What's on there now? You gunna be another member making a post to retrofit an AXA or BXA Tool Post? Need some tips?
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Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Calgary Area Meetup is set for Saturday July 12th at 10am. The signup thread is here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!
Craig's Craftex CX706 Comes Clean
- Thread starter trlvn
- Start date
What's on there now? You gunna be another member making a post to retrofit an AXA or BXA Tool Post? Need some tips?
trlvn
Ultra Member
What did you get for gear oil? Are there actually yellow-metal gears in the headstock?Made a big mess of my 706 today, decided to totally drain the gearbox oil, that means taking off the front panel as the drain plug is 3/4"above the bottom. A lot of paper towels later to soak up the oil that i didn't catch and i got to examine the gear box internals. Lots of black gunk in the bottom. I may put in a lower drain hole for the future. The apron drain is on the bottom so no issue there except getting small dish to catch the oil. Plan on picking up a QCTP in the near future.
From the earlier discussion on gear oil, I went into Commercial Oil in Hamilton last week and got 4 litres of Lubriko-Gear EP 100 in preparation to change the oil on mine:
$28 all in. But the guy had me quite confused. I asked about Mobilgear 627 and he talked non-stop for a good 10 minutes about fully synthetic and this and that. To me, this is a pretty low-stress environment for gear oil. As long as it isn't going to attack the metal in my gears, I would think that almost any oil would do a decent job. The web page for this oil says "non-corrosive to steel, brass, bronze and other common bearing materials". A fully synthetic oil was going to be 4X the price!
Incidentally, as I was about the leave I noticed that they have 4L jugs of cutting and tapping fluid. The guy said they are about $30. They also had jugs that included "Way" in the name. I didn't ask (because I was afraid of another 10 minute spiel!) but I'm guessing this might be way oil. And I already have a lifetime supply of way oil.
Craig
Gears are shiny silver color, didn't see any sign of brass gears or bearing bronze bushings. Without tearing it apart i couldn't tell what was used for bearings. I have many different oils on the farm, will likely go with Precision Matthews 75w80 recommendation. The gears could use a deburring, in fact a lot of parts on these machines need a going over to smooth things up.
trlvn
Ultra Member
@gmihovics was kind enough to help me out with a couple more 3D-printed parts. I was looking for something to help organize the drill chucks and centres for the lathe. I'd found a holder on Thingiverse that was almost right except that it didn't actually have a MT2 tapered hole. @gmihovics modified the design and produced the following for me:
I'd also found a design for a holder so you don't have to have 3 hands when measuring an awkward part with a micrometer. You can just barely make out that there is a screw at the back that clamps the micrometer in the holder. Works well for the style of micrometer shown but wouldn't be able to clamp on a classic Starrett or Moore and Wright mic that has a cast metal frame. The picture also shows a couple of the MT2 holders before they were mounted on the wall.
Many thanks to @gmihovics. It was great to meet him briefly today.
Craig
I'd also found a design for a holder so you don't have to have 3 hands when measuring an awkward part with a micrometer. You can just barely make out that there is a screw at the back that clamps the micrometer in the holder. Works well for the style of micrometer shown but wouldn't be able to clamp on a classic Starrett or Moore and Wright mic that has a cast metal frame. The picture also shows a couple of the MT2 holders before they were mounted on the wall.
Many thanks to @gmihovics. It was great to meet him briefly today.
Craig
trlvn
Ultra Member
As a matter of fact, the tools do stick. If I just pull up, it is not easy to dislodge them. Weirdly, I find that if I press up on the portion sticking out the bottom, the tool comes out pretty easily.
@gmihovics would there be any problem with wiping a bit of oil in the holders? Oil won't dissolve this material, right?
Craig
gmihovics
Garrett
That's a good question actually, I have never thought about that. Oil shouldn't be a problem along as long as it doesn't have any detergents in it I would think.
gmihovics
Garrett
I'll post the stl file today and then post the link here in the thread. I'll take a stab at an MT3 design really quickly too.
I just used 15%, I did increase the perimeters to 4 though. it's also just printed in PLA.
Prolly the same reason you can push screw driver bits out of their plastic holder but it's harder than a frozen tree stump to pull them out. Just guessing it's all in the way you deform the holder when you hold it.....???
DPittman
Ultra Member
Just remember to ipe off oil residues from Mt taper before using.
Canadium
Ian
Can't help wondering if internal ridges were in the design maybe that would reduce the sticking by reducing the surface area in contact? A design improvement?
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trlvn
Ultra Member
I haven't looked at them closely but there are a bunch of MT3 designs on Thingiverse for free:
Search Thingiverse - Thingiverse
Search and download free 3D printable objects for your projects, from prototypes to home improvements.
www.thingiverse.com
Craig
gmihovics
Garrett
ok, here are the STL and STEP files for MT2 and MT3 holders.
thank you to @trlvn for letting me butcher his photos
MT2 and MT3 Tool Holders by gmihovics | Download free STL model | Printables.com
Download 3D printable STL models
www.printables.com
thank you to @trlvn for letting me butcher his photos
trlvn
Ultra Member
So, I couldn't leave 'well enough alone'! The 3D printed indicator holders worked OK-ish. Bu I wanted to check the run out on the perimeter of my 3-jaw chuck and found that I could get the tip of the indicator far enough away from the center line to get on the chuck. After a little head scratching, it came to me that basically a "T" shaped holder in a spare quick change tool holder would let me position the indicator pretty much where I wanted. With a 0.5 inch thickness, it would fit in the holder and be thick enough for the 3/8" stem of a standard indicator. I found I'm lacking 1/2 inch aluminum, which was my first choice, but then remembered that I have a box of 'plastic' cutoffs from an auction a few years ago.
This is what I threw together:
I think the material is a nylon (?). It is aggravating to work with. It cuts not that badly but the swarf is partially melted and forms large burrs on the edge of the piece. Same problem whether cutting on the table saw, band saw or milling machine. Easy enough to remove with a razor knife but it makes it hard to see what you're doing while working.
The following is a super-brief video of it in action:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AgYZqfsw641WgSpFhxsER6Csxh-j?e=2787JG
Craig
(Could we allow embedding videos from Microsoft OneDrive?)
This is what I threw together:
I think the material is a nylon (?). It is aggravating to work with. It cuts not that badly but the swarf is partially melted and forms large burrs on the edge of the piece. Same problem whether cutting on the table saw, band saw or milling machine. Easy enough to remove with a razor knife but it makes it hard to see what you're doing while working.
The following is a super-brief video of it in action:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AgYZqfsw641WgSpFhxsER6Csxh-j?e=2787JG
Craig
(Could we allow embedding videos from Microsoft OneDrive?)
trlvn
Ultra Member
Intensemonerider
Member
Did you and another person lift it into place on the bench?Some of you may remember that I started searching seriously for a new lathe in the 10-11" swing range a couple of months ago:
10-11 inch lathes -- Precision Matthews, Modern Tool
Hi: I'm edging toward upgrading from my tiny, beat-up Atlas 618 lathe and I thought I'd ask for input about new lathes. Whatever I choose has to go down the basement stairs, including a 90 degree corner, and into the available space which is ideally 51 inches or maximally about 60 inches...canadianhobbymetalworkers.com
I'm happy to report that my new Craftex CX706 10 X 22 lathe arrived safely this week. At Busybee in Mississauga, they forklifted it into the van I'd rented. My son and I slide it down some 2X6's into the garage. They say the gross weight is 160 kg (352 pounds) but it sure felt like more. In the garaage, I opened up the crate and pulled out the parts that could be carried separately--2 chucks, face plate, tailstock, tools, etc.
I planned to use a 2-wheel cart to move the machine to the basement. In hindsight, renting a proper appliance dolly would have made it slightly easier. I decided to leave the machine bolted to the base of the crate for the move since it was otherwise going to be very difficult to strap it to the cart. In any event, my son, my daughter and I got it down the stairs (including a right-angle turn) and into the basement. Only my son got his fingers pinched when we lifted it off the crate base and onto the bench*.
Not that I also took the backsplash and gear train covers off for the move. The gear train cover is just held in place by a couple of small studs--no where near strong enough to be a lifting point. I was concerned the backsplash was going to make it more difficult to maneuver down the stairs and again it is not strong enough to be a lifting point.
I've spent a fair bit of time cleaning and lubing my new toys. Disassembled both chucks; the 4-jaw had a large metal chip fouling one of the screws. In the picture below, you can see some of the grit and dirty oil that was on the machine. I disassembled, cleaned and lubed both the compound and the cross slide. After adjusting the gibs, I think the operation is pretty smooth.
I wanted to take the gears off the banjo to clean and lube but I've put that off for now. There was a Blondihacks video where she noted that the gears on her Precision Matthews lathe were and extremely tight to the studs to begin with. I believe she used a reamer to ensure the hole in each gear was a good fit. That would require a 14mm reamer (ideally spiral) which I don't have. May need to buy one.
I'm also debating about changing the oil in the headstock and apron. Now or wait until I've used it for a few months?
The next step is to retrieve the QCTP I ordered. I had it delivered to a service just across the border in New York. This will be my first crossing since the pandemic started. Fingers crossed that it goes OK. BTW, I'm 90% certain that I'll have to modify the compound slightly to fit the QCTP. The tool post that comes with it sits on a boss that sticks up too high. Should be no big deal to mill it down.
I also want to try taking some measurements. I've ordered a test bar from India and the tracking says it will be here in 3 days.
Or course, I've played with the controls a bit. All the basic functions seem to work OK. The two knobs on the front (left-right travel and A-B-C feed speeds) don't give good feedback that they're engaged. Also, the lever is quite stiff going from longitudinal to crossfeed modes. I know you don't want to do by accident but it seems pretty sticky.
Craig
* No fingers were permanently harmed in the moving of the lathe.