Patriot/Bridgemill Tuning
I like playing with my Patriot, trying to improve the precision and feel of it. Eventually I will build some neat stuff thats not for my patriot, but for now thats all I can think about. I got it to make wood lathe tools, but my wood lathe has been gathering dust while I learn how to machine metal. I lika the metal chips, there's no dust involved.
My most recent thoughts on tuning the Patriot are to add some 1/2" thick steel plates to the front and back sides of the millhead lift to add rigidity to the 4 columns. I bought some 1" thick plates to replace the top 1/2" and bottom 3/4" plate to give me something thick to bolt into.
I'm still thinking about the best way to reinforce the forward and backward spindle motion at the lift joint, any ideas?
I think I should be able to push on the spindle from any direction with about 50Lbs of force and get a deflection of around 1 thousandths; is this reasonable, ridiculous, or should I shoot for more?
Also, I'd like to bolt the Patriot to a couple of 52" long pieces of 2" x 3" x 1/4" thick steel tubing. Does anyone see any problems with that? Thermal expansion warping the ways or something? It seems like as is the mill is not directly supported, so I feel like raising it 6" and supporting it better, but I don't know a lot about how these machines twist and warp...
Thanks,
Ira
Enjoy life, its your present.