[BobWarfield]

At last the base is filled. I had to wait for my brother's day off for him to come over and help me flip the base for a final pour on top. It now weighs close to 200lbs and is noticeably "deader". A couple pix:



That steel plate fills the old open hole and locates a new center hole for a 1 1/8" bolt to add column to base rigidity.



Bottom-side fills are done. Flipped it and poured the top:



While the top was drying I set out to make a set of leveling feet from hockey pucks for this mill:



I have some minor trimming on the base to do, but I'm about ready to start planning the column fill next. BTW, filling the column bolt holes with wax worked perfectly. Whew!

Best,

BW

[jerollie]

Sorry I know it's not related to your thread. I am new to it, you seem to be a pro. I was wondering if u could help me.

Hi I am in the process of learning milling in 3d on the school's 3 axis axyz cnc machine.

The model and tool path are generated in Rhino and imported to tool path.
Q: In toolpath output, what do I input for DEPTH ?

I have tried setting it as 0, 1 , etc. When I run it, the machine runs the tool path about the stock.

Please help me ! Greatly Appreciated !
Edit/Delete Message

[BobWarfield]

jerollie, I'm not familiar with your particular CAM program. I assume if you're running out of Rhino its the Visual Mill or some similar. Go to the forum related to that CAM program and I know someone there will quickly have the right answer.

It'll be handy for you to have found the forum for future reference as well.

Best,

BW

[BobWarfield]

A wee bit of progress that I've been remiss in posting. I got the hockey puck feet in. They use a lot bigger bolts than the holes call for, and it was a chore getting them bored out. The result came out real nice:







With the Epoxy Granite, that's now one heckuva mill base!

Got to fill the column next and finish the oiling plumbing. Then I'll get going on installing the Industrial Hobbies conversion.

Cheers,

BW

[QSIMDO]

Excellent! But you do know we're all hanging here waiting for you to finish!

Hmmm...just looking at that mill stand under the base makes me think of pouring a mafia block right on the floor and anchoring the mill to that.

But where......

Looks good Bob!

[BobWarfield]

Sorry QSIMODO, I move in fits and starts: I start and keep moving until I run into something that gives me a fit! (chair)

I've had a lot of little things holding me up. Got too many irons in the fire. I'm putting some of them out and will eventually build up another head of steam on the mill.

That base has now reached a point where it's pretty hard to work on it by myself. I prefer to have my brother around to help with the heavy lifting.

Cheers!

BW

[pzzamakr1980]

Hey Bob, I dont remember if you mentioned this, but how much did the epoxy cost for the two cans you bought?

[BobWarfield]

I got the epoxy "scratch and dent" for half retail. So far, I have used about 3/4 of one can. I can't imagine I'll use all of both.

Cheers,

BW

[pzzamakr1980]

Thank you sir.

[pete from TN]

I saw on your blog that you ordered the servo motors from homecnc as well as the gecko servo drives. First, which servo drives did you get the 320 or the 340. Second, what do you think of the new motors as I am seriously eyeballing those as well and third, I was under the impression that the IH cnc kit included the motors, drives, power supplies, and everything else? why did you not use them or were you able to purchase the kit sans the electronics stuff. What resolution is the encoder on those motors and will it work well with geckos and Mach3? Peace and keep up the work on the mill, you can make all the fancy steam engines you want after it is working!!

Pete Matos
[email protected]
865-363-9218

[BobWarfield]

Pete, I have the "mechanicals only" kit from IH, so did not recieve the other components. I ordered the Gecko 320's, and went with the lower resolution encoders. I haven't received any of it yet, so I have no opinion on it.

I want to get a very vanilla system up and running. If I exceed the capacities of these servos/encoders, I will upgrade them later. I have two IH mills as I mentioned as well as a host of other planned CNC projects that can use the donor parts.

I'm nearly done on that Team Build, and then I'll be back at the mill. I want to focus on all the stuff needed before I can start to install the conversion, so finishing up the Epoxy Granite fill with the column and the one shot oiling are basically all that's involved to get to that stage. I'll have to do some partial installing in there anyway to see what the clearances are in the column related to the Z-axis ballscrew assembly.

It's odd switching back and forth between this big giant mill and the little teeny engine parts!



I don't mean to hijack my own thread, but that's a button v-block fixture that I load into my 5C collet chuck on the lathe to turn the connecting rods.

Cheers,

BW

[pete from TN]

I was not aware that a mechanicals only kit was available from IH. Is there somewhere that I can view the kit and the price? As far as the motors I seriously doubt you will ever need to upgrade that motor/servo setup but I am not very experienced with this stuff. I like the looks of your one shot oiler setup and I am thinking I will follow suit there. I recently purchased a used Rong FU RF30 mill drill and I am glad to be able to use it to help with the conversion of the Lathemaster mill. I think I will be able to use it for milling the channels on the ways like you did. This should be fun!!

Pete Matos
[email protected]
865-363-9218

[BobWarfield]

Pete, they may very well not offer that kit any more. I didn't see it on their web site. You might call them and chat about it.

I know at the time I bought mine, I did the math on it, and I couldn't see any way I could save much money by building it myself, so I went with the IH kit.

Best,

BW

[BrendaEM]

What size should the feet tubes/holed have been? I'm not trying to get negative attention, but keep someone from having to labor as you did to drill them out.

The problem with posting your stuff is that poeple are going to want to "replicate" (copy as in cat) the thought and work you are putting in on your machine.

[BobWarfield]

What size should the feet tubes/holed have been? I'm not trying to get negative attention, but keep someone from having to labor as you did to drill them out.

The problem with posting your stuff is that poeple are going to want to "replicate" (copy as in cat) the thought and work you are putting in on your machine.

BrendaEM, I don't know what the stock size is, but they're considerably smaller. Perhaps half the size of the bolts I used. Easy enough to measure for yourself on you mill.

If I were doing it over again with large bolts, I would drilled the casting before pouring the E/G, and then set the bolts in place inside tubes fill with candle wax between bolt and tube. A clever person could likely even have cast the threads in place by coating the bolt with a suitable mold release for the epoxy resin.

Cheers,

BW

[BobWarfield]

Finally got the team build steam engine done and got far enough caught up on my new job to spend a few hours this 3 day weekend on the mill. It's been over a month and I was having withdrawal! Of course I had to fix a problem with my air system in the shop and fix a car, else I would have more time.

Anyway, I got a bottom plate epoxied into the column with a pipe to provide clearance for the big center bolt I'll be installing:



To accomplish this, I epoxied a square plate of relatively thin steel in the bottom of the column. The casting was really rough and I needed it to seal for the fill from above, so I used sand together with the epoxy to fill the gaps. I was able to get it pretty water-tight I think.

Note that care was taken to keep all this below the level of the precision surface!

Next I hole sawed for the pipe. Pipe was a wonky size, so I used a drum sander on an air tool to get a fit that was just right. There are three dimples made with a punch that hold the pipe in position while the epoxy dries.

Not a lot of work, but a necessary precursor to filling the column.

I'm just planning on filling the bottom, BTW, so I can get on sooner with the rest of the conversion. Still some work to finish the one shot oiler, and I need to thread the Z-axis bracket for the ballnut.

After that I'll be ready to start bolting up the IH kit. I also need to build the electronics. I've got a NEMA enclosure set aside that should work well for that. I'm going to try to integrate the whole thing in the one enclosure with keyboard and touch panel as well. It'll be on a swing arm attached to the stand.

Cheers,

BW

[BobWarfield]

This morning I flipped over the column and filled from above around the pipe. I started by masking the top of the pipe:



Filling the cavity through the narrow slot was easiest with a cheap ice cream scoop I bought at the hardware store for $4:



I filled up to about 1/2" from the top of the pipe, and then I switched to a pure sand mixture to make sure the top was free of rock edges sticking up. For the sand, I mixed enough Epoxy to create a smooth gelato-like texture. Slightly runnier than creamy peanut butter. I wanted to make sure it smoothly snuck into all the cracks and crevices that were left. I wanted something quasi-smooth here that I can bolt down to without cocking my bolt and creating any weird stresses:



Things went very quickly and smoothly. I checked after it sat for a couple of hours and there were no leaks from the bottom. It's really fun and easy working with epoxy granite!

So far I have nearly used up a 1/2 gallon container of West Marine epoxy and the associated hardener.

FWIW, I also removed the bracket that holds the bottom bearing for the leadscrew from the side. I'll be blocking that passage off. I had thought I might need it to access the E/G, but I never needed to go in that way. I did still need to get the lower leadscrew support out of my way, though.

[BobWarfield]

Okay, I've declared the epoxy granite filling done, and gone back to work on other projects. Got a couple of hours in the shop this morning, so I finished off my Z-axis mod by threading the bracket for the ballscrew:



Man, the cutter advances very rapidly when cutting an 18 TPI thread!

Then I got to work drilling and tapping cross passages for the Y and Z.





Still need to do the X cross passages, as well as plumbing passages for the ballscrews/nuts.

Can anyone comment on how the factory is setting up their ballscrew oiling these days? I haven't seen any detail on the new machines. My plan was to plumb into each bracket, much the way Thomas Powell did:



Cheers,

BW

[Al_The_Man]

I may have missed it but I did not see any mention of Metering devices at the end of the lube points, or are they not used?
Al.

[BobWarfield]

Al, I'm using flow control valves to meter and act as one way check valves:



Best,

BW