It was in July this year that I installed the scale on X axis and that was many months after I purchased the sets of scales.  I've been thinking about how to mount the scale on Z axis without drilling and tapping on any part of the mill.  This is mainly due to my lack of confident in accomplishing what many think as an easy task.

I ran across a YouTube video posted by rjkflyer sometime ago and decided to roughly follow what he did to his Wabeco F1200 mill.  His video can be found here: http://youtu.be/2z_xZFiNa14.

First order of the day is to find a way to mount the base of the scale.  This one is simple, I merely make a piece of 5mm thick aluminium plate with 2 clearance holes for the M4 screws to mount the plate on and a M4 hole to hold the scale.

The simplest part to make.

The challenge I faced when finding a way to attached the reading head to the spindle saddle is the availability of suitable brackets.   I contemplated buying a sheet metal bending brake to make my own but there are none available locally that is small enough for my already congested shop.  Harbor Freight in US sells an 8" version which is what I need at USD199.  But the shipping cost too much as the bending brake is rather heavy.   In the end, I settle on fabricating my own from a piece of aluminium. 

The closest aluminium plate I can find in my box is this 13mm piece.  It is too small to clamp on the bandsaw to cut it to near required size.  A long piece of square stock and the machinist jack help were employed to hold it properly during sawing.

Facing the plate to required thickness of 10mm.  I've been looking for opportunity to use the facemill.  Since I've quite some meat to remove after clean up the first side, I put all all the 4 inserts to see if it works for me in this configuration.

Sad to say it didn't.  The surface finish sucks!  I tried different speed, feed, and used WD40 as lubrication.  Nothing works.  1 piece of insert came off at a time and rather sad to say that I'm back to 1 insert on it.

The DOC tried were 0.1mm, 0.2mm, and 0.25mm.  The mill has an MT2 spindle bore.  If anyone has success in using this with all 4 inserts on , let me know please.

This is from using 3 inserts.  The surface is not even.

This is from using 2 inserts. Almost the same as when I was using 3 inserts.

Back to 1 insert.  Better.  With WD40 and at faster speed, I achieved good finishes than what you see here.

Took me a long time to get to the dimension I want.

Milling off the area that the reading head will be mounted on to.  This is about 2mm thick, just before the last pass to bring it down to 1.5mm (so that I can reuse the M3 screws that came with the scales).

This was the scary moment.  I was left with a couple of hair before hitting the vise jaws.

The basic shape done.  Time for mounting holes.

But before that, I did a dry fitting to also mark the mounting holes for the reading head (the black box with the wire sticking out of).

The 2 M4 holes from factory.  Thanks to emcomachineTools.co.uk, I found all the mounting holes dimensions and distance.

Running an indicator along the edge of the scale.  

Took me a while to get it to within 0.02mm.  The edge of the reading head was then marked on the bracket.  The M4 holes on the underside of the reading head is 20mm away for its edge.

Drilling the mounting holes.

Perfect fit again!

Done!  It works beautifully!  No binding along the entire length of travel.

Once I finished up with Y axis, I'll think of how I should mount the 3 DROs on the mill.

At least something being accomplished today.  Have not been productive in the shop for many months.  I'll get on with Y axis after thinking through how I should mount it.

It started with me checking out Graham's mod on installing the precision leadscrew on his Sherline that I ran across his other work in acrylics.  He has a done tremendous work on illuminated acrylic plates with logos and lithophanes.  I was so captivated by his work that I promised myself that I will give them a shot.

To see how a beautifully made lithophane looks like, visit www.ghqp.com.au and select Lithophanes from Photo Gallery.

Ok.  Now onto my version.  I've this favorite photograph of my elder girl, Alicia, taken by her teacher when she was in Primary 1.  I love the pic so much that I want this to be made into a Lithophane.  It didn't turn out much like what was shown on Graham's site but hey, this is my first attempt.  It can only get better with my next right?  I sincerely hope so.

Enough of talking, onto the pics we go...

The pic was scaled to 75mm x 100mm as I do not want to spend too much time on setting up the workpiece on the mill.

After importing the pic into BobArt, the depth was set to max of 1.5mm leaving the resolution default.   2 sets of Slice Planar were selected, first with a 6mm ballnose and the second, 3mm ballnose.  The 6mm was to take out as much material as possible, leaving the 3mm for the details.

For the 6mm ballnose endmill, the stepover was set as 1mm.  For the finishing, I went with 0.5mm.

On hindsight, I should have go with a stepover value of 0.15mm for the smaller endmill, like what Graham did.  This should bring out more details, though I'm not very sure if that's the problem.  Maybe the picture size is a little too small...  If you have the answer(s) for me, please leave a comment.  Thank you.

I've 3 pieces of this Opal coloured acrylic, courtesy of Terence.  Thanks buddy!  As I reached home rather late this evening, I didn't want to spend too much time  thinking of how I should setup the work.  From the pic, you can see the lazy man way.  I did probe various spot of the workpiece using fingers; no popping or bending of the workpiece felt.

To zero the Z axis, I use the little 10-20-40 block I bought from Arc Euro Trade as the base for the tool to contact against.  The block measures 10.7mm.

Some details showing.

Her face coming through...

First pass done.  Though there were ridges everywhere, I kinda like the effect...

More obvious looking from a distance.  Look at the "snow" next to the mill!  Messy...

Work continued after tool change.  I almost screw up here.  I forgot to touch off  after tool change and hit the stop button instead of feed hold!  After touching off, I tried resuming the job by clicking on Cycle Start.  The spindle plunge straight down into the work!  Thank God it was at the waste area that will be cut off later.

After bringing the spindle back to zero on all axes, I kept my fingers crossed while hitting the Run From Here button.  Though reading so much of complain on this function, I encounter no problem with it.

More details showing with the 3mm ballnose endmill.

Starting to take shape.

Just look at how close I am to the end of Z axis.  I'll have to work out a jig if this is going to be something I want to do for longer term.

End of cut.  The details on her face didn't come through very well.  The mozzaic wall that I intentionally kept in the pic wasn't presented nicely too.  Sigh... Need more information on how to do a proper Litho.  Anyone can lend me a helping hand?

With my first Litho done, I tried placing it against light source to see if I can have it miraculously appear as those I saw on Graham's website.  Said to say nothing close...  Being known to have thick skin, I'll still show them here for your comments or criticism.

From the use of different light source and intensity, I found that the brighter the light source, the more obvious the mistake(s) made on the Litho.

To bring out more details and get rid of the cut lines, I'll be experimenting with different depth, sizes of ballnose end mill, and stepovers.  If there is anyone reading this with experience in making Litho, I would love to hear from you.  You'll likely help me "stepover" all the pain in testing with different settings.  This piece took me almost 2 hours to complete.  This is excluding time taken in generating the toolpaths, setting up etc.

The Sherline spindle runs at max of 2800 rpm.  If this is too slow, I've the 10k pulley set that I can install.  Also, I've the Proxxon IB/E spindle that I can put on the mill for up to 30k rpm cut, but that will have to wait till I fabricate the mount to adapt it to the mill.

Ok, hitting midnight soon.  I've to get up early tomorrow to prepare for church.  Till the next session, be blessed!

It was a fun morning in the shop today with Terence coming by to do some work together.  We have been discussing on doing some projects together and wanted to start with the Touch Probe for the CNC mill he drawn up.  As he has no experience in turning (not after leaving Secondary School many many years ago), we settled for the Turner's Cube as the starting project.

This is how a completed Turner's Cube looks like, taken from Bob Warfield's CNC Cookbook:

It is a simple beginning project, I read online, for most people.  There are many videos and pictures on the net showing different versions being made, not just on the lathe, but also on the mill.  This project will be a good one for Terence to gain some hands on with the lathe and for me to learn the entire process from planning to completion and to build up the required confidence.

We started with a square bar of 1" aluminium I've in the box.  To keep things simple, a smaller cube was agreed upon.  Some time was spent facing the sides to bring the cube down to 24.5mm.  Keying that in the GWizard Turner's Cube calculator, the other dimensions were given.

We didn't get to finish the project in one session as I ran out of shop time (meeting my parents to visit my grandmother).  Hope to finish it up in our next session.

Not many pics this session.  We were chatting away while I show the big guy some basic lathe work, which is all that I know... We hope to learn together, motivating and teaching each other up the learning curve of machining.

The 1" square aluminium bar stock of unknown grade being cut in the bandsaw.  It was a quick cut with feed set at 'M'.

The workpiece was then cleaned up in the lathe using the automatic 4 jaw chuck.  I really love this Rohm chuck - very good in precision despite being a scroll chuck.

Couple of sides done.

All sides done and ready for the next stage.

The first drill called for in the GWizard Calculator is a 3.5mm drill.  Terence suggested drilling each side till half the depth so that if the cube is not in alignment with the centre line during chucking, we'll still have the holes in the middle of each face.  It is a very good idea and makes lots of sense!  I would have drill all the way through on 3 sides to save time.  But the result proved the added step to be unnecessary as all the halves lines up very nicely with each other!  I was surprise with the result, adding to my confident with the lathe and the Rohm chuck.

This was where we stopped.  A total of slightly less than 4 hours was spent in the shop, including chit chatting, introducing the lathe and parts, deciding if the mill or the lathe should be used for the ops, and the actual work. 

Before Terence left, I took the opportunity to show off how deep the Wabeco F1200 can cut in aluminium in one pass.  But being a "chicken", I dialed in only slightly more than 4mm depth and did the cut with a 10mm HSS endmill.  Some chatter was felt (and heard) when I was feeding slowing (chicken enough?).  As I increase the feed with the handwheel, I realised that the mill can in fact be used more aggressively given its rigidity.  I read from Wabeco's instruction manual that it can take, without any problem, cuts up to 10mm deep in steel with a 10mm endmill.  Wow....  But I wonder if that is possible with my MT2 spindle bore.  On hindsight, I should have pay for the ISO30 tool holding option, which is another EUR 158.82...

A video of the cut, taken by Terence.

As I'm to make 50 pieces of the stainless steel bushing for my dad, I'm thinking of a way to make turning to a specific length easier and more repeatable.  The carriage stop has been on my To-Do list for a long time.  But I just couldn't find a plan online that can be used on my Proxxon PD400.  The Fixed Steady I've gave me an idea though - a simple piece that clamps onto the ways of the lathe to act as a stop.

I measured the distance between the ways and the dimensions at the base of the Fixed Steady to come out with a simple diagram.

A pieces of square aluminium bar stock was used.  All faces were cleaned up and milled square.

All squared up and ready.

Milling a section 3.5mm deep.

The other end that will sit on the prism shaped way.

The assembly.  As mentioned above, the clamping plate is from the Fixed Steady.

Placed on the way to see if it holds out.

Then I realised one thing; most of the job will be done close to the chuck.  

It is, in actual fact.  I'm not able to tighten the cap screw with the allen key in this position. 

Switching to a hex head solved the problem.  Tightening is also easier with a wrench.

I carried on working on the stainless steel bushing with the stop in place.  It works rather well till a long string of swarf went in between the stop and the carriage.  This got me thinking of those pics of carriage stop I saw online.  The rod that is used on most for adjustment may be the solution to my problem since contact area is smaller.

Back to work on the mill drilling and tapping the stop.  This is what I got:

After making 2 more pieces of the bushing, I started wondering how have I been surviving without the carriage stop...  It is a simple to make, yet effective.  It makes working on the lathe so much simpler.  If I'm able to make one that will trigger the autofeed to stop, it will be even better.  The plan posted on Tools And Mods by Ralph Patterson looks simple to implement.  The plan is available for download here.  I'll study the plan to see if its simple enough for newbies like me.

Time to stop.  Now feeling that good.  The swell on my cheek doesn't seem to go away.  The stitched wound on my gum feels sore.  Guess I should wash up, make something to eat, take the many pills given to me, and go to bed.  I've a meeting to attend at 11am tomorrow.  Fixed that up last Friday.  Will continue my medical leave after tomorrow.

Couple of posts I did using the iPhone app from Weebly didn't appear.  Rather frustrating with the problematic app.  This makes Blogger more appealing, despite not having my own domain name.

Anyway, I received an assignment from my father, who is in the business of manufacturing syrups for making drinks among others.  One of his distribution channel is to coffeeshops and food courts where the company also supplies dispensing machines that keep the pre-mixed drinks chilled.  The assignment is to make several pieces of bushing for the dispensers in 304 stainless.

The job was previously done by the machine shop next to his SG office.  Due to the small quantity per order (50 each batch), the machine shop is rather reluctant to continue with the work.

I was presented a sample, done by the machine shop, and the original that came with the machine.  The cut out, according to my dad, is not critical.

You can see how badly worn is the used piece.

I started off by making a piece in aluminium to make sure that what I'm producing can be used.

The section measuring 16mm in length was turned down to 8.41mm in diameter.

The insert you see on the tool holder is HSS, bought from AR Warner.

It was then drilled with a 5.5mm drill.

and countersunk with a zero flute countersink from Axminster UK.

Parting off to leave a 1.37mm base.

The left is the piece I did in aluminium.  Dad tested it on and I was told that it fits. 

Made a trip to King George's Road to get 1.3 meter worth of 304 stainless steel.  The shop is ran by nice people who cut it up into 4 pieces for me.

When through the same process and produced the first piece.  One down, 49 more to go...