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[EdK]

More tooling for the mill. These are pretty small so I will eventually get a larger pair.

Ed

   

[EdK]

Pin spanner wrench for the collet blocks and a micrometer stand. Could have used the stand yesterday trying to measure the end of the R8 collets I got. A few of them wouldn't fit into the mill.

Ed

   

[Highpower]

(04-05-2022, 08:06 PM)EdK Wrote: Pin spanner wrench for the collet blocks and a micrometer stand. Could have used the stand yesterday trying to measure the end of the R8 collets I got. A few of them wouldn't fit into the mill.

Ed

Was the collet issue due to their diameter or due to the alignment pin in the spindle being adjusted in too far?

I know the keyways in my Lyndex collets are a bit more shallow than my Enco collets so they wouldn't fit at first. Eventually I just removed the pin all together after adding the power drawbar. Not sorry.

[EdK]

(04-06-2022, 12:54 PM)Highpower Wrote:

(04-05-2022, 08:06 PM)EdK Wrote: Pin spanner wrench for the collet blocks and a micrometer stand. Could have used the stand yesterday trying to measure the end of the R8 collets I got. A few of them wouldn't fit into the mill.

Ed

Was the collet issue due to their diameter or due to the alignment pin in the spindle being adjusted in too far?  

I know the keyways in my Lyndex collets are a bit more shallow than my Enco collets so they wouldn't fit at first. Eventually I just removed the pin all together after adding the power drawbar. Not sorry.  

The pin wasn't causing the problem. The collets would go in until the top end were the thread is tries to engage the machined surface for that section of the collet. They wouldn't go in any further. I did measure them the best I could and they were out of spec by a few tenths. Now that I have the micrometer stand I'm going to remeasure them to make sure.

Ed

[EdK]

Boring head arrived. Shars via ebay. They call it their "High Precision 2" Boring Head 0.001 Radius W/Certificate + R8 Shank".

Ed

   

[vtsteam]

Ed, just a (I hope) helpful note about those, because just this week I took mine out for the first time (having bought it a year ago) from the brand new case to use it for boring a 4" hole. Mine is a 3" version and not Shars branded, but probably identical to yours, re-branded.

No problem I thought ,just use the shortest included boring bar in the horizontal position vs the vertical position to make the 4 inch cut. It was only about 1-1/2" deep in aluminum.

Nope. Though ten (!) carbide tipped boring bars were included of different sizes, all were right hand cutting. Fine for vertical boring mount, but not suitable mounted in the horizontal position. Not a single left handed bar was part of the kit.

Well, okay, I thought, just run the mill in reverse. Well, nope again. Y'see these aren't true R8 boring heads. They are generic boring heads, with a screw thread into an R8 taper adapter. That way the mfr can mount the same boring head to a number of different taper styles. Convenient for them, but of course now you can't run your adapted R8 boring head in reverse, because it will just unscrew.

So, Ed, you'll need to find left handed boring bars if you want to cut anything over 2". For mine that means 3/4" ground shank boring head bars -- good luck finding those. Of course I can make some, But now I'm making tools when I already spent a fair amount of money for a "purchased" solution. The boring head didn't turn out to be quite the boon to my shop I thought it would be.

I had a hole to cut. What did I do? Pulled out a cheap fly cutter, stuck a 1/4" lathe bit in it and quickly bored the hole, wondering why I had thought I needed a boring head in the first place.

The head was replaced in its aluminum case with its 10 right hand cutters and put back on the shelf unused.

[Highpower]

There are a couple of other options I have seen used in the past.

* Red Loctite on the threads of the arbor/boring head and drilled / pins added to secure the head to the arbor.
* Welding the arbor to the head.
* Installing a RH boring bar upside down in the horizontal bore, and boring from the bottom of the hole UP through the bore. That requires a thru-bore of course (no blind holes) and mounting the work up on parallels to have clearance below the work for adjusting the boring head.

Not ideal solutions but if it works...

One thing I have learned is that a diamond grinding wheel is my friend when it comes to getting a sharp cutting edge on those import brazed carbide cutting tools for use in smaller machines (lathe AND mill).

[EdK]

(04-09-2022, 09:56 AM)Highpower Wrote: a diamond grinding wheel is my friend when it comes to getting a sharp cutting edge on those import brazed carbide cutting tools

What diamond grinding wheel do you have?

Ed

[TomG]

Not sure how hard the steel is, but maybe it could be pinned.

Tom

[EdK]

(04-09-2022, 10:08 AM)TomG Wrote: Not sure how hard the steel is, but maybe it could be pinned.

Tom

I was thinking of drilling it at the seam and pinning it with a threaded pin so it could be pulled out if needed. Then the two could be separated if needed.

Ed