[nateman_doo]

I was looking to double my Y axis by mating the base of a second milling table:

But the feet of mine are not the rail type that shars carries with their similar table:


I looked all over e-bay (and confirmed with shars that theirs does have the rail type feet) but I can't find my version of the table. Anyone know where I can find another one?

16" of Y travel would be a pretty sweet project.

[adprinter]

That's exactly the same table that I have on my drill press. I bought mine several years ago, through the company I used to work for. I THINK that the supplier they used was McMaster Carr. I bought it, thinking that I could convert my drill press into a vertical mill. However the MT2 taper spindle has a splined solid shaft. So a drawbar is not possible, and the tapered spindle for the drill chuck simply vibrates loose, and falls out if milling operations are attempted. So, the table has become a precision hole locating device (I added DRO's on the X and Y axis). Check with McMaster Carr- it seems like a paid about $150 for mine about 12 years ago. Hope this helps!

[nateman_doo]

McMaster has it, but its $261.00?!?!

[nateman_doo]

I looked up "cross slide" on e-bay and shars is the only one of this type I found
I wonder if the feet are the only difference? If the height and dovetail are the same I would get it, but I would rather get the exact one to be sure.

[adprinter]

You won't find it in their sales papers, go to one of their stores and look. I bought two of the Drill Press cross-slide tables, and took them apart desiring to use the longer axis from both tables to combine them into one. (The Drill Press cross-slides feature a Vise, instead of a table).
However, I had to do some cutting, and then surface grinding of the cuts in order to even fit them together, as the dovetail widths differ from the top and bottom slides. This left the casting so thin, that it broke the first time I put it under any load.
Seems the Chinese engineers knew what they were doing, as they purposely designed them this way to prevent someone from doing just what you are attempting to do. I haven't taken my mill table apart, in order to take precise measurements of the dovetails. But I suspect that it too, is designed similarly. $261? It may be worth the price, but DON'T attempt to modify it. Simply bolt the second one onto the first one and use it as is. This would still give you the increased axis travel, with the additional capability of of an additional axis of movement.

[Hans_G]

Nateman, have you thought about ditching the base and getting linear rails? Mount the rails to a plate & the plate to your frame (the square tubes), modify/remove the saddle Y axis dovetails to accept the bearings. Think about tramming/aligning the 2nd base to the first one. Also, any difference in dovetail geometry between the bases will make the gib fit differently on base versus the other.

[nateman_doo]

You won't find it in their sales papers, go to one of their stores and look. I bought two of the Drill Press cross-slide tables, and took them apart desiring to use the longer axis from both tables to combine them into one. (The Drill Press cross-slides feature a Vise, instead of a table).
However, I had to do some cutting, and then surface grinding of the cuts in order to even fit them together, as the dovetail widths differ from the top and bottom slides. This left the casting so thin, that it broke the first time I put it under any load.
Seems the Chinese engineers knew what they were doing, as they purposely designed them this way to prevent someone from doing just what you are attempting to do. I haven't taken my mill table apart, in order to take precise measurements of the dovetails. But I suspect that it too, is designed similarly. $261? It may be worth the price, but DON'T attempt to modify it. Simply bolt the second one onto the first one and use it as is. This would still give you the increased axis travel, with the additional capability of of an additional axis of movement.

I was planning on butting them against each other and welding them together. I was going to put them both face down (feet up) on my new granite surface plate so they would be flat, and clamp the dovetails with some 1" parallel sine bars so everything would be as close to square as I could make it. I wasn't planning on chopping anything up and it should give close to 16" of Y, which will now be longer then my close to 12" of X travel.

[nateman_doo]

Nateman, have you thought about ditching the base and getting linear rails? Mount the rails to a plate & the plate to your frame (the square tubes), modify/remove the saddle Y axis dovetails to accept the bearings. Think about tramming/aligning the 2nd base to the first one. Also, any difference in dovetail geometry between the bases will make the gib fit differently on base versus the other.

I did for a while, but I never dealt with them before. I am not sure I trust myself to do that just yet. The modified Vise gives me much less room for error.

You were instrumental in accomplishing my ballscrew upgrade in the first place, so I think I could handle it with your help. Just figuring the butted up vise would only require the cost of another table, and 1 longer ball screw. Much cheaper then re-building the entire structure.

[nateman_doo]

I spent some time looking up rails. WOW is all I can say. While it is nice you can build a table to the exact size you want, those rails are NOT cheap at ALL. By my estimates it would cost close over $600 for a table with 16/16" travel in both X & Y.

[Hans_G]

Depends on what kind of rails you get, and look at eBay for this kind of thing. Chai's offerings (LinearMotionBearings) on eBay are quite reasonable.

[SORCHEROR]

enco sells that same table for 129 bucks

[nateman_doo]

You talking about this table?
Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies

It has the same slide feet, not like mine unfortunately

[pete from TN]

Anyone here own some of the linear rails and bearing blocks that Chai sells? What are your opinions of them and how is their play situation, are they nice and tight or sloppy? Interested to hear about your reviews of these... peace

Pete

[nateman_doo]

the round ones you mean? I was checking those out myself.

[pete from TN]

I was actually asking about the square profile linear rails they sell. It might have use for them here possibly....hmmmm peace

Pete