01-15-2018, 08:37 PM
This is an update, well actually a downdate since nothing has happened in the shop since late December. But maybe that's a good thing because the next grinder part to be made is slightly challenging for my stone-age-capable machinery and has made me think about upgrading the vertical mill to around the nineteen eighties or so, LOL. The part looks like this:
Simple enough, right - rotary table job ? But for a 73 year old, 5' 5", 128 pound man with one lung, lifting a thirty pound vise off the table to install the fifty pound rotary table is something that I choose to avoid when possible. My normal procedure is to calculate X, Y coordinates from the bolt circle dimensions then use the dials on the crank wheels of the mill to position the table.
But there is a reasonable possibility of messing up the hole pattern (the part is made from a big chunk of Delrin and I only have one piece) because of this manual technique. It's happened before even though I've been using only dials for a l-o-n-g time. I'm probably exaggerating the possibility of messing up the part, ha-ha-ha, because I've convinced myself that it's time to install a DRO, especially since the cost of these things has dropped dramatically !
I've looked around for a while and haven't found a DRO system with the appropriate scales to fit my 8 x 30 mill. Of course the immediate reaction is to order the scales oversize and whack them off as desired. But everyone I've talked to assured me that it's not a good idea. I've cut a moderate amount of glass including many cylindrical shapes that are more challenging than a flat surface so I wondered if the advice wasn't overly conservative.
I looked on the internet and found several videos of guys who also thought that this operation should be reasonable. S-o-o-o- I'm going to try it and I'll document the process in case there is interest, even if failure makes me tuck my tail between my legs, ha-ha-ha
Simple enough, right - rotary table job ? But for a 73 year old, 5' 5", 128 pound man with one lung, lifting a thirty pound vise off the table to install the fifty pound rotary table is something that I choose to avoid when possible. My normal procedure is to calculate X, Y coordinates from the bolt circle dimensions then use the dials on the crank wheels of the mill to position the table.
But there is a reasonable possibility of messing up the hole pattern (the part is made from a big chunk of Delrin and I only have one piece) because of this manual technique. It's happened before even though I've been using only dials for a l-o-n-g time. I'm probably exaggerating the possibility of messing up the part, ha-ha-ha, because I've convinced myself that it's time to install a DRO, especially since the cost of these things has dropped dramatically !
I've looked around for a while and haven't found a DRO system with the appropriate scales to fit my 8 x 30 mill. Of course the immediate reaction is to order the scales oversize and whack them off as desired. But everyone I've talked to assured me that it's not a good idea. I've cut a moderate amount of glass including many cylindrical shapes that are more challenging than a flat surface so I wondered if the advice wasn't overly conservative.
I looked on the internet and found several videos of guys who also thought that this operation should be reasonable. S-o-o-o- I'm going to try it and I'll document the process in case there is interest, even if failure makes me tuck my tail between my legs, ha-ha-ha