by bolt...


All but one of the heads was within a few tenths, and the other one was about .001 low. I kind of knew it had a low spot there as when i stoned the top the lubricant would always pool there. Cool...so after adding the appropriate shims I was curious and went back to the repeatometer trick. The whole rail is within .001 now. Cool! Starting to feel confident that it's actually flat.

so now onto measuring parallelism to the slave rail!


I swept the surface and found the high spot, set my zero and went to work. Not the best results I'm afraid. It's low as much as .010 in one area! But I feel a little lucky, I stuck a straight edge across the top of the master rail and measured the change in height to the high spot on the slave and it's within .005". Well within NSKs advertised limit. So I guess I have some shimming to do, and then onto the X axis

[CS900]

Ok...more progress!

I FINALLY got the new saddle plate square to the rails. So next I started squaring the X and Y axis rails on the saddle. I ended up transferring everything over the the surface plate just to make things easier. I used my master granite square as my reference. I butted the square up against the Y axis blocks and then used the test indicator mounted to the X axis rail to sweep back and forth measuring the deviation. I got it within .001 over about 6" which isn't too bad. I didn't put a whole lot of effort into it as I have to take everything apart again anyways.


Once that was done I mounted the saddle and table onto the base, got everything square and level again, and started getting the column square to the table. I started out by shimming the base front to back to get the travel square. Again, using the granite square as my reference. I was able to **** it square to just under .001 over 8" or so. Not too shabby. I favored the column to tilt back a bit, as I'm sure the weight of the head will pull it in a bit more. Once the head is mounted I'll check it again.


So...the reason I have to disassemble everything again...The oil system! The black rails have these cool self-lubricating blocks on them, but that adds to the length of the block. Since they are also used I don't overly trust them anymore, so I needed to make some fittings to compensate for the added length to adapt to the threads on the compression fittings I bought. Since I'm way to cheap to spend $6 per fitting, it looks like i'll be making my own. So I did.... The right angle adapters were pretty tricky to make, but double stacking vices has always been my go-to for getting compound angles on things. Worked great!




So things left to do:
- finish oil system. Still need to make a few distribution blocks and meter the lines somehow
- linear encoders.....yup, I'm going to try it. I have closed loop steppers so it hopefully will just be a matter of wiring them in and changing some settings in Mach3
- Chip covers!
- assemble enclosure, including mounting the windows and doors...

[CS900]

ok...update...been working on the z axis getting all the little details buttoned up.

working on the oil distribution manifold. Drilling the long bore down the center:


I also machined out a pocket for the test linear encoder. Drilling the cable clearance hole

This is the first time ive used this walker turner drill press since i rebuilt it. man do i love that thing!

Also added a clearance pocket for the ballscrew nut screw. This was the fist time i've used a rotary table like this. it worked pretty good



but back to that encoder, i made a simple right angle bracket to hold it. The encoder has slots in it to adjust up and down, and the bracket has slot to adjust left to right. so as long as im close at getting the magnetic tape in place i should be good to go.


looks like it'll fit so far:


next up, the locating ring for the head. drilled on the mill and bored and parted to length on the lathe.


Also got the gas strut mounts on as well as the home switch. how she sits now:

[gearhead406]

ok...update...been working on the z axis getting all the little details buttoned up.

working on the oil distribution manifold. Drilling the long bore down the center:


I also machined out a pocket for the test linear encoder. Drilling the cable clearance hole

This is the first time ive used this walker turner drill press since i rebuilt it. man do i love that thing!

Also added a clearance pocket for the ballscrew nut screw. This was the fist time i've used a rotary table like this. it worked pretty good



but back to that encoder, i made a simple right angle bracket to hold it. The encoder has slots in it to adjust up and down, and the bracket has slot to adjust left to right. so as long as im close at getting the magnetic tape in place i should be good to go.


looks like it'll fit so far:


next up, the locating ring for the head. drilled on the mill and bored and parted to length on the lathe.


Also got the gas strut mounts on as well as the home switch. how she sits now:

Your project seems to be going very well. Nice work CS900.

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[frijoli]

looking forward to the rest of the build!

[CS900]

thanks guys. I'm trying to do at least one thing a day on the mill to keep progress going. The other day it was mounting the first window in the enclosure. There's a gasket around the opening and the window is just clamped against it. Easy to remove as well


So the fruits of this weekend...got the pocket made for the Y axis encoder

from the underside:


I'm going to use the Y axis as my test subject for these encoders, So that means I actually need the tape in place as well. I first measured out the distance from the edge of the dovetail to the read head. I then placed some making tape along where the edge of the magnetic tape checking the distance along the way.

Then it's just a matter of lining up the edges:


Looking good so far:

But...so little clearance! I can't even fit the stainless protective tape over top of it.


So back on the mill she goes:

and now everything fits!


Tomorrow could be the day I actually get to test the encoder out. I just got more connectors to plug them into my electrical box. I also poked around the firmware for my closed loop steppers and I can change the encoder count to be whatever I like. This might actually work...or not, haha.