Member postings for Lee Jones 6

The list is already pretty long.

But yes, if I can't find something suitable at a decent price, I will have to make one.

The issue is, it didn't come with an adaptor, so none of my DTIs fit it currently.

Not at all. The more the merrier.

What a beaut. Let me know how you get on with it.

I've wanted a chop saw type bandsaw for an age.

Just can't justify it, as I already have 2 vertical and 1 horizontal bandsaw.

I bought it to use on the surface plate, like this:

Each to their own I suppose.

It's pretty common across multiple of my peer and interest groups to discuss their purchases and bargains. From my wife obtaining a nice piece of clothing in the sales, a peer buying a job-lot at a jumble sale or a colleague securing some nice shiney, next gen, hardware for work.

Since none of my friends or family show even a glimpse of interest in machining and tooling, this is the only place I can think of that people would care.

Was meant to be just a little show and tell, for interests sake. Certainly not gloaty!

Very good.

So the bargains (at least I thought they were) here were:

The Surface Plate has a chip on the corner: £20

Slips have one 20mm piece missing: £50

Depth Gauge is a fully working complete set, but is a little tatty: £20

Vee Blocks with clamps: £30

Type 3 Vice: £30

Total: £320

Overall I'm quite pleased. Especially happy to be in the lower realms of your range.

I shall be testing the new metal one against my printed one.

I'd it doesn't measure up, it's going in the trash.

I don't think any of this is cheap crap. I believe it all came from industry.

All 3 are stamped and have DIN numbers on. All 873.

It is. And is slightly better quality than the 100mm one I printed.

Never fear Howard, apart from the square in the box, it's farrr from new.

This is the first cool haul I've had since starting the hobby.

Well apart from the end-mills I bought from the scrappy - still don't know if they're any good though TBF.

Oh, not super-duper cheap. Just trying to make sure I didn't get ripped off.

The slip set, is Mitutoyo, but it's Grade 2 (plenty enough for me), well used and is missing the 20mm.

The depth gauge, again is Mitutoyo, but it's all lose in the box and one of the rods is a little bent.

The surface gauge is definable good/flat enough for what I require, but is chipped in the corner.

I need to make or purchase an adaptor for the DTI holder, as none of my DTIs will fit it.

Since I am a) pretty new to this and b) only plan to *play*, I'm pretty happy with it over-all.

Picked this lot up today. Well chuffed.

Anyone hazard a guess as to how much it's worth?

John, yes, I bought a full kit (spindle, VFD, linear rails, ball screws, steppers, steppers drivers, controller, drag chain, etc etc) from China also. Most of it was in good nick and the exporter was really good about replacing the pieces that turned up broken (hose connector on the spindle, a stepper driver).

Brian, thanks. I caught and fixed the link before you edited it out. I'll have a closer look when I have more time.

A lot of folks milling dry presently.

My plan however is to either use spray coolant or WD40.

Ha ha! Yes, it's not he easiest thing in the world to work with. Well done and thanks for doing that.

Oh, I see. Wow, that is some piece of kit. That is not what I imagined at all.

Do you guys have pictures of the two methods please? The buttons and goal posts.

That's all well and good, but then I don't get to publicly highlight what a terrible machinist I am! 

Edited By Lee Jones 6 on 17/11/2020 10:08:21

Okay, so I pulled down the set-up and had a good play around.

It looks like the apparent disparity is caused by jaw lift.

When closed normally, the jaws look fine:

Even though there are clear gaps/misalignment (this could just as easily be the table):

So new method.

This time I'll remove the non-fixed jaw completely and drop the fixed jaw into the t-slot.

This worked beautifully. This sorted out the misalignment to ~0.005mm, which I was happy with.

However (why is there always a "however"? *sigh), the t-nuts no longer fit under the vice.

So I had to mill down the ends of the Vice Bar to make room for the t-nuts:

And now there isn't enough bar to hold firmly against the t-slot without disparity/wobble.

So I need to have another go at this.

Plan is to start by milling the vice slot true this time. Then maybe make-up some bespoke t-nuts.

If at first you don't success, give up! No wait, the other one ... try, try again!

I'd be hesitant to blame the tools just yet - this could just as easily be my ineptitude.

Although it was disappointing that the homing slot wasn't exactly parallel to the jaws.

It's strange. It's not something that looks obvious during use.

Perhaps it's a strange manifestation relating to jaw lift?

I have terrible trouble getting parts to lie hard against the parallels (even after a whack).

It all seems to have squared up by the clamping (seen in the final image).