mini mill

[dallen]

the second piece of machinery that I purchased was a mini mill, and as the great tool god in the sky would have it I got one that was in pretty sad shape I later came to find out. what I mean is that the Y axis was in pretty sad shape this is one of the things that I found out only after getting my larger mill, (wish it was a bridgeport but its not) but it works for me.

Anyway today in a moment of madness I decided to fix this problem and now the mill is in parts laying in several different places. But the main pieces that I was concerned with this morning are on its big brother both mills came from Wholesale Tool my larger one is a ZX45.

heres a shot of what I am working on at the moment.

   

the problem was that when I would adjust the gib on the saddle for the Y axis with it completely one direction when I tried to move the saddle it was it would be either way to tight or too loose.

So I aligned the base on the mill table and indicated it off the back end of the dovetail on the base then I checked the Y axis and found that it was pretty close to being parallel but was running off to one side. this is where broke out the dovetail cutter and re cut the slide.

have to check a couple more things like is the X Axis going to be square now, will find out about that one in the morning. also will the column stand up straight as I also recut that area as it looked like it had been machined with aa angle grinder.

hopefully more photos tomorrwo

DA

[Highpower]

I feel your pain DA. Unfortunately that is part of the price of our import machines. If they were perfect, then we wouldn't be able to afford to buy them anyway.

I fought a similar problem with the cross slide on my lathe for 10 years. I finally got up the nerve to try hand scraping the dovetails to take off the high spots. It's nice to have the smooth full range motion now that it should have had when it was new.

But I've learned that it comes with the territory, and it is to be expected. But if I didn't have my import machines, I wouldn't have any at all - and that wouldn't be any fun at all, now would it?

So posting fixes like you are doing, serve to help others that might be in the same situation. Thanks for that.

Willie

[DaveH]

(07-08-2012, 07:33 AM)Highpower Wrote: So posting fixes like you are doing, serve to help others that might be in the same situation. Thanks for that.
Willie

DaveH

[ETC57]

(07-08-2012, 11:12 AM)DaveH Wrote:

(07-08-2012, 07:33 AM)Highpower Wrote: So posting fixes like you are doing, serve to help others that might be in the same situation. Thanks for that.
Willie

DaveH

Jerry.

[henryarnold]

If you find that you need parts, Little Machine Shop has all of the parts for the Mini Mill.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/product...1311958022

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/product...category=6

[dallen]

(07-08-2012, 12:23 PM)henryarnold Wrote: If you find that you need parts, Little Machine Shop has all of the parts for the Mini Mill.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/product...1311958022

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/product...category=6

some of the parts at Little Machine Shop will fit my mill but parts aren't the problem. Problem lies in the machine work that was done in china I have the base and saddle done now and am fixing to start on the dovetail on the column to make sure that it is parallel and smooth, most of the dovetails look like they had been cut with a chisel, well not quite that bad.

this is one of those projects that has been pushed to the side for a couple of years now, mainly because I was reluctant to do it. but now that I am into it I figure might as well go for the full meal deal and do all of em.

also found that the surface that fits against the column where it pivots hasn't even been machined, so now I get to figure out how to make a very large circular cut without having to make a bunch of passes with a small cutter Guess I could use the boring head set it up to cut the full circle then I would only have to move about a half inch to cut the full surface, will have to see.

Heres a photo of the part that mounts the column to the base, as you can see from the photo they didn't even do a face cut on the part. the surface that mounts to the base was machined not sure yet how square.

   

[Mayhem]

(07-08-2012, 01:20 PM)dallen Wrote: ...Problem lies in the machine work that was done in china I have the base and saddle done now and am fixing to start on the dovetail on the column to make sure that it is parallel and smooth, most of the dovetails look like they had been cut with a chisel, well not quite that bad...

My lathe is over 100 years old and some of the work was done with a hammer and chisel. Not too bad on the whole and the main problem I have is lack of speed but a bearing upgrade is more than I wish to consider at this point in time.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on this rebuild/fix/upgrade. Keep up the good work!

[dallen]

(07-09-2012, 04:28 AM)Mayhem Wrote:

(07-08-2012, 01:20 PM)dallen Wrote: ...Problem lies in the machine work that was done in china I have the base and saddle done now and am fixing to start on the dovetail on the column to make sure that it is parallel and smooth, most of the dovetails look like they had been cut with a chisel, well not quite that bad...

My lathe is over 100 years old and some of the work was done with a hammer and chisel. Not too bad on the whole and the main problem I have is lack of speed but a bearing upgrade is more than I wish to consider at this point in time.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on this rebuild/fix/upgrade. Keep up the good work!

I have some more photos to post but first need to resize them and knock that bolt of of the part in the last photo,

thanks for the words of encouragement.

DA

[dallen]

Sorry been trying to take care of some other things that have cropped up, but I have still been working on and taking pictures of the mini mill.

also have a couple of videos if I can figure out how to post em.

here is a shot of the saddle that the head bolts on which came off the column.

you will notice that I have put a bunch of white arrows on the photo these show the spots that are rubbing on the column.

   

[dallen]

heres a link to some video that I put together of my work on the column on my mini mill.