Couple of cutters I picked up

[Pete O]

(11-02-2015, 12:18 AM)Hawkeye Wrote: It sounds like you have both arbor supports. Mine only has one, but that hasn't caused any problems.

The power feed shaft on mine may have been a built up one. It looks like a splined shaft with socket-set U-joints welded to the ends. Probably 1/2" drive.

Hi Mike, yes I have the two arbor supports but only the bare shaft of the horizontal arbor was present when I bought the mill. It was set up with the vertical attachment and had been transported interstate so I was lucky there was anything there that wasn't bolted to it.
I was actually going to ask you to take some photos of the drive shaft for me, I had to make the shaft that goes through the two gearboxes on the knee, still have to make the missing universal-jointed drive shaft and repair the outer gearbox that has a cracked casing. I have a splined shaft that I cut out of a Kubota lawnmower deck driveshaft, should be perfect for the splined section but I was thinking I would have to make some universal joints, the ones on the Kubota were too large in diameter. If 1/2" drive socket-set UJs would work, that would be a much easier solution. I had thought of this but was concerned they would not handle the maximum angle required, I assume yours drives okay at the top and bottom limits of knee travel? Any chance you could take a couple of photos of the setup and post them here?

[Hawkeye]

This is the shaft on my U2. I cranked the knee all the way down for maximum angle.

   
   
   

The first picture is a bit dark inside the body of the mill, but you can just make out the splined shaft at maximum length.

[Pete O]

Thanks for posting the photos Mike. I'll have to check out some socket set UJs, might be a simple way to go, at least in the short term (which usually means long-term unless it breaks).

[Mayhem]

Pete - I am pretty sure I have a 1/2" female - female socket UJ somewhere. If I can find it, you are welcome to it. You would just need to mill a 1/2" square at the end of each shaft.

[Pete O]

(11-03-2015, 06:12 AM)Mayhem Wrote: Pete - I am pretty sure I have a 1/2" female - female socket UJ somewhere.  If I can find it, you are welcome to it.  You would just need to mill a 1/2" square at the end of each shaft.

Thanks for the offer Darren but the UJs need to have a round bore, as there is a shear pin in the shafts for over-torque protection, and I think a standard UJ would be too hard to machine. I may have to manufacture the yokes as they need to be kept as short as possible to minimise the drive angles. I'm thinking I could use one 1/2" (or even 3/4") drive UJ and split it, weld the existing yokes to each end of the splined shaft and copy their dimensions to make a pair of female-bored and cross-drilled yokes for the outer yokes.

[f350ca]

You might be surprised how machinable the U-joint would be. I recently machined down a 3/4 drive socket to make a handle for the shaper. Cut like butter with carbide.

[Pete O]

That's good to know Greg, it surprises me but then it's no secret that I'm very inexperienced with this machining thing.
One thing that concerns me about the socket-set UJs is that the cross-pins (in those that I've looked at) seem to be spaced a fair way apart longitudinally, which is how they get the maximum angle, which means that there would be a lot of wobble in the shaft. Not a problem when undoing a bolt, but this driveshaft does about 800rpm at the maximum feed rate. I think that would cause problems. I'll have a look at some tool sets and see if there are any with the cross-pins very close together, and how it affects the angle.
The UJs in the shaft on Mike's mill in the above photos appears to have the cross-pins very close together, if not on the same plane (which is ideal).

[dallen]

you need a couple of u-joints like the one in this listing at zoro

http://www.zoro.com/lovejoy-u-joint-14-i...lsrc=aw.ds

well maybe not this exact one it's 1/4", you should be able to find a site similar to this in Oz

[Pete O]

Thanks Dallen, I have looked around for stock UJs to use for this shaft but they were just too expensive in the size required. The bore needs to be 5/8", stock industrial UJs in that size (or large enough to be bored to that size) run close to $200 each, more than that from some suppliers. It was a few months back that I spent quite a few hours internet shopping and making phone calls to several different suppliers, it led me to the conclusion that I am going to have to cobble something together myself. I'd rather spend several hours (who am I kidding it will be several days) manufacturing them myself rather than spend a quarter of the cost of my mill to buy a component.
I haven't seen that list at Zoro before, cheaper than I found but even there it is $98 each in this size, which translates to about AU$130 each, plus shipping, at the current abysmal exchange rate- plenty expensive enough to encourage me to use my machinery to make my own. Reckon I need the practice anyway. I'd prefer to keep my money for things I can't make.
Of course, an ideal solution would be to find someone wrecking (or 'parting out') a mill of the same model with a good driveshaft, but I came up empty handed after a multi-nation search on that one too.

Edit: almost forgot, another problem I came across when searching industrial UJ specifications was that the maximum angle on most of them was significantly less than what I need, this shaft runs about 42degrees at each UJ when at the upper and lower limits of knee travel, it's very difficult to find a UJ that specifies more than about 30-35 degrees max angle. The Lovejoys joint in my size from Zoro specifies 25 degree max.

[RobWilson]

Just a thought if your struggling to get hold of small UJS   veichle stearing column are full of them also sliders . Good quality and easy to mod.


Rob