Z Lock for CMD10

Has anyone made one of these?

The problem is that the cutter can be pushed upwards when milling unless you hold on tight to the Z (spindle) wheel. this doesn't happen all the time, so I don't grab on all the time. So the gentle rise in height is usually unnoticed.

The thoughts I've had for this is to drill and tap into the side of the Z axis gear bit and (somehow) put a clutch in.

I've not taken this apart yet to see what the dimensions look like, but there doesn't appear to be much metal so I could end up with an external clutch type thing bolted to the Z winder assembly.

However, if anyone's actually done this it will save me a whole swathe of my usual mistakes...

Iain

There should be a bristol lever in one of the holes where the column gib screws are, this will lock the head. The quill is locked by the allen screw at the front which closes up the split.

If you look at the pictures on Chronos or just Google "Clarke CMD10" you can see a looking lever on the left hand side of the head, if you don't have that lever maybe you install one.

Lars-G.

I can lock the head on the Z gib strip - and do every time I mill - I learned that one early on1

There's an alan key on the right of the head which tightens the quill. As far as I can see (and I think confirmed in something I read somewhere), this is about stiffening the quill not about locking it in place.

The mod I think is being referenced is this http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/mill-quill-lock-lever.html

I've tried tightening this and it has little effect with any reasonably amount of force - hence MIke's long lever. I don't think that this is what the hex key is for - as I said for stiffening the quill not locking it.

Iain

Edited By Frances IoM on 17/10/2016 21:57:39

Edited By Frances IoM on 17/10/2016 21:58:16