Todays Project - What did you do today?

[dallen]

set up and bored the recesses for the bearings in the Idler Roller I casted the other day, now to scrounge up some 2" square tubing for a frame for the belt sander that I want to put together.

   

[John S.]

Fitted a slotting head to the WM40 Bligeport, a Bligeport is a Chinese copy of the Bridgeport and in the case of the WM40 it's far bigger, beefier and heavier.

Usual problem is that one job leads on to 5 more.

To widen the ears to fit the bigger WM40 ram, 10mm has to be removed, 6mm off one side and 4mm from the other. An extended R8 arbor is needed to reach down 5".



Dummy run to test fit of the bracket and the spacers etc.



Test assembly.

Slotter lifted up, dropped on the bed and clamped in the vise. From here it's just a matter of using the 3 power feeds to slide the slotter onto the ram and bolt up.



Didn't get a picture of the sight gauge before but it was cracked, dirty and loads of crud behind it. No chance of getting a new sight level so broke the clear lens up and prized the sight out.

Cleaned it all up and with a pair of needle nosed pliers the roll over return that held the lens in was open up.

Cut a new lens on the laser cutter with reversed engraving on the rear, filled with red paint then the excess was wiped off. Lens pushed back into place and the lip peened back over.



Just got to do a couple of jobs and then it's being removed again and sent away for painting to match the rest of the machine.

[Mayhem]

Nice work there John.

[EdK]

John,

What is a slotting head? I've seen references to them but never an explanation as to what they are used for. Obviously something to do with slotting but could you please describe the function of a slotting head?

Thanks,
Ed

[John S.]

Best way to describe it is it's a vertical shaper.
Used for putting keyways in or internal splines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUE-fTxHU-c

[EdK]

(05-15-2013, 06:49 PM)John S. Wrote: Best way to describe it is it's a vertical shaper.
Used for putting keyways in or internal splines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUE-fTxHU-c

Thanks John. That sounds useful.

Ed

[stevec]

John, I guess there was no way of mounting the slotter on the rear of the "Bligeport ram ?

[Mayhem]

That is on the rear of the ram Steve. The idea being that you simply rotate the ram 180* to go from mill to slotter. Below is a photo of the ram from my Kondia (same set up as a BP) The head attaches to the Left-hand side via a knuckle that allows 360* pan and tilt. The slotter attaches to the Right-hand end.

   

That combination of mill/slotter effectively made the shaper extinct.

[stevec]

Of course! Now I see the "knuckle" on the rear of John's "Bligeport" I don't know why I thought John was removing his vert. head to put the slotter on.

Belay my previous post John, good job.

[DaveH]

Neat little puller

DaveH