[ESjaavik]

Being half done with converting my TOS, it now runs super on X and Y. I have a lot of headscratching to do to find out how to control Z, but that's another story.

I have had this old Danish machine for some 20 years now, and it is just too good to scrap. It weighs a couple of tons and can take a lot of abuse. But the auto feed has been bothersome all the time. The feedscrews are worn down too. As I now have some ballscrews on stock, I decided it's time to do it.

This is how it looks at the moment.



Here you see the Y-slide of the VPU on the table of the TOS being set up for getting some oil grooves machined in.

[ESjaavik]

And here one of them is half done. I could not have done this without CNC as it was not possible to wind both axes by hand at once due to the security dog clutches on the handwheels.


On the sides of the dovetails it is not possible to mill the grooves, so I carve them out with this hand tool. You can see it's all done here.


BTW. Look at the mill head of the TOS. I'm interested in any suggestions as to how I can control the Z movement. It is not possible to do it like on Bridgeport and clones, because it is a gearhead and making a slot in it would let out all the oil. And the rack and pinion has too much backlash. I'm thinking of making a new pinion trying to get rid of the backlash. But that will be a test of my gearcutting skills. It's worth a try, but other ideas will be welcome.