Member postings for MW

DC brushed, I'm certain I remember filing some different sized motor brushes to use as a replacement once :P

I certainly gave it a good try but in the end it clapped out, not sure if it's the motor itself or the control board that's failed. I still have them, if I can ever work out what to do with them.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 13/10/2017 15:29:54

I think we're all guilty of expecting too much from the machine at one point or another :P

I would add that it's normally the type and power of the motor that matters a lot more than the method of transmission, dc speed controlled motors offer the illusion of slowing down the output speed without actually giving you all the beans at said speed.

I changed my 750W dc motor on the WM 16 for a 550W AC 3 phase induction. The difference is quite astonishing despite the fact it has a lower wattage than the original dc motor. The old one used to slow down or even stall on heavy cuts and materials yet I have chomped through a fair amount of castings on this one and it shows no signs of giving up.

It seems someone listened or cottoned on to the same idea because warco recently bought out a newer but very similar model to mine which uses a geared head and induction motor.

One thing I would like to do to my franken-warco is add more gear ratios for general speeds, as I only have a high/low (full and half) ratio as it stands.

I would also like to write up everything I've done to it and see if it's worthy of the magazine, but I'm waiting until I've got more modifications to talk about, because there's a number of ideas I haven't committed to yet, and could really work with any type of mill, generally based on my experience working on bigger mills and some of their features. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 13/10/2017 14:50:41

I don't know if you're looking for anything other than Loctite but I've used this other british make called bondloc, this is the specific one; **LINK**

It seems to hold together very well and the strength is a lot better than other locking adhesives I've used.

Michael W

I suppose looking at old machinery is a great way to get a good knowledge about a range of mechanisms and common features across many machines.

Does anyone happen to know where you can buy replacement mitutoyo parts for a digital caliper? I've got a little plastic piece that holds the thumb wheel that broke off.

Michael W

I don't think that's contentious at all, You're simply asking for proof that something is worth it. That's the $64M question.

Perhaps I need to explain my other RT's a bit more. I have a sherline cnc mill with a cnc rotary table, it's very well made and good for what it does (I was very lucky to not have to pay for any of that kit) but they aren't machines that can handle heavy materials and I don't think they- as a company- make any bones about that. Great for small aluminium, plastics, and what not but certainly will only do steel on the side of caution.

The bigger rotary table does quite a mainstay of the milling work on my much larger warco table top. the chuck is about 3-4" big.

There are some really really irritating things about it though, that I'm not too keen on. One is the assembly is just like a big cast moveable right angle plate, that secures with one bolt that goes through the whole axle. It isn't very sturdy basically and even doing a light plunge with horizontal milling will cause the setup to deflect, no matter how tightly you do it up.

The handle twiddling is slightly annoying and I respect that it's a common problem with RT's. I had to drill a 4 hole PCD on a lot of big plastic spigots, I had nine to do in total and it felt a bit silly having to swivel the handle like a mad man to index it, you don't get a feel for that until you do it, believe me. I will keep it for genuine rotary cutting though.

So, for one, I really like the rigid design on this one. No alignment problems with the chuck, coz it goes straight on. And as far as I understand it, you can just spin the detent to the next hole in one fell swoop, rather than 20-30 turns of the handle. I'm glad to see someone else has it and likes it.

I do like the idea of the Stevenson collet blocks too, they look like a really great way to get some basic indexing on the cheap, hats off to him, he found a gap in the market. Unfortunately I don't have many ER32 collets, I have tons of ER40, so I would have to buy a lot for that to get a decent range.

PS: You'll have to tell me what the landmark is J.B, otherwise i'll pass it without realising it.

Ah, well that's a relief, I suppose the numbers have the "0" abbreviated.

Thanks, yeah I've looked at other tables and it's probably got more going for it in terms of value, the other ones are made by Vertex badged, notably, you can just throw financial sense out the window if you're not careful.(Maybe, theres better accuracy in the construction, but i'd have no way of telling that, and as far as I know, anybody makes vertex stuff, could even be made by this non branded variety.) 

I think theres locking handles on the other side of the assembly, and possibly some adjustment screws. The picture is slightly off because I needed to scale the image for the forum without just placing a massive screeny infront of everyone.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 08/10/2017 13:21:16

One thing I have noticed is the scale on the rotary plate doesn't reference degrees like a rotary table. So In order to divide the wheel, I would need to know the maximum number and then divide that number into how many divisions I want, 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc..

Yeah, cheers for that Andrew, It does look fine to me to but I like to take a reality check with everyone else.

Indeed, it does have 3 division plates and a scale on the side so I should be able to quickly reference a position without needing to count holes. I think the number of holes really comes into it's own field when you get into gear making and tooth counts for large wheels. Luckily I don't need to do anything like that for now..

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 08/10/2017 12:35:20

Hi,

I've got two rotary tables and although one of them is CNC, (it's for a smaller model machine).

I'm sick of spinning the handles at a 90:1 ratio and having to lock up and unlock all the time on the manual mill whenever I want to make PCD's or Hexagon milling. The Big Rotary table I do have, doesn't feel very rigid either when I need to set it up at angles.

So I did a little brief reading on Harold hall's book on dividing, and it would seem the old fashioned solution to this problem would be to use a dividing head.

So I've looked around for some models to see what's affordable without going ballistic on the price and the best deal I can seem to find is a 5" rotary table that comes with a chuck on the bay of all bays. **LINK**

So I've got a link there and i'll put a picture here...

So although the picture is a little askew, it's got a robust looking construction and a chuck that I know will fit it. The tailstock looks a bit shabby but it doesn't need to be suberb as the head.

So yeah, just throw some noise at me. Think it's a good idea?

Michael W

They do environmentalism in this country for all the wrong reasons. There's almost nothing in the way of incentives to reduce waste.

Michael W

The same could be said for a lot of other small machine tools too.

Edited By Michael-w on 06/10/2017 10:56:52

I think the purpose of the hand wheel is to push the work piece into the saw (work piece being held in the vice). The application of pressure to help the cut go through.

In much the same way a drill press works; Try using a hand held drill and then try a pillar drill and tell me which is easier to push through.

Michael W

To be honest, I thought it was Neil's best Jean Luc-Picard impersonation from star trek; very serious expression!

Michael W

You know what, i'm inclined to agree with that sentiment, I love QCTP's and I would never go back, but to begin with I did just use a four way post with tin can shims and off cuts underneath them.

Still, good to keep the aspiration to a Dickson type or whatever floats. They are definitely worthwhile. It isn't worth throwing out the idea just because it can't be done immediately.

It's a relatively simple modification to make a new T clamping bolt to the right length and handle to suit. The only thing I would keep an eye on would be the length of travel on the adjuster height screw, relative to the height of the lathe ofc.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 03/10/2017 18:21:10

GJ

Michael W

I find wit the Chinese sellers, if they're avoiding the R word then just give 'em bad review and that normally winds them up enough to ask you to retract it and get ur money.

Michael W