The mods to the mill are coming along nicely. A couple of hiccups came up but were quickly (well, not that quickly) worked out. After welding up and painting the base I mounted the X-Y table and found some binding in the Y-axis. I took the table off and sure enough I found I did get a little warping on the table plate, about .022" droop right at the edges. I used some .020 stainless sheet as a shim and the binding is gone. My original idea to use bolt studs welded to a plate and then insert them through the dovetail column into the steel column didnt work at all. The space inside the dovetail column was just too small for the size bolts that were needed, so I welded nuts to the plate and ran bolts in from the steel column side. The Y-axis rack was extended the full length of the dovetail. The mill head was painted then installed and gibs adjusted. The rest was a straight bolt on of the motor and electronics boxes. The X-axis tram works a treat, but the Y-axis tram was a little touchy. It does work and I can get it pretty close, but as soon as I tighten the main bolts it goes off. Soooo I decided to shim, I measured what I had so far with a feeler gauge (the bottom of the dovetail column pushes out .030) and put an .030 shim right above the lower main bolts, snugged them up, checked tram with a test indicator and it was within .0005. Sometimes you get lucky! The next problem was when I turned the mill on and the cooling fans did not work (I added a second fan a while ago when the original started to make funny noises). After much head scratching, downloading of schematics, Googles, and futzing around with a multimeter I came to the conclusion that I am electron challenged. I finally got things figured out (interesting fact: did you know that a multimeter wont read AC current when you have it switched to DC?, strange but true) anyway it was a loose solder connection on the rear of the transformer board. A little heat from a solder gun and now we have power to the fan lugs. Turn it on and still no joy. Tanj! A lot more head scratching and a little walk outside into a howling snowstorm for some perspective and I got it, reversed polarity! I switched the leads and all systems are go.
I have a bit more to do, I need a counter weight for the mill head, mounts for some Dro scales and modify the X-axis power feed to work on the new table, but so far Im pleased with how its going and should have a finished update soon.
Bill
link to web album http://picasaweb.google.com/billstupak/X2MillExpansion?authkey=Gv1sRgCKSBivqv_t2ungE&feat=directlink
I have a bit more to do, I need a counter weight for the mill head, mounts for some Dro scales and modify the X-axis power feed to work on the new table, but so far Im pleased with how its going and should have a finished update soon.
Bill
link to web album http://picasaweb.google.com/billstupak/X2MillExpansion?authkey=Gv1sRgCKSBivqv_t2ungE&feat=directlink
