Frankenmill: Bridgeport J head onto Victoria U2

[Pete O]

I managed to get a couple of hours on this the other day but I've been too busy to post. I had been at a bit of a loss as to how to measure the lateral alignment of the head, i.e. in the left/right plane as opposed to 'tilt' and 'nod', and how to correct any misalignment. I came up with a way of measuring it; extended the quill with the head tilted to one side, and swept the front of the quill with an indicator mounted to the table:
   
Then tilted the head to the other side and moved the table across to sweep the quill again
   
I forget what the difference was; from memory it was about .006". I added shims to one side in addition to the shims I'd already put in the bottom, to get the reading zeroed in both axes.

I dismantled the nosepiece and front plate, then shimmed the front plate on the mag chuck of the surface grinder to the same tilt in both planes. That took a bit of doing, I ended up clamping an indicator vertically on the grinder head and running it around the plate to get the correct distance between the four corners, then started grinding away. The fresh grind marched diagonally across the surface.
   

To the left of the plate, on the mag chuck in the above photo, you can see the base of the wheel dresser. Because I had a fair bit of material to remove (in surface grinder terms) I mounted it on the mag chuck next to the workpiece, so I could dress the wheel part-way through the job without disturbing the setup; just lift the spindle, pull out the table stop and move the dresser over to do it's thing, then move the dresser out of the way, lower the spindle and keep grinding.

I reassembled the parts, trammed the tilt and took the nod and lateral measurements again. The nod has gone from .004 forward, to .0008 backward; with the twist, I can't recall where it started but I ended up with .0015" over the width of the sweep which was about 12".

I made a couple of spacers for the long bolts whilst they were out. I think I'll keep an eye out for some capscrews to replace them with.
   

I was hoping to get it wired up but I don't have any suitable cable and the electrical supplier was closed for the Easter break.
Also I'm tossing up where to mount the VFD, I'm open to suggestions on this but I'm thinking I'll mount it on the wall behind the machine and make a small control panel to go on the opposite side to the DRO.