What material to replace compound slide please?

I have a Chester DB10 (Warco wm250 type?)

I am thinking of replacing the compound with a machined solid block.

Size is 125mm x 125mm x 50mm

Can anybody help with 2 questions please?

1) What material would you recommend?

2) Where would you buy it? ( I live in Shropshire)

I have had a quick look around but some suppliers require crazy money

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks!

I would recommend cast iron

Try M-Machine in Darlington, they do mail order. The carriage will not be cheap though

www.m-machine-metals.co.uk

Brian

You could try College Engineering they was in Tipton (West Midlands) last time I went over no doubt postage would be the same but you could consider collecting link

H

Thanks for your replies.

I had initially discounted cast iron mainly because of the mess....but I guess it's definitely worth considering.

FWIW, when machining cast iron, I try to hide a strong magnet under some newspaper, close to where the swarf is going to fall.

The magnet will attract most of the dust, so that once away from the magnet, the cast iron dust can be disposed of in what ever way you choose (around Roses or into empty baked bean tins to send for recycling. )

Howard

Cast iron is the traditional material for things like tool-posts because it is heavy, it is easy to machine and it used to be cheap and easily available. It is very dirty to machine though, and a block of mild steel ( short length of section) will probably be cheaper, more available, less messy to machine and just as functional for this purpose.

Rod

CI much the best and easier to machine than steel. This is the approach I took on my Myford S7:

I found the material lurking inside this casting:

which came from RDG Tools IIRC.

You may be able to get some Spheroidal Graphitic Cast Iron (sg iron, also called ductile iron) It machines very nicely and you don't get the horrible black dust. It is not brittle like most cast iron.

This type of conversion was done by Tubal Cain in his "Gibralter" tool post. Hemingway do a kit aimed at the Myford 7 range and that uses cast iron.

Interestingly enough, I believe the prototype was made from aluminium (presumably of the "hard" variety). So it appears that cast iron,, steel or hard aluminium may be suitable.

Andrew

Have a look *** HERE *** it outlines a similar mod I made to my WM250. It spans a couple of pages and includes drawings.

John

Yes, it was made from "DTD130B aluminium alloy". The Gibraltar design was rather different from the OP's in that it replaced both topslide and toolpost. I have made the Hemingway version and it is effective but I think it would be better if it were retained with four bolts/tee nuts rather than by the Super 7-type dovetail.

Thank you all for your help.

Journeyman, thank you also for taking the time to put up your toolpost project. (I hadn't actually thought of using a cylindrical mount....but it makes perfect sense!)

Bright mild steel can distort after the skin layers are machined away or volumes of material are machined out of it. Black steel is more stable but does not have any ready made surfaces so will need machining all over but that is the same for cast iron. Cast iron is a naturally slippy material as the carbon in it tends to self lubricate it also has better damping characteristics than steel but probably not an issue in this application.

Mike

Warning. When machining cast iron, wear a face mask!

Working in a tool room manufacturing dies for car panels masks were not worn by most people, the chaps working in the spotting presses would wear masks hats and goggles but they were right in the thick of the filth, as the spotting presses were right outside our workshop a post work shower would have the suds from washing your hair running grey and a good blow of your nose was required, I did have quite a lot of hair in those days so it held a hell of of a lot of dust. I don’t know if cast iron dust is harmful but just to avoid black snot is probably good.

Mike

I am thinking about doing this.

However Mild Steel seem to be half the price of cast iron now

Meehanite, a form of cast iron that is less brittle.

As above, wear a face mask or it will turn your snot black for a week.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 21/02/2023 11:43:43

Worcester isn't too far from you and findurstuff has tons of machine parts and lumps of "stuff" When visiting family in evesham I've found a lot of "treasure" there on the way past

A material that will remain non-magnetic is always preferable to something that can stay magnetic for a long time. This is a good reason to use cast iron over mild steel, it is easier to clean up small steel particles if they are not attracted to a magnetic lump. How does it become magnetic, stick a magnetic base for a DTI on or near it is all it takes.

Martin C

If anyone is considering machining cast iron, which is my favourite material to machine,and just having done a large amount of machining it. here's a tip which recently possibly saved our marriage . Our shower tray had a build up of rusty spots where cast iron dust had remained in what's left of my hair and sort of embedded itself in the resin tray. This caused some considerable domestic disharmony as can be imagined, my young car mad neighbour showed me a product, made by Meguiars for getting cast iron brake dust from wheels and car paintwork, turns purple as it works. Miraculous product shower tray good as new and harmony restored!

Dave

P.S I've never worn a mask in 50 years of C.I machining, currently I must be worth something as scrap!