[bill south]

Hey Widgit!
Nice Tank! The cost of that would be more than I paid for my spindle. Sooooooooooo, tupperware from walmart here!
Are you building this machine for a specific purpose or just performing some Widgitmaster magic for all to enjoy/ Love watching one of your builds. Everything precisely designed, measured, cut and installed!
Thanks for posting.
Bill

[widgitmaster]

Hi Bill!
The tank was $114.00

I need to keep my brain active, so a project like this is exactly what i need!

Glad you like my posts!
Widgit

[the4thseal]

Like your posts.....!!!!!!...... They are master classes. I look apron them as high water marks in achievement.

[widgitmaster]

Wow!
Thanks!

This morning I cleaned up all them sharp nasty chips, and replaced them with dull oily ones
After setting up for drilling, I placed the 1" thick plate in the vise and zeroed on the back left corner. Then I drilled 10x #7 holes thru, and tapped them 1/4"-20 UNC about 3/4" deep. Then I countersunk the threaded holes. Next I drilled 12x 6mm diam holes thru, and counter-bored them for a #6 SHCS. I made sure the heads were about .015" below the surface, so there would be no interference with the mating part!

Enough for today!

[widgitmaster]

The welder just dropped off the two beams with the 3/4" x 3/4" square bar welded on the side!
It looks like everything is going with the plan, and the tubes are still nice and straight!

So He took the two 1" thick plates and the 4x gussets along with the X-Slide assembly!

[the4thseal]

Why do you have three trucks preside on the gantry? I would think the outer two trucks would be enough.?

[lancut]

Hi Widgit.
Here I'm sitting reading your posts and watching the pictures, and can't help but think how much difference the Kurt or similar vices made. No matter how old and beat up they are the solid jaw is well solid and square compared to the old Bridgeport vices I was using while back..

Keep those pictures posted... and keep the floor dirty

[widgitmaster]

Why do you have three trucks preside on the gantry? I would think the outer two trucks would be enough.?

Actually I've been waiting for someone to ask that question!
When I bought 4x 6-foot rails, they came with 2 trucks each.
So I decided with all the steel sliding on this monster, another truck cant hurt!
The weight will be 1/3 less per truck! Now I don't exactly know how much the entire gantry will way, as I haven't finished making all the parts! But the inertial force will be great, as I'm hoping on 1000+IPM rapids. Force = Mass x Acceleration

I want the gantry securely attached to the rails!

Widgit

[widgitmaster]

Hi Widgit.
Here I'm sitting reading your posts and watching the pictures, and can't help but think how much difference the Kurt or similar vices made. No matter how old and beat up they are the solid jaw is well solid and square compared to the old Bridgeport vices I was using while back..

Keep those pictures posted... and keep the floor dirty

Yes, the KURT vises are excellent! Those old Bridgeport vises were a turd to work with!
Being able to put the jaws in five different places, makes work holding a breeze! But I still own two pair of the Starrett Hold-Downs, and use them often!
Widgit

[the4thseal]

1000ipm...wow. Not saying that is optimistic, but wow, for how heavy that thing might be. Put on a helmet and let ER rip.

[widgitmaster]

with the long tube back from the welder, I decided to finish milling the 109" long step into the welded bar. So I removed the rotary base from the vise, cleaned & trammed the mill, and placed the two vises on the table. In order to dial the vises in, I need to place a 12" long parallel in the jaws & tighten the vise. This way, the dial indicator will have more area to travel on than the 2" I get when the vises are so far apart! First I dial in one vise, keep the indicator zero and set the DRO to Y-Zero. Next I dial the 2nd vise in until it runs true using the same zero's!

Now I can place the long tube in the vises, and use an edge-finder to zero the Y-Axis of the mill on the back surface of the tube. The step's dimensions are from the floor of the vise and the back jaw, this way I don't have to move the Z-Axis up and down. So I locked the quill, and used my Planer-Gauge to transfer the datum to the end of the 1/2" 4-flute end mill. To make it easier, I brought the Planer-Gauge to the surface plate, and used a height gauge to set the Planer-Gauge 3.25" taller. Now I can use it over & over again to set the tool length!

[widgitmaster]

Now that the cutter length is set, I moved the y-axis to the print dimension plus 1/2 the end mill diameter. Then I set the DRO Y-Axis to zero.
Next I dropped the knee (z-axis) .01", and took a .050" deep cut the maximum distance the mill will move (25"). I repeated the process until there was .010" remaining on the back wall, and took a slow climb cut to remove the last .010" on the back & bottom of the step.

Then I repeated he process 5x until the step was cut a full 109" long. When I got to the end of the tube, I milled the end of the welded bar flush with the end of the tube! I was extra careful to ensure that all 5-setups blended nicely, so the rack gear isn't clamped down on an irregular surface! This design puts the rack gear parallel to the top of the tube, which will also be the top of the linear rails.

I'm tired, tomorrow I'll drill & tap all the M5 threads in the long tube, then it will be 100% finished!

[Dylwad]

Very nice

One thing keeps coming to mind watching you build this machine, epoxy bedding rifle actions into stocks.

Let's say you had some high quality, metal filled slow cure epoxy, like Devcon. For all mating surfaces on final assembly you could wax one surface with shoe polish(really thin), spread a thin layer of epoxy on the mating surface and bolt them together, cleaning any that oozes out with acetone. The epoxy won't stick to the shoe polish, and it's thin enough that you make a perfect mould of the mating part, for 100% contact. I wonder what this would do for rigidity between the hardened rails and extrusions, and the extrusions to the steel tube.

Just a thought, it wouldn't help so much with making perfectly flat surfaces, but would increase the contact area for sure. You could easily pop the assemblies off later if needed.

And if you have never bedded a rifle, with proper setup it's real easy to do cleanly, and might add a few hours and $40 total.

Sent from tapatalk

[widgitmaster]

Very nice Just a thought, it wouldn't help so much with making perfectly flat surfaces, but would increase the contact area for sure. You could easily pop the assemblies off later if needed.

We definitely went to different schools!
If I need something flat, I just cut it

[widgitmaster]

This morning I finished tapping the M4 threads, all 27 of them!
Then I cleaned up the long beam and muscled it over to the other side of the garage, and assembled the tube and the rails!
Next I removed the tube from the other side, and got it ready for the welder!

[widgitmaster]

Today I finished milling the step in the X-Axis gantry beam, this will be for the shorter rack gear!

[Jason Marsha]

Its good you a welder, I tried to do some myself and the results were less than stellar.

Sorry I meant to say that " Its good you got a welder"

[widgitmaster]

Its good you a welder, I tried to do some myself and the results were less than stellar.

Hi Jason!
NO, I'm not a welder, I have had difficulty finding a good one! The man who welds for me is a pro, but he is so busy its put this project in slow motion!
Widgit

[LeeWay]

Good welder's usually are pretty busy.

[widgitmaster]

Today, I started working on the rack-gear for the gantry. In order to drill & counter-bore all the M4 holes, I first need to setup the mill with two vises & long soft jaws! After milling the the jaws true, I placed the rack-gear on the gantry and marked it with a red marker. Then I band sawed the excess off, and placed the rack-gear in the vice jaws. Because all the threaded holes start in the middle of the gantry, I started my 1st hole in the middle of the rack-gear. All the gear holes are on 4.000" centers.