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This economy is so far in the dumps that I wouldn't even think about buying a new machine. Used machines are being sold for as little as half of what they sold for 2 years ago.

I'm not sure...

If the tools hold up, a barfed subspindle/live tooled lathe can run unmanned for a long time, and the job could be setup with minimal investment, just the soft jaws.

I guess it boils down to...

Most manufacturers state that ballnuts should be oriented such that the return tubes point up or sideways (if there are two opposing tubes). I've followed this rule for a number of projects but am...

The mounting surface should have a shoulder milled into it, and wedges should press the rail against the shoulder at each bolt location.

Easy enough to do it on a bandsaw. I would clamp a fixture with dowel pins and toe clamps. Stack at least 3 at a time on a 10x18 saw.

$8/ea is high. $3/ea is kinda low...

The Jet is a favorite of many. I used to own one before my buddy borrowed it permanently.

Hydraulics are used on the X-axis only. The Z and the Y still use leadscrews.

Is your manual grinder equipped with a leadscrew on the X or a braided cable? Mine is the latter.

The 12v from the PC will work fine.

Or get yourself a Meanwell 12v/5v combo power supply. At $25 a pop, it seems pointless to make your own. The external supply will keep everything tidy in...

Interesting to note that the Z-axis of shopbots had decals with a patent number on it (not sure about the current models). The number corresponds to an old cable drive patent that they patented in...

esnusnu,

3000 psi is not nearly high enough. Most waterjet machines have pumps that deliver 40,000 psi and above.

Great video, Alex!

A 6206 bearing will easily handle 3kg without damage. Hopefully you don't need a lot of accuracy.

As for those load ratings, I think you mixed up the dynamic and static load ratings.
...

You may not notice much of a difference, but the 4x15mm blocks are preferable.

Most hobbyists install their linear motion components incorrectly due to lack of resources. The proper way to...

You need to a machine a journal on the ends of the ballscrews to properly mount them in the bearing blocks. The journal can be machined to an imperial size.

5 years work eh?

See if your boss wants to invest in your business. You'll trade him parts for equity. Explain to him your pricing schedule. If he laughs at the idea, then you're back to...

What kind of lathe and tooling are you using?

Machinery's Handbook should suffice for manual lathes using HSS tooling.

For high powered lathes, especially CNC, feeds and speeds are determined...

What everyone else said.

When changing inserts on the 12-station turret on our Mori, we index the turret two stations lower. E.g. T01 to change the inserts on T03.

Not to mention, if you...

We've had our Mori Seiki NL2500SY/700 for about 6 weeks now and it has performed flawlessly. 5 microns = .0002" which is what the Mori can hold quite easily given the right tooling and setups.
...

Not a stupid question. The fittings on the hiwins are those weird hex shaped things. I find it easier just to get new standard grease fittings from McMaster that fit the Hiwin's threads.

As...

THK rails are wet noodles by themselves, even the big 55mm ones. The math speaks for itself.

:confused:

You've got some terminology mixed up.

http://www.cncmagazine.com/vol6thru8/v6i21/v6i21f-LinrGuide.htm

If box ways were a good idea on a polymer concrete machine, it would've been done already.

And box ways are not cheaper than linear guides. In fact, they're much more expensive when done...

I like global warming and global warming likes me!

Interesting link from Roach. He posted it as an image by accident but there's a URL in there.

http://www.zeeko.co.uk

Check out the machine specs under "brochures". The second largest...

I thought the only way for a company to keep a trade secret was to maintain confidentiality within the company? I don't think they'd have any legal recourse against a group of guys on an internet...

hello I'm old in this site

I started using epoxy when I was in elementary school, building model airplanes. Got the stuff in little 4-8 oz bottles from the hobby shop. The 5-minute epoxy definitely cured harder than the...

Cameron, those are some interesting numbers in post #3002.

Anocast's PDF shows that their material has a flexural strength of 2500 psi (much weaker than jhudler's sample) but a young's modulus of...

Patents give you the right to sue someone for infringement at the cost of disclosing all your info to the public. That's about it. If you can't defend your patent, then all you've done is paid a...

According to the Solidworks beam calculator, a 12x4x0.25 steel tube has an Ix of 127.000 in^4.

Also, if you change the simple supports to rigid supports, deflection is reduced by 75% I think.