Arboga em825

I have rescued an arboga em825 from scrap. There are probably good reasons why it was scrapped which I am about to find but I have have got it going. It came without tooling but I machined a groove in a cheap ER32collet chuck and made a c washer to fit into a threaded collar. This is instead of a drawbar.

I have now made a few trial cuts on some mild steel and have some observations. The depth of cut is set by a fine adjust on the quill feed (the Arboga is a mill/Drill). There is also a clamp lock on the quill. I did my first cuts with the clamp on. After a cut I released the clamp and noticed that the quill dropped. I think that my milling cut overcame the clamp and took out back lash in the quill rack. Am I in error to use the clamp lock when milling? This 10''' cut was my first time milling anything, though I have done little bit of turning.

Thankyou

If you got the same depth of cut along the 10" length you expected then nothing moved

If you don't clamp the quill the cutter will chatter

The Arboga handbook says 'when milling the quill should be firmly locked' so you're doing the right thing. It also mentions on cutter sizes/feeds guidance ' we have good results milling in steel with an end mill of 14mm (9/16" diameter to a depth of 4mm (5/32". I would assume that those figures applied to a new machine not one with some wear and tear on it. If you are attempting to doing anything more than that you might pull the quill down against the lock.

An ER32 collet is not the most secure for grip on an end mill shank, and they can pull down with a heavy cut. On my EM825 I use a Clarkson collet chuck that came with it plus threaded shank cutters and have never had any great problem, also I try not to be greedy with cut depth/feed rate.

Btw - you might find a copy of the handbook on the net, but otherwise from Tony Griffiths at lathes.co.uk

I wouldnt dare to a try a 4mm depth of cut with my set up. I applied a cut of 0.25mm using a 12mm four flute end mill at 890rpm. There is up and down play in the quill of about 0.25mm. There does not seem to be any easy adjustment in I assume the rack. It seems quite easy to overcome the quill lock.

Thanks for replies.

There are several possible causes for the play you describe.

Looking at the exploded parts diagram in the handbook the rack is a separate item fixed to the back of the main quill with screws at top and bottom. I suspect that if the fixings worked loose it would allow some slack there.

I can't see if there is any provision for mesh adjustment between the rack and feed spur, though you could try shimming between the mounting face of the rack and the quill body to achieve that.

The other more likely possibility is wear in the quill top radial ball bearing and bottom taper roller bearing. There is a nut and washer on top of the quill spindle above the top bearing which according to the handbook is provided to be adjusted to take up axial play. It goes on to say that 'This nut can be reached when the quill is removed from the machine.' Looks like the first thing to check.

Thanks for the info, I took the quill out to check the bearing. The nut was tight and locked in place with a tab washer. I couldn't detect any play between the quill and the inner shaft. The play seems to between the rack and the pinion.

Does your diagram show how the pinion is fitted to the shaft, or is it one piece?

Thanks

Hi, I have just collected an Arboga EM825. All I have done so for is get it home, I have yet to open it up and find if what shape it's in. At the moment it has a regular MT fitted (hammered in perhaps) Once I have extracted this I was interested in making the original parts that are missing. I was hoping someone would photograph the missing parts to give me a better idea of what I'm up to.

Thanks in advance

Simon

Hi

I bought the same machine a year ago and love it. As a drill press it is second to none. My only issue is with the cross-slide table. Simply put it is worn out. I am taking it into a local machine shop to get the ways ground flat. This will solve all my problems. I had to add a VFD to deal with the single to three phase issue and it is amazing; especially for power tapping. I have spent hours online trying to learn more about aftermarket cross slide tables and have not had much luck. There is nothing great available in western Canada.