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The Wabeco Mill Has Arrived!!!

8/7/2012

8 Comments

 
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It had been an exciting day.  I was printing the Z endstop holder clamp to replace the one broken when the delivery man knocked on the door.  He wanted me to go down to his truck with him to inspect the goods before uncrating.  With the crate, the pallet weighs 111 kg.  So I think they were trying to remove some weight before moving the machine up to my unit which is on the 13th floor.

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I was greeted with this and wondered what is there to inspect.  Maybe to see if any nails fell off during shipment?  I believe they want me to be present during the process of uncrating.

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And so the process started...

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Removing the top revealed the mill sealed in a foil like bag.

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The 2 delivery guy working to remove the side panels of the crate while the driver giving his comments throughout the process...

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The retired Commando (I was told) making a mistake by cutting the sealed bag.  The mill, with the sealed bag, was bolted to the base of the crate.  No big deal actually but comments from the driver continued... interest guy, the driver...

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The gem within...

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With the sides all taken off, it was time to carry the machine down to the trolley.

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Mill on the move.

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Right through the front door.  Welcome welcome!

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This was the tough part.  With the base of the crate gone, I only allow them to carry the mill from its base.  Due to its weight, they were trying to lift it up using the table, spindle, and even the Y axis handwheel.  This made the task harder for them due also to the confined space in the shop.

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But they still made it though I hawked over them to make sure they don't lift the mill on those seemingly convenient parts.

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Shift the mill into position.

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The table comes 3 slots of 12mm.  It is rather big, compared with my sherlines'.  A little WD40 revealed what seems to be ground surface beneath the dried grease.

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The graduation marking showing the angle of the spindle for angled cuts.

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The drill press type lever (what's the actual name?).  The Z axis can be moved using this (55mm stroke) or the fine feed handwheel.

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The controls.  I like the big E-stop button.  Speed of the spindle can be controlled via the potientiometer with graduations from 0 - 100, corresponding to 0 - 3000 rpm.

The fine feed handwheel can be seen at the back, next to the 2-pin plug.

The good folks at Metalworkingfun suggested that I should disassemble the mill to clean out the dried grease before use.  But the axes moved so smoothly and there is a test report enclosed with the manual of the adjustments and test cuts done on this mill with the measurements of accuracy shown.  That really set me thinking if I should do that.  I had the experience of stripping and assembling the Sherlines and Proxxon before use but I don't have the confident of putting this mill back to the state after the test and adjustments were done at Wabeco factory.  Maybe I will start off by cleaning off those visible to the eyes and work from there.

I made a trip down to SG Tooling to buy another Mitutoyo Digital Vernier as the one I have has crack in the plastic case and is falling apart.  Mike was feeling generous and gave me some MT2 collets, 2 saw arbors with MT2 shank, and an MT2 flycutter.  This solved my headache of not being able to try out the mill before I order the tools and accessories I need.

I ended up also buying a 1kg roll of red filament, remembering the comments I received from a friend of mine that my blog posts on 3D printing is either in black or blue...  Now I've red... haha...

That's all for now.  My Minister of Home Affairs is hurrying me to prepare to leave our flat.  So, till next time...
8 Comments
Gene King
8/7/2012 04:47:55 am

WOW what a Christmas in July gift! I glad you had two stout men to help you move and position the mill. As far as dis-assembly I would wait and use it for a while and see if anything needs attention that need it. I come from the school of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
That is a nice step up from the Sherline machines. There have been a few projects that I let Gordon do on his Wabeco because the Sherline just didn't have the power to do the work.
Again Congratulations on the new toy.

GeneK

Reply
Cheng
9/7/2012 04:36:10 am

cool..interesting read about the delivery and seeing it nicely setup in the shop.

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
9/7/2012 05:21:18 am

Cheng,

Thanks. It will be a drama if I'm bringing in a floor standing kind of mill 😁

Regards,
Wong

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
9/7/2012 05:41:23 pm

Thanks GeneK. Couldn't fully utilize the mill yet as I've only 3 collets given to me by a friend of mine. I'm ordering the ER16 collet chuck to use with the mill. Without proper size collets, I can't even use the DTI to indicate in the vise. But it will take a week or 2 for the collet chuck to reach me.

Regards,
Wong

Reply
Gene King
10/7/2012 12:12:52 am

Wong, don't you have a mag base for your indicator? Just stick it on the column and indicate the vise jaw from there, it doesn't have to be held in the spindle. Now remember the rule of thumb that it takes as much money to buy the tooling as it took to buy the mill.

GeneK

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
10/7/2012 02:04:13 am

GeneK,

Silly me. Didn't think of that.

Yes sir, my experience from Sherline's tells me that. Especially for someone like me who is impulsive...

Regards,
Wong

Reply
Dan Israel
13/10/2012 05:54:34 am

Nice job getting the mill set up. I just bought one in August, had just my wife to help me. I lifted it using a sling and chain hoist under a stout step ladder. The Wabeco mill is outstanding, definitely. I, too, also have a Sherline mill. If you don't already have a medium-sized lathe, you should take a look at the Wabeco D6000 and the MDA Precision Digital Lead Screw accessory- really outstanding. That is what i have. Best of luck to you- great posting!

Reply
Loke-Yeow Wong
13/10/2012 09:27:28 am

Hello Dan,

Thanks for dropping by.

The mill is indeed solid. Just too bad I do not have enough time to play with it often. I believe I would soon as the year is ending. The Hemingway Knurling Tool will be the project I'm going into.

I was toying with the idea of getting the Wabeco lathe when deciding on getting a bigger lathe. EUR against SGD was high then, resulting me to go for the Proxxon PD400 instead. Anyway, that's done.

Do give me your guidance along the way and if you have DRO & scales installed, please share with me how you do it.

Best regards,
Wong

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