How to stay in control of mill depth of cut? (My mill has no fine quill feed)

Gray

My mill is a Mentor. It has the Mentor plate fixed to the base casting so that pretty well nails it!

Interesting you mention the Spanish manufactured bits. I would never have even suspected that it was not all in-house Emco. From a quality point of view I would rate the base and slides as being noticeably better than the column and head parts.

The only bad design feature of the base is the positioning of the Y axis locking screw/lever. When I bought my machine the Y axis gib was bent because a previous user had tightened the lock whilst the gib strip was in mid air. I have moved the lock to a position where the slide is always fully engaged. Incidentally the front most gib adjusting screw bears on the end the gib that is always in fresh air anyway (but as you say gib stiffness still makes it a valid adjustment.

Ian

Edited By Ian Phillips on 27/03/2013 20:18:43

Thanks Gray

I presume when you mentioned a 10mm needle race you meant a thrust race?

Ian

Gray

Your work is very impressive, photography is not bad too! I now know the meaning of amateur, which my efforts certainly are by comparison.

The steel parts look like they are ground all over and have never been handled. Is the ball handle chrome plated or is it just polished?

I lust after an FB2, the pinion looks so much more substantial (larger diameter) than the earlier mill.

I assume the bronze pegs expand radially when you tighten the end screw, do they then grip by friction or do they engage in holes? With the two stages of gearing how much quill travel does one rotation give?

Gray

Its not clear where does the motor fits in relation to these parts, It appears that you will have a worm on the motor shaft, but then what?

Youy are still modest. There are trained toolmakers, and there are trained toolmakers, they can be worlds apart though!

Sorry to hear you not fully well, I hope you recover quickly.

Ian

Hi, I have modified my RISHTON mill, which is very similar to the ones listed

It is fitted to a MYFORD 254 .

I had four parts to make,

1/ the clamp for the quill.

2/ the base for the slide..

3/ the slide itself.

4/ the reader head base to hold the magnteic pickup.

The reader head is then connected to a spare port on my 3 axis DRO .

My DRO is accurate to 5 MICRONS, - 2 tenths of a thou..

l

front of mill showing quill clamp

side of gearbox showing slide, reader head and base holding sensor tape

DRO showing quill setting 0.5000.

Edited By ray jones 1 on 05/04/2013 23:34:16

Edited By ray jones 1 on 05/04/2013 23:35:16

Edited By ray jones 1 on 05/04/2013 23:35:52