Member postings for Nealeb

One of the optical scales that came fitted to my Smart and Brown has recently failed, and having now become used to a DRO on a lathe, I've been researching options for replacing/updating. As a result, I've actually read a DRO manual a bit more carefully!

I have also used the PCD technique for drill-and-break-out hole-making, but it seems that there is also the option to use the arc ("R" option on the Easson) which automatically sorts out hole overlap, tool diameter, etc, although you might need to do the job using several arcs as I don't think it will quite manage a full circle. Something I'll try out next time I need to do this.

On the other hand, I hadn't thought about using CAD to lay out the hole pattern for this; I've been doing sums while standing at the machine which is a little bit fraught. More than one way to skin the cat...

My Easson also asks for start/end angles. Makes sense as it allows for holes around part of a circle. It's a question of flexibility against ease of use, I guess, even though most of the time you are going to use the "whole circle" method.

I've always worked out the end angle (using the calculator on the DRO if needed!) but I hadn't thought of adding one to the number of holes and using 0 as start and finish. Clever wheeze!

Current project is going to need rather more hacksawing than I want to do by hand! Steel and gunmetal up to about 1.5" square. So I'm thinking about one of these bandsaws as well. In the smaller sizes, there seems to be a choice between a swiveling vice, or swiveling saw. The former don't seem to be able to hold shorter lengths - bigger gap between vice and blade to allow for swiveling - but are generally a bit cheaper. Any comments from those who've had a play with them? I don't actually foresee an immediate need for angled cuts anyway, but jobs seem to appear once you have the capability to do them!

It's not exactly the best-made tool in my garage! But the bottom is flat, the graduations are about right, and the adjusting screw is fine enough to be able to zero it with an end-for-end check. The great thing about a level is that it is self-checking. I'm happy that I have my money's worth, given the price of even second-hand levels from a recognised manufacturer. I would agree that 0.02mm/m is very sensitive. I'm using it with feelers to measure differences in level and I am regularly needing the 0.05mm feeler to bring the bubble on-scale.

Coming back to the original question - the "what" rather than the "why" - and always a difficult thing on a forum!

I bought one of these levels (the 200mm version) a few weeks ago. I was also concerned about the "bit of rust" comment but mine was clean, no rust apparent. What was a problem was that the bubble had fallen out! The thing comes in a fitted case with a bit of foam packing, and was well wrapped in bubble wrap, but had probably been dropped or thrown in transit. The bubble assembly - the vial - is plastic, and it's glued into a piece of channel section pivoted at one end and bearing on a spring-loaded adjuster screw at the other. The glue had given way and the vial was loose. I fixed it back with a bit of PVA glue (my thinking was strong enough to hold it, weak enough that I could remove it if necessary). I tweaked it on my carefully shimmed surface plate so that it read the same when turned end-for-end, and it seems to be holding its calibration fairly well. I cannot detect any rock on my surface plate (a 300x300x20 slab of plate glass). This is not Moore and Wright, Hilger, etc, quality but it works. If I put my thinnest feeler gauge under one end, the bubble moves the number of divisions that I would expect. Again, not metrology lab standards, but a reasonable sanity check.

I bought it to help align the profile rails on a CNC router that I am building. It's a welded steel structure with steel box sections about 1800mm long carrying the rails, and due to manufacturing and welding distortions, there was a dip in the middle of roughly 1.5mm. I used an epoxy bed to get close to level, bolted down the rail, then used the "precision" level (with feelers as necessary) to measure height differences every 200mm. I'm assuming that this was fairly accurate as I found a +-0.1mm variation; after inserting the calculated shim thickness and remeasuring I was within about 0.05mm which is more than good enough for this job.

So, as a level it's not the best in the world, but it's certainly not the most expensive either. You get what you pay for, it does the job, and even with the Christmas post, I ordered it one day and it arrived the next.

I did notice that the drain in the base sticks up quite a way, and the left-hand end of the table does not have a drain at all. And there's a nice lip around the base of the mill that will hold a reasonable amount of fluid... Does the suds also drain down through the raised edges front and back of the machine base into the cabinet?

When I was in the US some years back a number of model engineering friends had mist lubrication/cooling systems - they used compressed air to atomise water and spray it on to the cutter. It evaporated almost immediately, so no rust, no drainage, no mess, but did seem to keep the cutter cool. Of course, they assumed that everyone would have a compressor and an airline around the "shop"!

No, I didn't - I did get the extra big drip tray because I intend to get a suds pump one day but didn't actually spring for it. My previous vertical mill was the Dore-Westbury, and that is hardly big enough to warrant coolant so I wasn't sure how useful/necessary it would be.

What's your problem with it? I would have expected it to be straightforward on a single-phase supply - or is it 110V like the power feed? Is it wired off the mill circuitry, or does it have its own power? Or is it the plumbing rather than the wiggly amps that's giving problems?

...and I'm not sure that the Warco manual circuit diagram ties up with the current switchgear. However, there is a circuit diagram behind the panel on the back of the column which I presume is correct.

I drilled out those other two holes this afternoon - just put a 10mm drill through them - and fitted bolts with nuts beneath. All now firmly secured.

Thanks for the comments, Roger. I'm pretty sure that it is the right stand, but the clearance holes in the machine base are fairly tight for the bolts, and the two "wrong" tapped holes in the stand are only out by about 2mm. I can't believe that there are two machines with that close a spacing. If it were 10mm or more then "wrong stand" would probably be the right diagnosis. And I just want to get on with using it

Not sure when you ordered your VMC, Chris - I ordered mine back at the Warco open day in August and it arrived on Friday (early Nov). I was told that they were waiting for a delivery and then had to wait for a workshop slot to fit the DRO and power feed. I was also told that I would get 24hrs notice from the courier firm - does a call saying "I'm just getting to the end of your lane - where are you exactly?" count? However, the delivery driver was very used to Devon lanes and difficult access, and seemed to regard it as a personal challenge to deliver! So 50 yards on his pallet truck with my wife and I assisting was just par for the course - including half that being up a 1 in 7 drive...

So, with pallet in garage, it was up to me to unpack and install. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but I did the whole thing single-handed except for one small area where a second pair of hands was useful. I was also limited by headroom - ceiling height is only about 2m, and slightly less where an RSJ crosses. With the aid of levers and rollers (posh word for broomsticks) I was able to move the pallet to where the machine was going. I then removed the motor, then head, then turret, in that order. The head assembly was heavy but just possible by myself, while the machine was still off its stand. Note that you do have to disconnect the motor wires (labelled wires going to labelled connections, which was good, but a picture on the mobile phone was useful as a cross-check) and belt guard microswitch (fiddly). The Warco manual says that you should not use the hoisting point for lifting as it the machine is top-heavy. However, I found that with the top end removed this point works fine. I slipped a bar through the hoist point holes, and the winch hook then went through the top of the column. When lifted the machine tilted forwards a little, so that the front of the base was about 2" lower than the back. To lift, I built a rough-and-ready gantry with a couple of 4x2 verticals well-clamped to the legs of two stout benches which were already in place either side of the planned location. I used another 4x2 across the top, located with 4" nails hammered into the end-grain of the verticals. The winch was a cheap ratchet thing, picked up for £15 from a local market stall and generally used for pulling out tree roots. Nominal rating 2T, which should have been fine for the approx 350Kg or so of the VMC without base or top end. So, lifted the mill a little, dragged out the pallet, lifted a bit more when I was happy that nothing was bending too much and slipped the base underneath. This was the bit that needed a second pair of hands - my wife was able to nudge the mill around slightly as I lowered so that the bolts lined up. So far so good. Then turret back on, motor fitted, and the only really tricky bit - getting the spindle assembly in position. This was now much too heavy for me to lift and position with the mill on its stand, so I improvised with ropes from the gantry until I could get the spindle nose resting on a wooden block on the bed. With rope slings taking most of the weight I could use the bed to position the spindle mating face and its bolts fairly easily. Rewire, and ready to go. It would have been easier with a couple more pairs of strong hands but I am new enough to this house not to feel comfortable in inviting neighbours to a hernia party.

Initial comments on the VMC. I mentioned the mill-to-stand bolts above. Unfortunately the holes do not all line up (are these drilled freehand in the factory?) and I can only get two diagonal bolts into the tapped holes in the base. I plan to drill out the other holes and if necessary will use nuts on the bolts to hold it all in place. Annoying, but I'm not going through that again to replace the stand...

When I put the feed handles on, the power feed did not work. The motor was going round but nothing else did. I suspect that the bevel gear on the leadscrew had slipped out of engagement in transit and I did not check when I put the handwheel on. I removed the handwheel, had a fiddle with the other components, and when I put it back together it worked fine. Problem here was lack of instructions in either of the manuals so it's something to watch out for.

DRO had not been tested, judging from the packing on all the bits, and needed setting up as per its manual to get all the slides working the right way (numbers on dial going up while numbers on DRO going down would have rapidly driven me crazy!)

If I had been a complete numpty, any or all of these things would have stumped me. For example, then manual says that you can strip off motor and head to help installation, but doesn't say how. But none of this should stop a competent model engineer - there's no rocket science needed here, just a steady and methodical approach - and nothing to put off any other prospective VMC buyer. I'm now looking forward to cutting metal - once I have fixed those hold-down bolts...

Edited By Nealeb on 12/11/2012 12:00:39

Edited By Nealeb on 12/11/2012 12:03:50