Spring 2024 meetup in Calgary - date Saturday, April 20/2024. discussion Please RSVP Here to confirm and get your invitation and the location details. RSVP NOW so organizers can plan to get sufficient food etc. It's Tomorrow Saturday! you can still RSVP until I stop checking my phone tomorrow More info and agenda
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Spring meet up in Ontario, April 6/2024. NEW LOCATION See Post #31 Discussion AND THE
NEW LOCATION
So today I had planned to completely finish the DRO installation. I designed a magnet array mount, and a mount to hold two hall effect sensors and had the plans with me when I went to the shop.
I got half the magnet array mount done, and then we decided to jump ahead and move the lathe into it's final position, since we no longer needed to access the rear of the lathe at this point.
So we went to the long arduous job of getting the gantry crane into position, rigging the hoist, installing the lifting clamp near the head stock etc etc...
Then we got the lathe lifted and pulled the pallet out from underneath. Then came the fun part... machining each of the leveling bolts to fit the divots in the cast iron feet, and getting the damn thing leveled.
When we first lowered the lathe the right rear foot was sitting 1.5" in the air and I was like WTH... after an hour or two of fussing finally got the results I was looking for.
I got the same result at the head stock, the mid section and near the tail end of the lathe with a 12' precision level with accuracy of 0.0002"/10"
I designed a mount that will place the heads of the hall sensors ~1.125 inches apart and the bodies at 60 degrees to each other... I know terrible sketch but I was in a hurry hurry
I got one ring turned out of an old phenolic 24 tooth gear. With the DRO I was able to nail the diameter and get a nice snug fit on the spindle so I don't need a grub screw but I'll use one anyway since we may use the gear teeth for simple indexing as well.
Tomorrow I'll mill the pockets for the magnets 1.5 mm deep, 60 degrees apart, and glue the magnets in. Then make the outer ring. I'll epoxy the outer ring over the inner ring, then turn the outer diameter down further when the array is a single unit.
When we first lowered the lathe the right rear foot was sitting 1.5" in the air and I was like WTH... after an hour or two of fussing finally got the results I was looking for.
BTW, good job getting the machine levelled. Now to actually level it! LOL! I wish that word level had NEVER been invented! As you already know, but for the benefit of others who might be learning, this step is just the first of many steps that are all called levelling but this is the only one that actually is levelling!
I think LOTS of members would like to follow along on an actual setup and lathe alignment with a new install. Might make good linking to when the process gets asked about down the road.
The lathe is pushed to the rear of the garage, closest to the interior of the house. There is 10 to 12" foundation wall that the wood frame wall sites on at this spot. The garage floor of course is designed to slope towards the front to prevent water from infiltrating under the garage door. Typically when the concrete is installed they tend to leave the edges and corners of the floor too high.
The lathe was so rigid that when the head stock feet were both on the floor one of the tail stock feet wouldn't touch the floor. The previous owner did not have the lathe leveled very well. or the other floor was unlevel in just the opposite manner.
Tom will now comlete a bunch of alignment tests but he wont document it and I wont be there for that.... I can barely move today. I'm going to just finish up making the sensor brackets, and to install and test V2 of the machining calculator
The lathe is pushed to the rear of the garage, closest to the interior of the house. There is 10 to 12" foundation wall that the wood frame wall sites on at this spot. The garage floor of course is designed to slope towards the front to prevent water from infiltrating under the garage door. Typically when the concrete is installed they tend to leave the edges and corners of the floor too high.
The lathe was so rigid that when the head stock feet were both on the floor one of the tail stock feet wouldn't touch the floor. The previous owner did not have the lathe leveled very well. or the other floor was unlevel in just the opposite manner.
Tom will now comlete a bunch of alignment tests but he wont document it and I wont be there for that.... I can barely move today. I'm going to just finish up making the sensor brackets, and to install and test V2 of the machining calculator
Wish I could put two emoticons on that post. A thumbs up and a sad face. So I put the thumbs up on it and put a sad face here cuz we won't see the rest of the job......
Wish I could put two emoticons on that post. A thumbs up and a sad face. So I put the thumbs up on it and put a sad face here cuz we won't see the rest of the job......
First task was to complete the inner ring by milling the magnet pockets. I set up the indexer on the mill to be as precise as possible, but I could likely have eyeballed it given that the ring has 24 gear teeth on it. That said, I did it right by using the rotary table to rotate the rings 60 degrees after milling every pocket. I did not have an end mill the same diameter as the magnets so the holes are slightly wider than the magnets. I figured that I'd be epoxying them in anyway so no big deal.
I didn't have enough material on the other gear to easily make the magnet retaining ring due to clamping forces causing a thin ring to potentially deform. So I used a round of UHMW polyethylene that I had on hand to make a plunger for a hydraulic sausage stuffer. I chucked the plastic up on the lathe, turned the exterior to diameter close to what I thought would work. Then I drilled a center hole and then bored it out to the OD of the phenolic ring.
I had to take a little more material off the ID of the retention ring because the OD seemed to shrink a lot when the part cooled.
When I did a test assembly and ran spindle and both tachometers the the end result did not show any negative impact of potentially allowing the magnets to move ever so slightly in the pockets, so I wont be gluing them in place at all. The retention ring slides on with a snug fit, but is difficult to remove. Just what I wanted.
The magnets are very strong, easily read thru the retaining ring and at a distance of another 1/4" or so on both sensors.
Here is how I assembled the rings. I used a magnet inside the ring to hold the magnets in the pockets while I was assembling the rings.
You can see how much extra room there is in the pockets making the magnets on the back handy. Once the ring was in place I used a magnet stack to assure all the magnets were oriented correctly.
Well that explains a few things. I wasn't planning to use magnets that big. Drilling such big holes from the opposite side might not work so great.
Another question, why did you choose to use a gear like that? Will it be serving some other purpose?
I had contemplated both rings being just plain old ABS plumbing pipe. 2-1/2" is just a tad small so easy peasy to inside bore that to fit the spindle and a coupling is perfect as is for the outside ring. But I'll turn it down to keep the gap small.
Well that explains a few things. I wasn't planning to use magnets that big. Drilling such big holes from the opposite side might not work so great.
Another question, why did you choose to use a gear like that? Will it be serving some other purpose?
I had contemplated both rings being just plain old ABS plumbing pipe. 2-1/2" is just a tad small so easy peasy to inside bore that to fit the spindle and a coupling is perfect as is for the outside ring. But I'll turn it down to keep the gap small.
My last tachometer I made to be multi-purpose mount that could act as an indexer.
this time round I changed styles of mounts and had to change the indexing method... so the 24 tooth gear was used to make the magnet array so we can do simple fast indexing as well using this gear versus a one of the good gears. That way if we have a brain fart and were to start the lathe with it in indexing mode no cast iron gears are destroyed
I don't usually work many consecutive days in the shop, especially moving heavy machines around because it puts a massive strain on my body and can trigger a flare up.
Today I'm just about out of gas, I can barely move or feel my fingers and there isn't an inch of my that does not ache.
But if I go to the shop I only need to make one little bracket and two custom bolts in order to be totally done with this project.
what to do, what to do... well I can slather a thick coating of lipoderm with diclofenac on my hands and help improve dexterity at least.
The diclofenac made a huge difference in the hands.
I'll just finish up... I'm working with more phenolic today, it cuts like butter I love it. So easy peasy...
I'm only debating if I should just use 1/4-20 and nuts to replace three screws that hold the outside bearing covers on to mount my bracket, or if I should machine custom stand-off bolts?
Maybe I'll compromise, use threaded rod today and make the bolts another day.
I didn't want to mess with bearing cover screws, so I've decided to make a bracket to mount to the cover standoff mounting screws instead. I'll prolly use longer screws there.
If my Fusion skills were better, I'd share my bracket design, but it is no where near prime time yet. Prolly be done a month from now.....
I didn't want to mess with bearing cover screws, so I've decided to make a bracket to mount to the cover standoff mounting screws instead. I'll prolly use longer screws there.
If my Fusion skills were better, I'd share my bracket design, but it is no where near prime time yet. Prolly be done a month from now.....
I messed up the first bracket when I made a bad cut with the portable band saw... ttoo tired. Had to start again fresh at about 6 pm. I had bored a hole on the 4 jaw chuck the first time but didn't for the second one.
anyway it is done. except I have to get wire guides with 3m adhesive on them and notch the cover to allow the wires to pass outside the cover... and I need to get an indexing pin to add to the mount... but it is mostly done and rock solid
my buddy has to work on his smoothing code because the rpms bounce a bit
