My new toy

[solarman216]

Thought I had better start a new thread on this, I have already mentioned it in Flyingtorquewrenches thread "Time to say good by" but easier here.

So it is a Mill, probably around the 1950's heavy great thing, but does vertical and horizontal work, it did however have some problems, first was the head bearings were shot, easy job for those and sorted, next is the bed lead screw nut, well worn almost stripped, so needed to do something about that, was toying with making my own but it is 5 tpi and my little Myford is only capable of 8 tpi.

So looked at getting one made, yea right, absolutely silly money so looked at other options but none seemed to fit the bill until I saw on a model engineers site a guy who had a similar problem and he made his own out of plastic, so this got me thinking.

This is pretty much the method he used, I will let the pics speak for themselves other than a problem I had to overcome which was the slot for the power drive, clearly I needed to fill that in to mould my nut and used a bit of ali bar and hand cut the threads

[solarman216]

So now with the lead screw supported and the plastic in the vice some gentle heat is applied until the two halves of the nut are back together again

[solarman216]

After it all cooled down wound it off the shaft with some big stillsons and stuck it in the lathe, this is the finished result together with the original bronze one, just some grease grooves to run and some bolt holes and job done, it will not last as long as the original but for the amount I use it it will probably last me out, and if it does wear quick then a few hours work and I can make another especially as I now have the ready made screw insert for the slot, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

That is good thinking Rick.

Another option might be to put a post on a Model Engineers forum. Quite often they are happy to produce parts on request.

We got a transport museum close by and they are happy to turn a few pieces for some beer money.

[solarman216]

Well got the mill up and running so started to do some tests to check on its accuracy, have to say I am well impressed, first job was to true up a 2ft straight edge that was out by more than 10 thou, it has not been used for a very long time, first problem was that it is quite hard having blunted a couple of cutters decided it will have to be ground, so quite a bit of setting up required on the horizontal mill, once all set up and dressed the stone it was just a simple 2 or 3 passes, job sorted I now have a really good straight edge once again, then a mate said I could have a redundant Cavalier head to play with, I jumped at it and after checking with my new straight edge found it dipped 12 thou around No 2 pot, again now had to set up for vertical milling, once done it was time to set the head on the bed and check over the travelled distance that the weight of the head did not distort the bed on the overhang, pleased to say my dial gauge registered 0, so on with the job using a fly cutter at its limit which meant as I was soon to discover only very light cuts could be made, which was fine by me as it gave me time to get used to the machine overall, took around 10 passes and removed 15 thou, this pic is the finished job and am well pleased, less than half a thou error, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

That looks really good Rick. Did you buy this mill with a specific job in mind or just for whatever comes its way?