Here are some users' tips to modify the Taig metal lathe or milling machine, or their accessories. Naturally many of the ideas or modifications applicable to the Sherline mill and lathe can be adapted to use on Taig machines. Please read there too. If you got to this file directly from my HOME PAGE, return there by using your browser's back button. BUT if you came to this file as the result of a web search engine, see more than 70 additional files on my home page Machining and Metalworking at Home http://www.janellestudio.com/metal/ SAFETY WARNING BEWARE: DO NOT ASSUME that any subject matter or procedure or process is safe or correct or appropriate just because it was mentioned in a news/user group or was included in these files or on this site or on any other web site or was published in a magazine or book or video. Working with metals and machinery and chemicals and electrical equipment is inherently dangerous. Wear safety devices and clothing as appropriate. Remove watches, rings, and jewellery -- and secure or remove loose clothing -- before operating any machine. Read, understand and follow the latest operating procedures and safety instructions provided by the manufacturer of your machine or tool or product. If you do not have those most recent official instructions, acquire a copy through the manufacturer before operating or using their product. Where the company no longer exists, use the appropriate news or user group to locate an official copy. Be careful -- original instructions may not meet current safety standards. Updated safety information and operating instructions may also be available through a local club, a local professional in the trade, a local business, or an appropriate government agency. In every case, use your common sense before beginning or taking the next step; and do not proceed if you have any questions or doubts about any procedure, or the safety of any procedure. Follow all laws and codes, and employ certified or licenced professionals as required by those laws or codes. Hazardous tasks beyond your competence or expertise should also be contracted to professionals. Let's be really careful out there. (c) Copyright 2003 - 2008 Machining and Metalworking at Home The form of the collected work in this text file (including editing, additions, and notes) is copyrighted and this file is not to be reproduced by any means, including electronic, without written permission except for strictly personal use. ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 07:58:50 EDT From: blackexecx~xxaol.com Subject: Tony Jeffree, Re : Sherline Motor on Taig Mill Dear Tony, I am very interested in your recent email regarding the Sherline Variable Speed Motor you have attached to the Taig Mill headstock. I am looking to convert my Taig lathe to the Sherline Motor. I have ordered the motor, headstock pulley and angle bracket from Sherline but also have the Taig pulleys and belt. I assume you have attached the Sherline angle bracket (or a modified bracket / equivalent) to the headstock and used the Sherline belt and pulley on the motor but modified the Taig headstock pulley ? I would be interested to hear about your conversion. I am also looking to attach some form of DRO set - up on the X and Y axis but have not converted to a leadscrew arrangement yet (so probably cannot use the Sherline handwheel arrangement). I have seen at some time three types of sensors : remote sensors (as of the type in MEW - BW Electronics), handwheel sensors (Sherline) and Linear types - (as on the Mituyoto Digital vernier) but not sure which would be appropriate if I want to retain my rack and pinion set-up. - Any suggestions ? I would like to look at your leadscrew conversion but cannot view the html from your Web-page, I'm not-too technical in this department - perhaps you could suggest something here also ? Many thanks for your time John Heffernan (London) p.s. this user group is excellent - I've been using my lathe in total isolation for around 20 yrs + in which time built the locomotive 'Canterbury Lamb', many mini-projects, and currently working on an invention that I demonstrated at 'Tomorrow's World Live Exhibition' - Earl's Court - built entirely on the Taig. ------- Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 13:40:02 +0100 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Tony Jeffree, Re : Sherline Motor on Taig Mill >I am very interested in your recent email regarding the Sherline Variable >Speed Motor you have attached to the Taig Mill headstock. I used the existing bracket on the Taig Mill - the old motor had 4 bolt holes at the spindle end (i.e., flange mounting); I just drilled 4 more holes in the Taig mounting plate at the right PCD for the Sherline motor's mounting holes & fitted it that way. The mounting arrangement on the Taig mill is a 1" square aluminium bar attached by T bolts to the T slot in the bottom edge of the headstock; a square 1/4" thick plate bolts onto the end of the bar at one corner with 2 bolts, one running in a curved slot to allow the distance between motor shaft & spindle to be adjusted. Crude but effective. You can see how this works from the pics on the Taig site - http://www.taigtools.com/mmill.html. I used the Taig pulley set rather than switching to the Sherline ones; if I recall, the Sherline motor is 1/2" diam spindle; I may have needed an adaptor to match the bore of the pulley - it was a while ago! Note that to get the rotation direction right, you will need the motor to extend to the left of the headstock pulley. The setup on my lathe is different - used a servo motor rather than the Sherline one, and mounted it to the right of the headstock pulley, using the metal motor board supplied by Peatol, plus a piece of 2"X2"X1/4" ally angle to make a bracket (again, a flange mounted motor). I only used 2 out of the 4 mounting holes - perfectly adequate for the power involved. >I am also looking to attach some form of DRO set - up on the X and Y axis Not attempted to do that on my lathe, and I don't need DRO's on my CNC mill. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 11:39:25 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Tony Jeffree, Re : Sherline Motor on Taig Mill > I am also looking to attach some form of DRO set - up on the X and Y I set up a much less professional DRO on my lathe, but it works quite well for what I do. I still have my rack 'n pinion setup, so this should work for your lathe as well. There are pictures of my lathe on Nick's web site if you want to take a look at it. Enco was running a special on 2" travel dial indicators, so I bought four. (Fair warning, the under-$30US variety are quite accurate, but don't always have smooth action. It may take some breaking in on your part to make them smooth. Once done, though, they work quite well.) I cut some mounting hardware for them and mounted one each on the cross-slide, the vertical slide, and along the lathe bed. The fourth one is still in its box, waiting for when I finally get around to making mounting hardware for the tailstock. Once that's done, I'll have DRO on all four axes. The one catch with this, of course, is that you don't get all your readouts in one place. You have four dials to keep track of. But with a total cost of around $120US including shipping and materials, that was a trade I was willing to make. Tom ------- Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 10:05:18 -0500 From: Joe Harmon Subject: Re: Re: Spindle adapter From: Phil Jaster > Jean, Try using http://www.grizzly.com > go to the page for accessories for lathes... i believe I saw adapters > for 3/4-10 threads.... if not try as well LeeValley at > http://www.leevalley.com/ they might have adapters as well.... phil >> Can anyone help me find or give advise on making an adapter so I can use >> some of my Taig acessories on a new wood turning lathe I recently >> purchased. My new lathe has a 3/4 X 10 TPI right hand spindle. My Taig of >> course is 3/4 X 16 TPI. What I need is a 3/4 X 10 female to 3/4 X 16 Male >> adapter. Right hand treads on both ends Phil: To make the 3/4-10 female to 3/4-16 male adapter, I would start with the female end first, with stock cut to over all length, leaving just enough to face each end. Here is a list of steps, you may wish to try. 1. Using a lathe, insert stock into headstock and indicate-in the O.D. 2. Face, center drill, light pass to clean up O.D., and chamfer outside diameter 3. Drill large enough hole for clearance, for a boring bar 4. Re-indicate the O.D., because the stock could shift from drilling, and you want the part to run true 5. Bore the I. D. (internal dia.) to the proper size for threading, chamfer the I.D. well, for easy start for tapping, etc. 6. Chase or Tap I.D. threads to 3/4-10 7. Swap ends to make outside threads 8. Indicate O.D. 9. Face end, check for run out by indicating O.D. again 10. Turn O.D. to proper size for chasing or using a Die to make your 3/4-16 threads, chamfer O.D. end for easy start. I tried to keep it short and simple. Simply put, if you indicate each end properly, thus avoiding run-out, then you should have a spindle adapter that will meet your needs. If you have any questions, e-mail me. Joe ------- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 22:18:08 -0000 From: "Richard " Subject: Tool sharing I know there are some Taig lathe owners who also use the HF 7x. With the addition of an easily made adaptor block which mimics the cross slide on the Taig saddle one can use all the tools made for the Taig on the 7x. I made one which fits in place of the "in the way when you don't need it", compound on the 7x and use one set of tools for both lathes. The addition of an MT3 blank arbor machined and threaded 3/4- 16, and bored to the taper for the Taig collets is another handy thing. It allows the use of the 4 jaw too. Another tool I use most of the time is the Freeby tool holder for turning and facing with a "diamond" (shape only)toolbit. I was able to face a 5inch diameter job with ease. I was also able to use the milling attachment and Tony's famous dividing head to make some gears for my model trains, with just a little more elbow room available. It's more fun using the tools than making them. Rich ------- Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 05:47:23 -0000 From: "Phil Jaster" Subject: Re: horrible chatter... Joe I understood the beatings meant bearings!!!! If you think 5 1/4 inch drives have neat stuff wait till you tear apart an older Hard Drive: I love the full size HD's from 286-386 era pc's... the disks are great for a number of items: I use them on my wood lathe to grind tip shapes for my wood gouges; use contact adhesive and Silicone Carbide paper and have one with leather for buffing as well... the small 3.5 inch drives 386->present which can be picked up for nothing from computer repair shops.... can be used for index disks on the TAIG and the bearings from all HD's are super for small projects... yeah the list of items goes on!!!! phil ------- Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 12:02:56 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: prop hub [DREMEL MOUNT FOR CROSS SLIDE] On Thu, 1 Mar 2001 beepeenacanx~xxaol.com wrote: > I have a dremel flex shaft tool. HOW do i mount it to the crosslide > correctly? and WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THAT!!!?? Thanks! Brad Here's how I made mine: I grabbed a block of 1"x2" aluminum tall enough so it could sit on the cross slide and have the top at least 1" above the spindle axis. Chucked this up in the 4-jaw and used that to face it off on all sides. Now I know it's nice 'n square. I drilled it in two places so I could run bolts down through it to attach it to the cross slide. (I wound up counterboring these more than I would've liked because I didn't have bolts long enough. In retrospect I wish I'd have waited to get longer bolts so I wouldn't have wound up with the chip-collection problem I have now.) I mounted it on the cross-slide and chucked a center drill up in the headstock. Once I'd center drilled the block, I put in a fairly large drill bit and drilled through it. Back into the 4-jaw. I indicated the piece in until the hole I'd drilled was on-axis with the lathe spindle. It was then a matter of boring the hole out until I could just slip the handpiece for the flex shaft tool into the hole. Then I drilled and tapped a set screw hole on top of the block so that once the handpiece was inserted, I could lock it into place. Voila. At that point I could bolt the block to the cross slide, insert the flex shaft handle, tighten the set screw to hold it in place, and drill to my heart's content. It's well worth checking to be sure the drill is on the same level as the lathe axis. If you bore the hole to a close enough fit, this shouldn't be a problem. If it's at all loose, this may put the axis of the flex shaft tool below the axis of the lathe. Not much fun. You can fix it by shimming it up, but it's not as easy to use that way. I think Nick's got plans for one of these on his site. Tom ------- Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 20:44:10 -0800 From: Dave Martindale Subject: motor ratings >Sounds good to me. I have a Sherline motor on my Taig mill, and it's rated >at 1/3 HP, though Sherline claims that rating is deceptive on the >conservative side. They use the same motor on their lathe. When comparing motors, you have to keep in mind that there are different ways of rating motors. The 1/3 HP induction motor that someone was thinking about using will likely put out 1/3 HP continuously for hours. If you overload it, it may go up to about 2/3 HP output before stalling, but it will overheat if you do this for long. In comparison, the Sherline motor is actually rated at something like 1/16 HP for continuous use, and something like 1/10 HP with a particular duty cycle. (The motor data is on the Sherline web site, under "dimensions" or something like that. On the other hand, its peak power is something over 1/2 HP at mid-range speed. You just can't operate at this power for long without overheating it - after all, it has no vent holes and no cooling fan. So the good thing about the Sherline motor is that it operates over a wide range of speed without changing pulleys, and it has large reserves of power to meet momentary demands. But its continuous power rating is quite low. If you're going to be doing heavy turning for long periods, an induction motor will keep running long after the Sherline has tripped its thermal overload. Of course, if you really want to remove a lot of metal, you probably want to be using a larger lathe. Dave ------- From: Tom Benedict Date: Thu Oct 26, 2000 10:39am Subject: Re: Knobs for the tailstock On Thu, 26 Oct 2000 ajkdfwx~xxa... wrote: > I'm a very new guy, both to this group and to lathes in general. > Bought a new Taig and a lot of accessories through a nice fellow on > eBay and I'm having a good time trying to learn. I would like to put a > couple of aluminum or brass knobs on the tailstock to replace the set > screws but cant find a source .. does anyone have any ideas? I've > thought of trying to make them but right at the moment my skill level > is about a -2 (but rising slowly). How would you hold the (longer) > set screws in the knob? What about knurling .. how is that done and > what kind of knurl tool would I look for and where? Any help would be > greatly appreciated. Coupla options come to mind. One is to get some knobs from (pick your favorite supplier) that take threaded shafts. Small Parts, Inc. sells some called "three armed knobs" that would be ideal. Another is to use the ratchet handles like Ken Jenkins uses. (He's got some excellent pictures up on the Taig e-group area if you want to see those.) Another is to make your own. I wound up taking this route, and made some pretty simple ones that work well. I started with 3/8" bar and cut a brass screw to fit in the top hole and the side hole. You need to put about an inch of #10-32 thread on the end of each one so it'll have plenty of gripping power (measure the screws that are already there, and cut accordingly.) Concentricity isn't a huge deal with this, so I used a #10-32 die held in a normal die handle, and used the tailstock to push it onto the brass bar squarely. If you use 3/8" diameter bar, the one fitting in the side hole, the one that clamps it to the lathe bed, needs a shoulder put on it so it'll fit in the counterbored hole. The handle for the top won't need a shoulder since it sits on top of a washer. I cut the shoulder on mine slightly longer than the depth of the counterbore. To make the handle end, I left about a half inch of brass sticking out on each of the screws. I cross-drilled a 3/16" hole in each one. Then I took a chunk of stainless (though any material would work, including brass) and cut some 1.5" long pieces just over 3/16" in diameter. After rounding both ends, I pressed one into each of the cross-drilled holes. What I wound up with was a pair of small brass screws with steel handles. They're unobtrusive, the handle is about as long as the allen wrench I'd been using on the original cap head screws, so I could get plenty of torque. All in all it was a nice one-evening job. Tom ------- > 2) What's a faster alternate to the L-keys. Bunch of options: I locktited a length of 10-32 all-thread in the tailstock clamp and ram clamp threaded holes, and made some knurled brass knobs to snug down in place of the cap screws. Others prefer the treaded stock to be part of the knob. Some have purchased commercial knobs with a 10-32 threaded portion that work. If you go the locktite route, use the weak stuff that can be disassembled with normal handtools. You really don't want to have to heat the tailstock to the point that a bearing retaining grade of locktite chars! I used a commercial knob with a 10-32 threaded stud for the carriage. It costs about a dollar at Home Depot or Lowes, and is small enough to clear the cross slide while being easier on the fingers than the provided wingnut. I haven't done anything about the tailstock alignment locking cap screw, as I rarely turn tapers using the tailstock offset method. One less knob in the way or to loosen by accident while focusing on something else. See Nick's site for pictures of some of these options. ------- Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 From: SorJ Subject: Re: Lathe -Longer bed possibilities >How hard would it be to make a longer (15") bed for this Taig lathe? >I really do not want to get a Sherline, but I like the headstock >being able to rotate and the longer bed option. I've already got a 10" >South Bend, just need a smaller lathe for teenie-tiny work. Hi Jason This was a question I asked myself years ago when looking for a very small lathe that would make spindles a few inches longer than the Taig. Since I have a larger Atlas, I never really needed the stretched Taig/equivalent but have still given it some thought. The day will come when some of us move into apartments and reduce the heavy iron. At that point a longer Taig (as opposed to a very expen$ive Sherline and its acce$$ories) would really be appreciated. I figure the easiest extension to the precision Taig is an identical matched bed bolted to the right, in line with the existing one. The new rack will have to be carefully ground to make a perfect tooth at the point it butts to the existing rack. (It would be even simpler if Taig could provide a single long rack would replace the existing one and go to the far end of the second bed. Naturally the lathe mounting surface will have to be dead straight (and carefully shimmed/aligned) for the two beds. Many wood lathes have been extended in a similar manner by building a tailstock holder to the right of the existing bed. The simple design of the Taig bed is even better for performing an add-on function, and one that would handle the moving carriage. As for Sherline's rotating headstock feature, personally I prefer to leave my Sherline mill's head fixed and angle what I am working on. One less alignment problem. In the case of the Taig lathe, the offset tailstock is one way of handling slight tapers. Even if you extend the Taig, I reckon most work is still going to be done close to the headstock on the small parts where this precision lathe shines. Good luck Steve in Thunder Bay, Ontario ------- Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 12:03:36 -0500 From: Ken Jenkins Subject: Re: Lathe -Longer bed possibilities > I figure the easiest extension to the precision Taig > is an identical matched bed bolted to the right, in line You can buy another bed from Taig and I don't think the rack they use is custom, it's gotta be off-the-shelf, which means you can probably order a replacement (BERG) long enough to span the two beds. The problem I have with this scenario is the alignment would have to be dead nuts on. Having said that, what are you going to turn "the whole length" of that would be that long? The big short coming of the Taig for me is not the overall length but the ability to pass larger stock through the spindle headstock. I think I read somewhere you can bore out the spindle to 3/8" without affecting anything but that's it. Now let's say you have a .5" dia. bar and you want to face one end. With the Taig you can only set it up between centers or try a somewhat less reliable steady-rest arrangement. I'm not complaining --- it's a limitation you accept, but the ability to turn "long" things their full length would only come up for me in wood --- then the scenario of the end-to-end beds above is more reasonable in that the requirements for precision are reduced (no one measures chair leg spindles in thousandths!). In addition, the transition point between the two beds would be an issue, you might need to have both beds set up in a grinder and have the ends very precisely surfaced so they butt together seamlessly (well ---- as seamless as you can get with this arrangement. Just some thoughts. Ken ------- Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 17:11:50 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Re: Lathe -Longer bed possibilities At 12:03 28/11/00 -0500, you wrote: >I don't think the rack they use is >custom, it's gotta be off-the-shelf, It is custom - they make the racks themselves. I've seen them in production. Having said that, they seem to use a standard pitch (20TPI I believe). Regards, Tony ------ Thanks for the comments, Ken. >You can buy another bed from Taig and I don't think the rack they use is >custom, it's gotta be off-the-shelf, which means you can probably order a >replacement (BERG) long enough to span the two beds. A longer rack would make this conversion much simpler as the alternative butted shorter racks would present more work to get the rack transition point exact and smooth. >The problem I have with >this scenario is the alignment would have to be dead nuts on. The longer rack spanning both beds should make the alignment situation a bit easier, and eliminate any possibility of roughness or irregularity of feed as the carriage is wound past a rack joint. >In addition, the transition point between the two beds would be an issue, >you might need to have both beds set up in a grinder and have the ends very >precisely surfaced so they butt together seamlessly (well ---- as seamless >as you can get with this arrangement. I am not sure that the beds have to have a perfect butt joint, but rather a reasonably perfect alignment. It would be important that the carriage not trip on an irregularity. Even a small gap should be irrelevant to the carriage going over the joint smoothly. >Having said that, what are you going to turn >"the whole length" of that would be that long? Personally I don't need to turn something metal as long as the double bed but do regularly turn narrow wood or composite spindles that are in the order of max 5/8" diameter tapering to 3/8" and about 16 inches long, plus another 3/4" waste stock at both ends in chuck/centre. This exceeds the capacity of the single bed Taig. If the form needed is unique, a wood lathe like a Shopsmith is the choice, using freehand chisels/gouges. If there are more mechanical shapes that need exact repetition, or are of harder material than common woods (like ebony which can do a real number on the thin cutting edge of regular wood-turning tools), then an Atlas metal lathe gets the nod with cutter in the toolpost. >With the Taig you can only set it up between centers or try >a somewhat less reliable steady-rest arrangement. I'm not complaining --- >it's a limitation you accept, but the ability to turn "long" things their >full length would only come up for me in wood --- then the scenario of the >end-to-end beds above is more reasonable in that the requirements for >precision are reduced (no one measures chair leg spindles in thousandths!). >Just some thoughts. Ken You're absolutely right. As mentioned in my earlier post, if the day comes when space or portability becomes decisive, and the bigger tools are sold off, the Taig in an extended length would become a suitable alternative for many jobs (mainly wood) that exceed the basic Taig's length capacity. Steve in Thunder Bay, Ontario ------- Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 16:34:46 -0600 From: "Paul Currie" Subject: Re: Re: Diamond Toolholder Looking at the one photo of your lead screw, it appears as if it is powered, a stepping motor or just a plain motor? Also is there some kind of right angled gearbox? Also curious as to the bracket for the lead screw drive, is it a fabricated bracket or an aluminum extrusion and if so from where? You have lots of great ideas there. THX Paul ------- Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 23:17:26 -0000 From: "Richard " Subject: Re: Diamond Toolholder 14 Oct 2000 From: "Richard " >>Paul, My age,77, is showing. In message 1347 I meant to say "The lead screw is BEARING supported at one end only". I should add that the wormwheel is free to rotate (bronze sleeve) on the leadscrew shaft and is keyed to the handwheel by a simple removable pin.The handwheel is secured to the shaft by a set screw. This provides power feed when the pin is inserted and manual feed, by turning the handwheel, with the pin removed. I hope this clears things up. Richard << The lead screw is powered through a worm gear-worm wheel mechanism using a Sears power screwdriver as the driver. I use a 6 volt power supply instead of a battery. The bracket you are seeing was fabricated using two pieces of aluminum angle bolted together. I believe Tony Jeffries used a similar bracket in his great dividing head article. I made the screw from a piece of 1/2-13 threaded rod and the worm wheel using a 1/2- 13 tap as a hob. I found the lead screw needs to be supported at one end only, the other end is supported by the brass "nut" fastened to the apron. I'm not too proud of this setup as I lost the rack and pinion fast adjust feature. The worm wheel is keyed to the hand wheel via a removable pin though and allows pretty fast adjusting when you don't want power feed. Richard ------- Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 16:37:07 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: indicator mounts? On Fri, 15 Dec 2000 zeox~xxsofcom.com wrote: > I saw a photo(s) a while back with dial indicators mounted on the > carriage and crosslide. Can someone tell me where I can find that > photo(s) again? Thanks Zeo Bugatti Sure thing. Pretty sure they're the ones off my lathe. If you go to Nick's site, and go to "Taig Owner Modifications and Projects", those pictures are listed there. Here's the URL: http://www.pioneer.net/~felice/picture.html You'll need to scroll down from where that takes you. The overall shot of my lathe is at: http://www.proaxis.com/%7Etaig/tbtaig4.jpg The mounts for the cross-slide and milling slide were the toughies. Both of those required drilling into the apron and the block for the milling slide. The mount itself is pretty simple. It's an aluminum block with holes drilled in it. One note about the cross-slide indicator mount: If I had it all to do over, I'd do it a little differently. If you looking the picture, you can see the height of the mount is almost exactly the height of the cross-slide. And it's got a set screw sticking out of the top. This means that the compound slide has a tendency to run into it. This is A Major Pain. If I had it all to do over again (and essentially I do: it's a project I'm planning on doing), I'd make it about 1/16-1/8" shorter, and put the set-screw on the right side toward the tailstock. That keeps it well under the level of the cross slide, and makes it a little more usable. The mount for the indicator that's attached to the headstock is pretty straightforward. It's two blocks of aluminum drilled and reamed for 3/8" in one place, and whatever the diameter is for the carriage stop (pretty sure it's 1/8") with setscrews sticking out both ends. You attach the indicator to the carriage stop, make sure everything's nice 'n parallel, lock the setscrews, and attach it to your lathe. Done. Tom ------- Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 09:38:04 -0000 From: PI71x~xxwebtv.net Subject: Another lead screw solution I've had my Taig lathe for aroung 10 years and I too became very interested in having power feed for the carriage after owning the lathe for a short time. I solved the problem by obtaining a copy of David Gingery's book, BUILDING YOUR OWN METAL WORKING SHOP FROM SCRAP, book #2-THE METAL LATHE. It takes you back to the basics and is very well illutrated. All the parts you need to make the lead screw set-up can be found at your local hard-ware store and in your junk box. You have to use your imagination and figure out how to adapt his set-up to your lathe, but that's part of the fun. I have mine set-up with a variable speed gearhead DC motor with reverse. The motor drives the screw via reduction sprockets and small roller chain. Very high torque. Let me clarify the part about obtaining everything you need from the hardware store and junk box. For a simple hand powered screw, this would be possible, but for a powered screw like mine you would have to check out the surplus catalogs for motors, switches, sprockets and chains. My set-up works great. Jim Hearn ------- Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 23:44:36 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Question from a newbie On Sat, 13 Jan 2001, Jeffrey C. Dege wrote: > Hi all. I'm a new Taig owner, trying to figure things out. Congrats on your new Taig! > There are a great many basic questions I've yet to resolve. > The one for today: > How do y'all fasten a dial-indicator to the cross-slide? Hey! One of my favorites! If you mean, "In a really permanent fashion," take a look at the pictures of my lathe on Nick's site. I basically got a block of aluminum, drilled and counterbored two #10-32 clearance holes in it, bored a 3/8" hole crosswise through it, and mounted it on the apron. I made a little foot for it to press up against, and made a small t-nut for it to fit into the t-slot on the side of the cross-slide. Except for drilling and tapping the #10-32 holes on the apron, you can do just about all these operations with a four-jaw and a drilling tailstock. You'll need a drill press or some non-lathe way to drill the holes in your lathe's apron. One note on making a mounting block, if you make one along the same lines as mine: I made mine too tall. My compound slide hits it if you angle it over that way. I really really need to re-cut it. Here's what I'd do, given the choice: Make it less than an inch tall, for starters. That brings the bulk of the block under the level of the cross-slide. Put the set screw on the SIDE so it doesn't protrude out of the top of the block. These two changes would make this a completely unobtrusive modification. If you're wondering how to stick one onto the cross-slide for centering work in a four-jaw, that's a little easier. I stuck a 3/8" drill on the headstock, and mounted a toolpost on the cross-slide. I used that to drill through one side of the toolpost, making a toolpost that could take a 3/8" diameter tool (or dial indicator). (One caveat: I actually drilled undersized and then reamed to 3/8". I highly recommend you do this. Makes for less frustration in the long-run.) Hope this helps. It's late, so I don't know if what I wrote makes much sense. If not, bonk me on the head and I can re-write it with a clearer head Monday. Tom ------- Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 05:17:18 -0000 From: "simon sayez" Subject: Re: Question from a newbie Hi Jeffrey, Welcome aboard! There are many ways of holding an indicator - depending on what you are trying to measure. There are several pictures on Nick Carter's web site of mounts & holders at: http://www.pioneer.net/~felice/picture.html I make extensive use of a magnetic base holder because it is so easy to move around. When I am measuring depth of a milling or drilling operation the mag mount is set on the tail end of the bed (I usually leave the tail stock off unless I am actively using it). When I'm centering something in the four jaw chuck I bolt a flat square of steel plate to the cross slide and place the mag mount on that. Then I can move the dial indicator back & forth and in and out by moving the cross slide instead of moving the mount itself. Other times I bolt the steel plate to the top or side of the head stock (Gosh I love all the T slots on the Taig!). Another modification I made to the lathe was drilling out the front T slot on the head stock to accept a 1/4" rod. I have a foot long rod with an inch of threads on one end that I use for a cross slide stop & another place to mount a dial indicator. I can only use this rod mount on longer pieces though, so I usually have the mag mount on the end of the lathe bed. Nick has some great information and photos on his site, and there are lots of interesting photos in the Taig egroup file area. Have fun! Simon ------- Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 21:11:45 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: replacement handles >Where can I get a set of small spinning replacement handles for the >carriage and crosslide? VERY easy to convert the handles to spinning. Take the old handles out, drill them axially, tap a suitable thread in the hole, fit a suitable length dome headed screw/locknut through the handle so that enough thread protrudes beyond the nut to allow it to screw into the tapped hole, adjust the nut so the handle spins & Locktite it in place, then screw the handle assembly in place. 15 minutes work tops. If I recall correctly, you can run a 4BA tap straight into the holes without re-drilling. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 23:22:43 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: replacement handles At 15:49 25/01/01 -0600, you wrote: >I like it! Two questions though: How do I remove the handles? Carefully, with a pair of pliers. They are a push fit. Use something to protect the handles from marking if possible. >What is a 4BA thread? I have never heard of that. BA is a UK thread standard. Happened to be convenient for the purpose. Closest UNF is 6-40, but I can't vouch for whether 6-40 will tap directly into the holes (the 6040 thread OD is slightly smaller than 4BA). Regards, Tony ------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 10:28:28 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: Info on Taig Lathe carriage gears From: > Can anybody tell me the Diametral Pitch, and Pressure Angle on the > Taig lathe's carriage rack & pinion? When last I checked, it was 20 tpi, and the form was that of a vee thread. Why? Because they make the racks in a fixture on the lathe, arranging the racks radially around a mandrel and cutting a 60 deg. vee thread. ------- Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2001 11:16:31 -0700 From: "Roger V. Petrella Jr." Subject: Re: newbie question preitelbachx~xxyahoo.com wrote: > After years of wanting one...I am on the verge of buying a lathe. I > like the price of the Taig and the answer to the question below will > seal the deal for me. I have limited knowledge of machining methods.. > The current task is to make axle shafts 5.00" long from 0.375" dia. > aluminum bar. I need to reduce the diameter to 0.250" for 1.50" at > one end. "MY" idea would be to insert the bar throught the spindle and > machine the end. However the specs for the lathe indicate the spindle > hole is 0.343" dia. which precludes my method. > The question is how else would I accomplish this task? Thanks, Pat I had talked to Forrest at Taig a few years ago when I got mine from him about opening up the spindle hole for just what you are talking about. I needed to get a 3/8" piece through the spindle. You can safely open it up. I used a slow speed and lots of lube and ran a drill, then a 3/8" reamer, and finally a 25/64" reamer through the spindle. Works great. Roger Petrella Franktown, CO ------- Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 10:27:37 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: wandering drill On Wed, 21 Mar 2001 acharlestox~xxhotmail.com wrote: > I have been drilling parts held in the lathe's 4 jaw chuck with a 1/4" > drill held in a jacobs chuck screwed on the tailstock sliding ram. I > used a centre bit to dimple the work so that the drill would start > precisely. > With the ram clamp just loose enough to allow the lever arm to move > the ram there is a noticeable amount of side play in the > ram/chuck/drill. No matter how I adjust the clamp the drill wanders in > the workpiece. Is this an inherent limitation of the sliding ram design? > Have I got an improperly bored tailstock? > Or am I approaching the job incorrectly? I can't answer your questions, but I'll post what I've observed with my own lathe, trying to do the same tasks: The setup: Taig lathe, unmodified lever tailstock, drill chuck arbor. 1/4" precision Jacobs chuck, 3/8" normal Jacobs chuck. Some drill rod (actually a Hansen drill shank). A test dial indicator. The tests: I started by chucking my TDI up in the headstock and bringing it to bear against the tapered surface of the tailstock. Turns out the tailstock was about 10 thou off to one side (12 seems like the right number, but this was months ago.) Through judicious sliding of the tailstock I was able to bring it to within a fraction of a thou. This involved lots of cursing and wishing, on my part, that I'd built that micrometer adjusting screw Jose describes on Nick's web site. Next I set up the drill arbor in the headstock and measured the run-out of the flats with the TDI. Turns out the flat facing the tailstock wasn't running true. I trued it up with one or two really really light cuts (emphasis on the "really light"). Removed it and re-installed it to verify it was still running true. It was. Next I mounted each of my Jacobs chucks on the drill arbor, stuck in some drill rod (the aforementioned Hansen drill shank), and tested the run-out. The precision chuck had very little, only a few thou if that. The 3/8" chuck had a bunch, more like 5-6 thou. The jaws on those chucks should be hardened. (I believe that for the precision chuck. I don't believe that for the normal chuck.) In any case, I didn't attack the jaws with a grinder. I took another approach (one I'm hoping won't get everyone yelling, "No no no! Tell me you didn't!") I took out the drill arbor and collet-mounted a 1/4" diameter drill shank. Checked the run-out. As close to zip as makes no odds. I wasn't willing to potentially destroy my precision 1/4" Jacobs chuck, so I only did this with the 3/8" Jacobs chuck (the one I most consider expendable). I reversed it onto the 1/4" shaft and closed the jaws onto it by hand, then by turning the chuck key in each of the three holes. By the end it was tight, and (hopefully) as concentric as I could get it. I measured the run-out on the flat at the back of the chuck. Considerable (can't remember the number.) So I took a series of light light light facing cuts until it ran true. Once again I mounted up the drill arbor and put the 3/8" chuck on the end. Run-out was down by a bunch. I moved the chuck back to the tailstock and mounted the TDI in the headstock. Chucked up that drill shank in the tailstock, and measured run-out. It was down to one or two thou. Doing this has helped my tailstock drilling immensely. So going back to your questions: > Is this an inherent limitation of the sliding ram design? Dunno. (I'd like to hear the answer to this one...) But before I'd condemn the sliding ram design, I'd take a look at every other component in the system. If the answer is yes, I think a neat project for the Taig would be a more conventional threaded ram tailstock. (Plus, it'd be a nice project to get into casting!) > Have I got an improperly bored tailstock? Dunno. But same caveat applies. How would you test this? What comes to mind is to mount a TDI in the headstock, put the ram at one extreme, test the run-out, then move it to the opposite extreme and test the run-out. If the numbers change, can you assume your tailstock isn't coaxial with the headstock? This raises another question: Has anyone tested repeated clamping/unclamping of the tailstock to see if it comes back exactly on-axis each time? I've been meaning to do this for a long time, but I keep getting side-tracked with other projects. ;) > Or am I approaching the job incorrectly? Sounds to me like you're approaching it right. But this leads to another question I've got regarding center-drills: I've got a set of five. The smallest has a needle-sharp point, and doesn't tend to wander at all. The largest has a VERY blunt point (it's still ground to cut at the center, but it's not a needle point.) That one does wander some when I use it. What I've been doing is starting holes with the smallest or next to smallest. If I need a bigger center drill hole, I'll then work up through them. This seems to reduce the chances of getting an off-axis start on a hole. So let me repeat the question that's already been asked: Am I approaching center-drilling incorrectly? Thanks, Tom ------- Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 12:39:50 -0000 From: ballendox~xxyahoo.com Subject: tailstock mod was re:Re: wandering drill In taigtools, ballendox~xxy... wrote: > So, maybe locking > the lever feed and loosening the tailstock on the ways (slightly) > will give better results. You can start the cut this way (even using > your "muscle" to "guide" (by deflecting the tailstock with hand > pressure) the center drill to the correct center as you 'slide' the > tailstock on the ways to make the cone. Thought of a neat (maybe) project for the tailstock. Two aluminum pieces shaped to clamp on the bed. One has a threaded hole; the other has a thru hole. A piece of threaded rod has a handle attached. To use, you clamp the threaded piece near the lathe bed end, and the through hole piece next to the tailstock. Now you thread the rod through the first piece, through the second piece, until it bears on the tailstock. Loosen the tailstock slightly (as in my esrlier post, repeated above) and use the screw to move it in a controlled manner! The 2nd piece is a "guide" so the screw bears correctly at the base of the tailstock. I'd keep the screw low (close to the bed), but it could work up higher as well. Screw feed tailstock for a few minutes with a bandsaw and drillpress! Hope this helps. Ballendo ------- Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 12:58:58 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: tailstock mod was re:Re: wandering drill Neat! The obvious material to make this from is one of the standard Taig raising blocks - drill the hole first, tapped one end, then cut a couple of slices off the block (or maybe just cut it in half). No effort required to machine the dovetails/clamping gibs, other than maybe fitting a new 10-32 clamping screw or two. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 15:31:31 -0500 From: Ken Jenkins Subject: Re: Opening the spindle bore >> I just opened my spindle bore yesterday to 25/64ths. Make sure your >> tailstock is absolutely true to start. Then I used a letter drill >> (can't remember which), a 3/8th ream and lastly a 25/64th ream. I >> used tons of turbine oil in the process and took it very, very, >> slow. It was a little hairy, scary and noisy at times but it worked >> fine and now I can pass 3/8" which is a real plus. Ken > Ken, Just to be sure, when you open up the bore to 3/8"+, are > the collets still useable? I use 3/8" rod on some projects > and would like to put it thru the spindle. I would also like > to use the collets!!! Dan Fuller Carrollton, TX The collets seat themselves in the tapered part of the headstock opening. Opening the spindle bore won't affect this taper (unless you ram the drill into it off center or something!). You're actually working "past" this tapered area with your drilling and reaming the collets don't come in contact with the spindle bore. ken ------- Date: Sat, 5 May 2001 15:23:36 EDT From: beepeenacanx~xxaol.com Subject: I love this thing! Just finished turning the mill attachment into a mini drill press to hold my Dremel handpiece. I will use it to drill a hole in the side of the round prop hub on my 200 cc engine - to insert the magnet for the Hall sensor for the electronic ignition! Could not have done it w/o the TAIG. All I need now is the camera so you can see it! Thanks for all the info, guys!! brad ------- Date: Sat, 05 May 2001 20:30:48 -0000 From: marlinmanssvx~xxhotmail.com Subject: Re: I love this thing! Brad, I've found the Milling attachment of more use as a tool platform than as a work holder. I have used rather large boring bars by mounting a chuck adapter to the mill attachment, screwing on a 3-jaw, and clamping the boring bar with same. I have also done some radial drilling using the flex-shaft dremel mounted in a holder made from 3/4" square aluminum stock. It worked very well, indeed. Are you using the flex shaft vertically? Neat! I share your enthusiasm for the milling attachment: It's one of the best accessories you can get for the Taig. Regards, Andy M. ------- Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 07:51:05 -0000 From: simonsyzx~xxemail.com Subject: Re: a couple of questions... Hi Jeff, I take the carriage off very frequently - especially when I see a bit of swarf disappear under it! I rarely have the tailstock on the bed, so it is a piece of cake to slide the carriage off to get all dem nasty bits o' metal off the ways. I clean and re-oil the carriage dovetail and the ways every time after working on wood, after a week or two of inactivity, or when I cut a lot of aluminum. The cross-slide usually stays cleaner, but I take it apart whenever I see swarf sticking to the screw or if the oil starts to look really black & nasty (or if I see a bit o' swarf disappear under it). Another thing I find helpful is leaving the e-clip off the carriage handwheel. Pulling the handwheel gear out until it disengages the rack makes it very easy to move the carriage a long distance (or completely off). It also makes it easier to realign the handle for the "best" position when doing fine work. When the e-clip kept the handwheel gear engaged all the time I found that the handle was usually in the most awkward position when I want to move the carriage just a teeny bit or if I need to apply extra force. Now I just pop the handwheel out & realign the handle to where it feels best. It is now so natural to pop the handwheel in and out of engagement that I can't imagine not having this added "feature". Simon ------- Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 03:59:53 -0000 From: hja13x~xxuswest.net Subject: Re: taig, and "big lathe" question - threading & leadscrew Hi Des, if you decide to add a lead screw use Left hand threaded rod and it will "feel" right. You will develop a feel for the stock carriage feed after a short time also. Having both would be ideal, as you have probably seen other Taig owners have done. -Jim- Arvada Colorado ------- Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 09:31:17 -0400 From: Ken Jenkins Subject: Re: Lathe leadscrew > I've seen several articles around the place on installing a leadscrew > to the taig... and I know most large lathes already have them. > Do the larger lathes have handwheels on their leadscrews? Yes, but not mounted on the end like most of the Taig mods. The lead screw on larger lathes is generally driven for threading with a method (half-nut, etc.) for engaging and disengaging drive. The crank is mounted at right angles to the carriage travel. To move the carriage by hand the drive is left in disengaged mode and the crank turned by hand. Counterclockwise moves carriage toward chuck. When threading, the drive is engaged and the crank turns itself following the carriage motion > I've looked at pictures and text descriptions of the Unimats, (who use a > leadscrew for normal carriage traverse) and the thread appears to be basic > RH thread.... this means that a wheel located at the tail end of the bed, > turned clockwise will pull the carriage away from the head. On big lathes > with leadscrew handles (on the assumption such beasties exist), is the > same true? Basically I want to modify my Taig with all these great > features, but I do not want to have "mirrored" controls.. in other words, > I want to develop a sense of driving the Taig, and be able to step > straight to a larger lathe, without having to "Unlearn" anything. I have done a half-nut engage/disengage) for my Taig lathe and used LH threaded stainless steel 1/4-20 rod for the screw for the very reasons you mention (i.e. when I crank the crank clockwise since it's on the end of the leadscrew I want it to move toward the chuck). See the files section under Ken Jenkins for pictures. Ken ------- From: tadici283x~xxc... Date: Tue Jun 26, 2001 9:31 pm Subject: Re: [taigtools] Re: Way covers Just wanted to share a new Taig tip, I have never been to fond of the way covers that was supplied with my Taig Mill, I like some other users have almost thrown them out thinking they were package materials, I wanted a solution that does not cost too much. I pride myself on low cost solutions, so what I used was the bellows that are supplied with a room air conditioner; they seem to be made of some kind of PVC and can be cut to size. Mine had a hard plastic spine in the end that allowed mounting; it even had holes drilled every inch or so. I did some testing with fluids that I use and so far they have not attacked the material and it cleans easy. Anyway happy milling. Chris DiCintio of Bradenton Florida ------- From: san3x~xxs... Date: Tue Jul 31, 2001 3:10 am Subject: Split-bed taig...is it feasible? I mean is it feasible to remove the bed from its base and attach it to a square alu tube (thickwalled) then take another bed and use a dial indicator to align it with the first bed(using shims) then when everything is aligned perfectly inject epoxy into all crevices to make sure that nothing will move. The end result being a taig with a 30" bed. I am going to buy a taig lathe in the near future (next couple of months) but although the price vs quality is just too good to pass up it is a bit short for some of the stuff I want to use it for. And the double "franken taig" seems feasible; any input would be appreciated. San ------- From: Tony Jeffree Date: Tue Jul 31, 2001 3:59 am Subject: Re: [taigtools] Split-bed taig...is it feasible? It has been done...look back through the previous posts for more details - done for woodworking uses if I recall correctly. Not clear to me that it would really be possible to align the two beds well enough for high accuracy use. Regards, Tony ------- From: J.C.Beechx~xxs... Date: Tue Jul 31, 2001 10:10 am Subject: Re: Split-bed taig...is it feasible? It would be cheaper and easier just to have a new steel bed made and ground. Plenty of places can surface grind to 30". Bolt to an alloy beam... Joules ------- From: "Robin S." Date: Tue Jul 31, 2001 8:33 pm Subject: Re: Split-bed taig...is it feasible? The problem with that is that lathe bedways are not just machined and sold. They have to be machined, heat-teated, ground and finished. If they aren't heat-treated, they will bow and are of no good. Does anyone know what kind of steel Taig uses? Ideally, one would machine, harden, anneal, grind, and lap. This would be expensive (to say the least) if you had the entire thing farmed out. It would be nice to bug Taig to make a longer bed. Unlike the Sherline, the Taig bed can be supported along its entire length. You would probably want to mount the lathe on some cheap surface plate for maximum stability. Regards, Robin ------- From: J.C.Beechx~xxs... Date: Wed Aug 1, 2001 4:30 am Subject: Re: Split-bed taig...is it feasible? The Taig bed has not been heat treated and hardend as far as I can tell. Just see what happens if you drag a bit of mild steel over the bed (not recommended). Joules ------- From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Date: Tue Jul 31, 2001 12:02 pm Subject: Re: [taigtools] Split-bed taig...is it feasible? They use a mild free machining steel - the bed is not heat treated. They assemble the extrusion, fill with concrete, then grind in a climate controlled room. Tom Cummings did what you suggest, but in a different way: http://www.cartertools.com/picture.html#TCT ------- From: Ken Jenkins Date: Wed Aug 1, 2001 9:27 am Subject: Re: Split bed Taig I missed some of this thread but it all depends on what you're going to machine with this "split bed lathe. If it's wood primarily, then I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you're planning on turning perfect steel cylinders 2 feet long between centers then I think you'd be best to think about a different lathe all together. I think Taig probably would resist the idea of making the Taig much longer the reasoning being ... the product they have now is inexpensive, relatively compact, study and solid. You start making things bigger, longer, wider and you move into a whole different category in terms of performance and manufacturing. Ken J. ------- From: Larry Richter Date: Wed Aug 1, 2001 11:47 am Subject: Re: [taigtools] Re: Split bed Taig The taig has a trick going for it in the bed mount that you would have to pay attention to, also. The pedestal mount is intended to free the bed from being deflected by whatever it is bolted to -- it's cantilevered. But for a few specialty jobs it might be worth the trouble to build a new long bed and use Taig's movable works on it, the main one being amateur rifle work, where the ability to cut a barrel to length and shape with inexpensive equipment could while away a lot of pleasent hours. A bed that used a piece of pre ground tool steel or pre ground pre hardened tool steel would probably be a nice starting point for building a lathe, not converting a Taig. ------- From: san3x~xxs... Date: Mon Aug 6, 2001 6:58 am Subject: Re: Split-bed taig...is it feasible? straight edge.........??? Am I correct in understanding that no one here knows how to align a split bed lathe using a dial indicator??? Either using a long bar to attach the indicator to and align the second bed along 3 axis or using a long test bar between centers to do the same. ------- From: Myron Gochnauer Date: Mon Aug 6, 2001 9:43 am Subject: Re: [taigtools] toolbit steel This may be of general interest, so I'll ask Nicholas Carter here rather than privately: Can the Nicholas Carter index plate work with the Frog? The Frog relies (at least for some functions) on a super magnetic attached to, or embedded in, the large side of the Taig spindle pulley (facing the headstock). When the index plate is attached, is it possible to embed the magnet in the index plate? Myron ------- From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Date: Mon Aug 6, 2001 1:07 pm Subject: Re: [taigtools] toolbit steel Yes, but you have to come up with a new way of mounting the sensor. I have pictures on my page: http://www.cartertools.com/frog2.jpg It is a very small, poor picture, but you will get the idea... http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- From: Stan Stocker Date: Mon Aug 6, 2001 2:07 pm Subject: Re: [taigtools] Re: Split-bed taig...is it feasible? Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein wrote: > If you mean by attaching an indicator to the carriage on the first bed and > running it along the first and second, that would get it parallell, a good > solution. I don't know where one would get a long test bar though... If you get the two beds darn close, and have a steady rest and a compound slide, you can make your own even with a slight bed misalignment. Use a length of precision ground shaft, even drill rod in a pinch. Cut to length and deburr each end. Hold one end in just the tip of the 3 jaw chuck, put the other end through the steady rest with as little sticking out as possible. Face the exposed end. Set the compound to match the desired center taper, typically 60 degrees. Bore the 60 degree hole for the center. Don't drill it, bore it using the compound. Flip the piece end for end and repeat. Because the stock is running on it's circumference, the bore with be concentric with the OD. TaDa! Quick and dirty alignment bars that are quite accurate made quick and cheap! If you don't have a headstock center, make one up using one of the inexpensive adapters, or in a pinch for alignment, turn a piece of shaft in the 3 jaw to a 60 degree point. If you don't take it out, you'll have a headstock center dead on the spindle axis of rotation. If further details are needed I can post later, right now I've got to get on the road! Stan ------- From: Tony Jeffree Date: Mon Aug 13, 2001 2:31 am Subject: Re: [taigtools] CNC Motor mounts > Can anyone tell me if there is a place or anyone making NEMA 34 > motor mounts that will fit the taig lathe cross slide? Or will I > have to make it myself?Thanks in advance, Bill I think you're on your own there... I know of people that have fitted size 23 motors to Taig lathes, but not size 34. The latter is likely to be overkill as far as power requirement goes. I don't know of any commercial motor mounts though, apart from the Frog, which uses an even smaller motor. Regards, Tony ------- From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Date: Mon Aug 13, 2001 12:39 pm Subject: Re: [taigtools] CNC Motor mounts You will have to make them yourself. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- From: Tony Jeffree Date: Wed Aug 15, 2001 5:41 pm Subject: Re: [taigtools] milling in Taig lathe At 07:18 16/08/2001 +1000, you wrote: >the question is this... when using the lathe for milling, how is the >milling bit held in the lathe? (most of the milling stuff I've seen >emntioned is always talking about 3/8" diameter shafts... I haven't got >around to boring out the spindle of my Taig to 3/8" yet (add that to the >list), but even if I do, how would a collet work?... I can't see any way >other than using the chuck... have I missed something? or do we use >smaller diameter milling cutters? (viz 1/4" TCT router bits) The Taig collet set will hold end mills with 3/16" and 1/4" shafts very nicely. If you want to hold a 3/8" end mill, the best approach will be to make your own end mill holder from a blank arbor, rather than attempting to bore the spindle out. Regards, Tony ------- From: "Carol & Jerry Jankura" Date: Wed Aug 15, 2001 9:11 pm Subject: RE: [taigtools] milling in Taig lathe Des: Sherline makes a 3/8 mill holder with the same 3/4-16 thread that the Taig spindle has, so that might do. Alternatively, you can drill and ream (or bore and ream) a 3/8 hole in one of the Taig blank arbors. Not an expensive job. I use one of the Taig arbors to make a 1/2 inch tool holder for my Sherline mill. Jerry ------- From: "Des Bromilow" Date: Tue Aug 21, 2001 4:25 pm Subject: carriage question OK, I'm now designing the mount for my travelling steady. I'm thinking I can put it in one of two places. Position 1. bolt to the leading edge of the carriage. I can go there easy enough, but I'm not sure if it's the best place to be, Position 2. Bolt or clamp to the flat area on the tail stock side of the carriage (along side the slide) This position has an area of around 20 x 90mm of "unused space" which I can either drill and tap, or clamp onto. My questions ... Where does the commercial travelling steady fit on? Is there any comercial Taig accessories which have a need for that spare real estate along side the slide? (I don't want to drill and tap, and then find some other accessory is supposed to go there. My other option for mounting in position 2 is to drill two shallow locating holes on the sides of the carriage (two on the front, and two on the back) and then make the steady so it sits on the spare space, but clamps across the carriage and uses the locating pins to prevent rising. This solution represents the least "change" to the basic Taig platform, but is more complex to fabricate. Thoughts? Des ------- Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 20:14:39 -0700 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: centering tail stock/ qeustion for Nick From: > Hi again. I have been trying off and on to center the tail stock > for a while now. I have it within about .001 or so, but allways move > it to far when making final adjustment. What is the best way to go > about this?? Jeff I use a plate that mounts to the tailstock t-slot on the back side. It has a screw that pushes the tailstock body over on the base. It is very easy to control the movement (in one direction). I should put a picture up of this on my site. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 11:15:28 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: carriage question On Wed, 22 Aug 2001, Des Bromilow wrote: > OK, I'm now designing the mount for my travelling steady. > I'm thinking I can put it in one of two places. > Position 1. bolt to the leading edge of the carriage. I can go there > easy enough, but I'm not sure if it's the best place to be, > Position 2. Bolt or clamp to the flat area on the tail stock side of > the carriage (along side the slide) This position has an area of around > 20 x 90mm of "unused space" which I can either drill and tap, or clamp > onto. My questions:Where does the commercial travelling steady fit on? I've always seen them in front of the tool (on the headstock side), but that doesn't necessarily mean that's the "right thing". > Is there any comercial Taig accessories which have a need for that > spare real estate along side the slide? (I don't want to drill and > tap, and then find some other accessory is supposed to go there.) I put my TDI-DRO there, so I'd have to opt for some other mounting point. But that's just me. ;) > My other option for mounting in position 2 is to drill two shallow > locating holes on the sides of the carriage (two on the front, and two > on the back) and then make the steady so it sits on the spare space, > but clamps across the carraige and uses the locating pins to prevent > rising. This solution represents the least "change" to the basic Taig > platform, but is more complex to fabricate. Hmmm! > Thoughts? Take a look at how the Sherline steady rest is set up. It bolts to the top and, I think, the front of the cross-slide. Taig has t-slots on both surfaces, so that could be done without any real modification to the lathe itself. But yeah, that ups the complexity as well. Tom ------- Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2001 17:47:43 -0400 From: Ken Jenkins Subject: Duplicator for wood turning on Taig (pictures) I posted some questions regarding a design I was working on for a wood turning duplicator on the Taig a while back. I got some very good responses and ideas from the group here. I thought I'd put up some pictures in the files area of the final design in case some of you are interested in how it turned out. It uses a LEXAN template and a brass probe tip mounted above a cut-off tool with the same cutting profile. It works great so far. Just finished a chess set (except for carving the knights) and it was a real time saver. It has two positions for both probe and cutter so that I can use it with the headstock and tailstock risers or without. The probe and cutter positions are adjustable and the entire head is also adjustable in a T-slot in the base section. The pictures are in my files area. You will have to log in to the Yahoo groups area to access (I think by now we all know how this works). Files: Ken Jenkins: Duplicator for wood turning : duplicator1.jpg duplicator7.jpg ------- Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 12:23:03 +1000 From: "Des Bromilow" Subject: my holidays Hi, I just got back to work from a 9 day holiday. What did I do with some of those days? Modified my tails tock with screw advance on the spindle, and screw based offset for long taper turning Built a boring bar holder and two boring bars. Built a knurling tool (clamp type) - But this doesn't seem to work very well. (The two knurls don't seem to line up too well, and keep "wandering" - I may have to rebuild. And best of all: Built a little guard to stop the chips falling into the rack gear which the carraige advances on. That job was one of the simplest and provided the best results. How did I do it? I had a small piece of that extrusion they use for suspended ceilings (looks like an inverted T with a barb in the vertical piece). Turns out that if you trim down one of the horizontal pieces the piece will fit into the dovetail behind the gear. then it was a case of trimming the protrusion so it didn't interfere with the saddle. If I get another piece I may redo it so the cover is closer to the rack, and slightly shorter. PS to help the cover get a good friction fit in the dovetail, I centre punched the piece to raise a few bumps which added a bit extra grip. Des ------- Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 06:47:35 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: my holidays Did anyone check out the article in Machinist's Workshop about modifications to the Taig? The guy inverted his rack so the teeth pointed down, and made a rubber shield for it. Chip free. I think his Taig was made before they started shipping with a shield on them. Mine's got the shield from Taig, which works really well. Otherwise I'd be inclined to make this mod. I'm hoping to have a one week holiday coming up at some point. Got lotsa machine shop stuff I want to do! Tom ------- Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 13:01:51 +0100 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: my holidays I had one of the early ones, with no shield. Made a shield from a piece of square section plastic tubing - works really well, but not quite as neat as the Taig-supplied ones. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 17:58:10 +0100 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Tailstock mods I've been busy modifying my tailstock today - photos in this folder: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taigtools/files/Tony%20Je ffree%27s%20Files/Tailstock%20mods/ The first of these shows a micrometer adjuster that allows the tailstock set-over to be adjusted accurately. This is mechanically very similar to the handwheel/leadscrew on the cross-slide, except the handwheel is 1" diam instead of about 1.25" in the case of the Taig item. I have used 20TPI screw & 50 grads marked on the handwheel; if you look very closely, you will see that the bearing plate is engraved with a vernier, so I can position the tailstock ram to tenths. This is probably totally unnecessary, but it was easy to do with the CNC mill (as was the handwheel engraving) so I decided to see what it came out like. You can see from the hole in the handwheel that it was originally fitted with a handle; however, this fouled the tailstock lever (as a consequence of other mods - see below), so I took it off. The leadscrew passes right through the body of the tailstock, and threads into a backplate attached onto the rear of the tailstock base. I have threaded the mounting bolts into the base, but T-bolts/nuts would be perfectly good for this, as the base has a T-slot in the right position. Other mods were to fit screws with knurled knobs in place of two of the socket head screws - these are visible in the first pic - and to fit an extended handle to the lever, made from some surplus 15mm OD copper plumbing pipe. The latter would have fouled the handwheel's handle, so I discarded the handle. This is no problem, as the handwheel can still be adjusted very easily. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 09:41:08 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Tailstock mods Excellent! I've been mucking with my tailstock prior to starting my first steam engine. Sorry, no pics yet (I'm at work), but I added a DRO to the tailstock. It's similar to the other "DRO"s on my lathe: it's a 2" travel dial indicator in a mounting block that uses the T-slots on top of the tailstock. There's a stop plate attached to the tailstock ram itself, on the brass ring. I used it last night to drill out the valve for a small oscillating engine. Worked like a charm! I was able to control the depth really really easily, and the intersecting holes met almost exactly at the drill tips. Looking at your pictures, Tony, I don't think my setup would interfere with yours at all. I was very interested to see the knurled knobs you used to replace the cap screws on the tailstock. I'd replaced mine some time ago with brass and steel t-handles. Turns out the indicator mount sitting on top of the tailstock fouled the t-handle for locking the ram, so I had to switch back to using a cap screw. I was puzzling about what to replace it with. Having seen yours, I think I'll make a set of knurled knobs. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take pictures tonight, and post them on the web site. I'm up to four indicators! Tom ------- Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 15:55:50 +0100 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Tailstock mods The knurled knobs are 1" diam by 1/2" thick - I would probably go for a bigger diam if I did it again, to get a bit more leverage (1.25" for example). The dial indicator mounted on the tailstock sounds like a cool idea - might pinch that one myself! Regards, Tony ------- Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 21:08:38 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Tailstock mods On Mon, 8 Oct 2001, Tom Benedict wrote: > On Mon, 8 Oct 2001, Tony Jeffree wrote: > > The dial indicator mounted on the tailstock sounds like a cool idea - > > might pinch that one myself! > Hey, pinch away! Nothing special about the mounting hardware. It's a > block with counterbored #10-32 screw holes 1.06" apart (I'm assuming > it should've been 1.00, but tha'ts what I measured.) There's a 3/8" > hole drilled and reamed through the block, and a #10-32 set-screw to > hold the D.I. in place. The part the tip of the D.I. rests against is > just a chunk of 1/8" aluminum with a hole bored in it to fit that > brass collar on the tailstock ram. The outline was cut with a jeweler's > saw, and the whole thing was filed to shape. I'll post pictures. ;) Ok, I posted some pictures. They're in my file area. Two directly pertain to the tailstock DRO: tail-dro-side.jpg tail-dro-nose.jpg Two views of the tailstock "DRO". (Gotta put quotes around that... Not strictly a DRO, not strictly as accurate as one might want. But loads better than no gradutations at all!) The nose view shows the plate attached to the tailstock ram. The shape was rough sawed then filed. The slit was cut with a jeweler's saw after drilling for the #2-56 locking screw. All the work except the saw and file work was done on the lathe using the 4-jaw chuck. Two more: dro-1.jpg dro-2.jpg These are kinda family portraits showing the four D.I. DRO's I've put on my lathe. The other three are the same as the ones pictured on Nick's site. One last one: oscillator-start.jpg A shot of the start I've made on an oscillating steam engine. It's sitting on top of a toolpost, right under one of the dial indicators. Hope it works when I finish it! This is what sparked my interest in finally finishing the tailstock DRO (I bought the dial indicator for it at the same time as the other three). I wanted to be able to drill the ports accurately. It worked quite well! I managed to make the tips of the drill holes for the ports and for the 1/8" inlet and exhaust holes (into which I still need to silver solder some 1/8" brass tubing) meet almost exactly. Almost forgot! I remembered that little t-handle I made for tightening the tailstock ram doesn't require much "throw" to go from full tight to full loose. Turns out the handled points in a convenient direction, so it was compatible with the tailstock DRO after all! Back in business. The knurled handles will have to wait. Tom ------- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 10:09:15 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: What type of cement is used in the Taig lathe bed? 1/2 plastic portland cement 1/2 silica sand http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 21:55:22 -0000 From: "toddfoh" Subject: MiniMech info Here is my email: Ken, How much are you charging for your threading attachment on your webpage? You don't have a price listed. Are you geared up for producing these in quantity? Or are you making them to order? Why would you not include the gear for making 20 TPI threads, given that 1/4-20 is such a popular screw size? I hope you don't mind if I pass your answers on to the TaigTools Yahoo group... Todd F. The response: Todd, Right now pricing is a problem for me. I am going to be charging $150.00 for this kit until I find out how this settles down. Same as the $145.00+$5.00(shipping) that it is listed on eBay. There are quite a few man-hours in one of these kits and it depends upon how little I am willing to work for although the belts and pulleys are not cheap either - even in the quantity that I get them. The double sided timing belt that enables left hand threads to be cut costs about $10.00 believe it or not. I was going to offer the kit with the Left-Hand-Threading attachment as extra option but didn't do it (yet). I am getting geard up to make these in quantity but need to know the market reaction (In business terms). Yes, I was going to include the (may yet do so) gear/pulley for 20TPI but it was kind of a single use gear. I ran a computer program using all the different pulleys in all different combinations to see what timing chains were most practical. It turns out that the supplied pulleys (Basic-Six set) all get used at least a couple of times in the complete repertorie of set ups but the 20 tooth gear used/needed for the 20TPI only got used for that one thread pitch (maybe a couple of other not-so-important pitches also). Same for the pulley required for the 44TPI thread. I figured that these pulleys are so easily available (with a 1/4" arbor hole) that most users would/could get their own and many others besides. I had to stop somewhere. Also 20TPI is getting on the heavy side of what can be driven by the little V-belt pulley that comes with the lathe and which I also use. A bigger pulley definately lies within the capability of the lathe considering its ridgity but its large diameter gets in the way of my puuley carrier frame so I am going with the original pulley size. A hand crank can be made to get some real torque into the spindle for heavy cuts though. Take a look at the web site www.MiniMech.com if you haven't yet. I have to quit writing so much and get back to the hardware. I don't mind you passing this along anywhere. The exposure is welcome but I've got to provide the 'goods' first. More work than I thought. Regards, Ken Knaell And my response back: Ken, Thanks for getting back to me. I'll definitely pass this info on the the rest of the Taig Tools people. Don't be suprised if you get a bunch of responses. I certainly understand about component prices being high. I'm a mechanical engineer, and price out components like this all the time. I did check out your website as soon as I saw the ebay add. I have a suggestion you might consider... It looks like 7 to 10 of the parts are milled from chunks of aluminum. Keeping in mind the market you are targeting (Taig owners who tend to be "do-it-yourselfers") perhaps you might considering a "semi-kit" form of your product. For me personally, I wouldn't mind milling the "chunky" parts myself, if I had drawings to work from. The rest of the purchased parts, the threaded and straight rods, and the split nut assembly would be the hardware I would want to buy from you. This may allow you to reduce your labor costs of machining, while still getting compensation for your design. Photocopying drawings and getting paid for it is more profitable time-wise than machining parts. This would let you reduce the cost of your kit as well. I have a Taig mill, but I do not yet have a Taig lathe, specifically because there was not threading capability available as an easy add on. The next best thing, (and your direct competition) is the CNC Frog add-on for $200. Getting your kit down in price from $150 to $100 would do two things. 1) Lots of people would buy Taig lathes, because threading would be available for a reasonable price. 2) You would sell a lot of kits. Given the $50 price difference between your complete add-on and a CNC option, I think people will weigh the difference and go with the Frog. But, $100 for a kit that requires some modest effort to complete wouldn't be bad at all. In any case, probably the best thing you could do to spread the word about your threading attachment would be to let Nick Carter borrow a kit to review. He is the Taig Tools guru, and if he likes it, and puts a review on his website, you will be all set. That is what happened with the Frog attachment, and they sold so many they couldn't keep the parts in stock. If there is anything I can do to help you out in your efforts, let me know. Now that I know your product is available, I'll probably be placing an order with Nick for a lathe within the week. It is in my own interest to help you get your kit cost down, because I plan to become a customer in the near future. good luck, Todd Ferrante http://my.myaxiom.net/~r9800216/MillingMachine/MillingMachine.htm ------- Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 13:20:31 -0600 From: "Bad Brad" Subject: Re: compound cross slide >Recently i swapped the bed from my compound cross slide onto the >lathe saddle by drilling a hole in the saddle to take the nut, this >worked fine but now I want to resurrect my compound cross slide and >mount it onto an aluminium block to modify it into a vertical milling vise. >First job is to make a new block that fits at the front of the bed to >carry the screw handle, this is the (usually) blued steel block held >on by two machine screws, my problem is identifying the thread for >the big hole that the control screw fits through, I think it is a >5/16th but not sure what type of thread, can anyone tell me please? > regards, Terry I hope that what I am about to tell you will be of some use. I modified my Taig lathe to accept Sherline hand wheels (see Nick Carters Taig Lathe pages picture section). What I did was measure the outside diameter of the handwheel shaft's guide threads for the major diameter. I then counted the number of threads in a quarter inch and multiplied by four. The threads were cut using the gathered data and the part worked fine. Forrest ------- Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 22:07:01 GMT From: Terence Lynock Subject: Re: compound cross slide The message <00a401c1a556$65dae7a0$6a28f30cx~xxattbi.com> from "Jeff Bissonnette" contains these words: >> Was this conversion that straightforward? I'm considering it as well, but don't want to scrap a saddle doing it. Does it really result in a significant gain in cross slide travel? Thanks, Jeff << It took me about ten minutes to do, just mark out the position of the hole on the saddle for the brass nut from the backplate of the compound slide and drill it out, the spigot length on the compound nut is different to the one on the normal cross slide, cant remember which one had the longer brass nut spigot but I just shortened it to suit. What I like about the mod is that apart from about 3/8th'' extra travel is that the knob travels with the cross slide, the original knob is fixed to the saddle and doesnt move with the cross slide, the remains of my compound have just been rebuilt into a milling attachment, made a replacement block from brass to go on the front of the cross slide bed to take the knob, made the 90' mounting block from a big lump of aluminium. I just have the holding jaws for the bed to make and its finished, I used a spare compound slide baseplate for the milling attachment so I can still take the complete bed with the brass nut off the milling attachment and put it back on its proper baseplate for use as a compound cross slide, why Taig dont come up with something like this I dont know, all you need is the 90' mounting block and a baseplate, regards, Terry ------- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 17:40:02 -0800 From: "David Goodfellow" Subject: Re: Duplicator for the Taig? From: rrhewson > Has anyone any suggestions for a duplicator to fit the Taig, either > store bought or homemade. I have sen varous types for full size > lathes, but not the "mini". I want to turn chess sets out of wood and > make parts that are close copies to each other. You might try: http://www.pennstateind.com/new.html They have a "Universal" duplicator for pen turning lathes, for about $100. I bought a duplicator from them for my Carba-Tec mini wood lathe, and am quite happy with it. Dave Goodfellow Northridge, CA ------- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 21:03:37 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: Duplicator for the Taig? Remember that there are t-slots on the headstock and tailstock behind the lathe. Add a piece of angle iron, bolt a profile to that, make the crosslide controllable from that with a cam follower (remove leadscrew) and spring load it, and use compound for feed. (one of the projects I may get to some day...) http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 14:55:34 -0500 From: Ken Jenkins Subject: Re: Wood turning duplicator Check my folder in the files area. I built a duplicator for my Taig lathe for just that purpose! Works great. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taigtools/files/Ken%20Jenkins/Duplicator%20for %20wood%20turning/ ------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 20:47:28 -0500 From: "Daniel Munoz" Subject: RE: Re: Duplicator - Terence Hello Terence! About brass cannons, I made a few ones with my lathe (I have a Sherline), and even without a duplicator I learned a way to make them all at the same time, repeating after each single setting the cut on all the cannons in parallel. I used a setup "between points": http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon1.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon2.jpg You certainly noticed the material I used was big brass bolts :-) The easiest source of brass I could found. And here they are, finished: http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon3.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon4.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon5.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canonx6.jpg But surely using a duplicator would have been easiest ! Fortunately I only needed 6 cannons for my model "La Belle" ;-) I also machined maple wood with some success on the mill, cutting all the parts for the cannon carriages very quickly, slicing some wood bars previously shaped using end mill cutters with the proper profile: http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon-affut.jpg The carriages are not finished, I still need to make in brass all the tiny little rigging parts, bolts, nails... Are you using your Taig lathe to make parts for your ship models ? Daniel. ------- Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 12:52:22 -0000 From: "Leon Heller" Subject: Some simple lathe additions The Peatol mounting plate I use for my lathe and motor is a bit awkward, as it has the motor support plate mounting studs protruding from the underside. Until recently I just rested the thing on a couple of pieces of wood, but it wasn't very secure, and the whole thing tended to slide about a bit. I went to my local Maplin Electronics emporium and purchased four of the largest circular rubber mounting feet they had. They are nice and robust with steel inserts. They wouldn't raise the plate enough for the studs, so I made some spacers from a piece of 1 1/8" Al round bar, turning them to length and drilling a 6 mm hole to match the rubber feet. I drilled corresponding holes in the mounting plate and fitted them. It now looks very neat, vibrates less and is extremely stable. When drilling the spacers I got fed up with the drill lever hurting my hand and decided to do something about it. The lever appeared to be 1/2" wide and my usual metal supplier had some 5/8" OD steel tubing that he thought would have about the correct ID, so I purchased a piece, and cut off about 7". The lever was slightly too wide for the tubing, so I filed it down a bit until the tube was a nice push fit. Problem solved! When I removed the lever, a bit of the split-pin securing it to the tailstock spindle broke off, so I turned a little shouldered pin out of a short piece of MS to replace it - much neater. I never liked that split-pin, does anyone? Leon Leon Heller, G1HSM leon_hellerx~xxhotmail.con http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller Low-cost Altera Flex design kit: http://www.leonheller.com ------- Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 23:27:14 -0800 From: stevejacksonx~xxbigfoot.com Subject: lead screw mod Does anyone have a source for left hand coupling nuts in either 1/4- 20 or 5/16-18? Can find threaded frod but no couplings. Thanks Steve ------- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 07:03:30 -0700 From: "Doug Powell" <4machiningx~xxattbi.com> Subject: Re: lead screw mod Hardware with left hand threads can be tough to find. The smallest LH coupling nut McMaster offers is 3/8"-16. You may have to pick up a LH tap and make your own. Their web site address is www.mcmaster.com. Good luck, Doug ------- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 10:08:39 -0600 From: "Bad Brad" Subject: Re: lead screw mod For the nut you can use a turn-buckle. One half of the turn-buckle has a left hand thread in it. The threaded rod can be special ordered from most hardware stores. Forrest ------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 00:56:37 EST From: tadici283x~xxcs.com Subject: Re: Re: MT2 to Taig spindle ... huh? other choices Here is an idea that I did some time ago: Go to the local scrap yard and get a block of alumin. 3x3x4, then order a tailstock extension from some where like Shoptask (approx. 15 dollars). This is a piece of metal that has the MT2 taper in it already and is ideal for making a new headstock for your Taig mill. This will need to be turned down to 1" and the alumin block drilled/bored to match new bearings; the end away from the MT2 turn down to accept a pulley and drill through that end for a draw bar. Now you can put larger bearing in your new headstock that can take much greater loads. A good bearing to try is boat trailer bearings; they are cheap in cost and super strong. I started with this but later switched to shielded bearings that were smoother to turn. With this headstock you can place greater loads and also turn it up higher although that is not necessary for most jobs. This is also a good time to switch to xl pulleys and belts and a varispeed motor like a treadmill motor. Chris of Bradenton FLA. ------- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 17:39:03 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: CNC Mill as Lathe I posted some pictures in my folder for how I'm using my CNC mill as a lathe. They're in "Tom's Taig"/"EMC CNC Mill". The basic setup is a Taig CNC mill with the head turned 90 degrees clockwise. This puts it rotating the opposite direction from what I'm used to, but I couldn't get the motor to fit any other way. (At some point I'll wise up and change the motor mount so it can sit on either side of the spindle.) All in all, the results are pretty good. I wasn't that careful about aligning the spindle to be parallel to the mill bed, and I didn't really measure my tooling before setting up the toolpath. So if things look a little rough, it's because they really were a little rough. This configuration isn't exactly how I plan on using this machine. This was just a test run to see if I could control it properly. (The answer is yes, but it took me a while because I'm using new software I'm not 100% comfortable with yet.) Eventually I'd like to use two different setups for doing lathe work on the mill: The first (my initial idea) is to actually mount my Taig lathe on the mill bed. I've already made the adapter plate. I just need a bunch of #10-32 screws to finish the job. This will let me turn long things and use the tailstock. The second setup is to mount the spindle vertically, just as if it were to be used as a mill. The chuck would be mounted on the spindle, face-down. All the lathe tooling would be mounted on the mill bed, pointing up, or on short toolposts, pointing sideways. This would let me do face milling using a number of different cutters. I'll take pictures of the other setups when I get them working. Tom ------- Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 20:22:08 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Re: Mill as a lathe Hehahaha! Yeah, bonkers is right. I tried cutting stainless today with a carbide cutter. The finish is ten times better what I've been getting by hand. I'm sold. Still haven't actually aligned the head with the mill bed, though. This is all speculative. In case anyone's been keeping track of my other posts, you've probably figured out what this is for (initially, anyway): I couldn't afford the P.P.Thornton (Successors) clock wheel and pinion cutters, so I'm making a set. I got the profiles all CADded up, and I'm ready and rarin' to go. I'm just waiting for the order of drill rod to show up, and I'll start cutting. If I manage to pull off making gear cutters using this setup, I'll definitely take pictures! Tom ------- Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 10:26:31 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: CNC Mill as Lathe Tom, I have been thinking of doing this with some differences. Using Supercam, I'll swap the z and y axis motor leads so that I can use Supercams plotbuff feature. I plan on mounting a bunch of toolposts on the lathe and using it almost like a turret lathe. I haven't figured out how to mount each tooltip at a certain dimension yet, but one should be able to turn, drill and cutoff in one program. The head would stay in the same vertical position, rather than horizontally. You could also make yours perform like a turret lathe as well, by mounting more toolholders to the bed. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 16:24:55 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: CNC Mill as Lathe Nick, for face milling, or milling on short things, I think that'd be my prefered setup. I think if you chucked up an indicator block, say a cylinder with known diameter (0.500", say) and a step 1.00" away from the collet, dropping to a 0.200" diameter, you could line up a lot of tools just by moving the head around. For milling long things, I still think the best bet is going to be mounting the entire lathe on the mill bed. It'll mean fewer positions to mount tooling, but it'll mean getting a tailstock out of the deal. I want to try using this setup to do some pen turning. Tom ------- Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 09:59:39 -0500 From: Ken Jenkins Subject: Re: Boring out spindle to 25/64ths > I know this subject has been hashed out several times. But, if you > bore out the spindle hoe from .343 to just over .375, will there be > any problems using the collets. I use the collets quite a bit and > really do not want to give up their precision. It would be really > nice to have a 3/8" spindle hole, but I would not do it if it would > make the collets fit less precise. > Have any of you folks done this and still continue to use collets? > Any and all comments welcome. I have done this twice (once on my lathe spindle and once on my mill spindle. No problems what-so-ever. I if you think it through the spindle past-thru has nothing to do with the way collet gripping works. Ken Jenkins ------- Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 07:07:36 -0800 From: "JimBeggerow" Subject: Re: Bore out the taig to 3/8" No problem bored mine about a year ago and the collets will work fine. I even made a 3/8 collet that works very well. Jim B ------- Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 09:20:25 -0600 (CST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Bore out the taig to 3/8" I did this on my mill and my lathe, but I stopped short of boring clear through. My concern is that I use the drill chuck arbor on both mill and lathe quite a bit. I was worried that boring clear through would make it so the nut that holds the arbor in place could no longer be used. At one point I asked about that, and Nick said something like, "Fine. Make another nut that DOES fit." DOH! I still haven't done this, but it was a point well taken. The collets work great with the bored out spindle. And if boring clear through makes it so the drill chuck arbor doesn't work, you can always make another nut. Tom ------- Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 10:04:37 -0700 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: longer bed ...a few people have grafted a second bed onto the first: http://www.cartertools.com/picture.html#TCT shows one way http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 23:22:54 -0000 From: "martingene95030" Subject: Re: Backstop on the Taig mill --- In taigtoolsx~xxy..., "jumbo75007" wrote: > To make it quicker to square up and secure my vice and possibly > other items to the mill table, I have thought about making a > "backstop" to go on the back side of the mill table. My > thought is to drill and tap Years ago when I bought the milling attachment, I drilled and tapped two holes on the back side of the milling attachment. Bolted a "backstop" to the milling attachment and when I install it on the slide, I just push forward on the milling attachment as I tignten the bolt holding the attachment to the top slide. If I remember, I dialed in the attachment and filed the back so it was parallel to the back of the slide. ------- Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 08:43:56 -0700 From: James Eckman Subject: Re: Backstop on the Taig mill > To make it quicker to square up and secure my vice and possibly other > items to the mill table, I have thought about making a "backstop" to > go on the back side of the mill table. How square is square? If your going to use a backstop, that's probably about as accurate as using a square. Otherwise you will have to tram it in as required for high precision setups. ------- Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 19:27:10 -0000 From: "Silicon Knight" Subject: Hi Is there a way to hold a 3/8" shank tool in the TAIG? On the Sherline machines, you can get an end mill holder to do that; is the same option available? Seems to me that, not being able to hold a 3/8 shank cutter is a BIG design flaw, seeing how a lot of cutters are 3/8" shank. I am interested in swapping out the TAIG"s spindle with the Sherline spindle; seeing how Sherline designed their spindle to use a standard Morse Taper #1 taper and has the provision to chuck 3/8" holders. Has anyone made this modification before? I do have access (and the skills) to a machine shop with a nice Bridgeport milling machine, so I can bore out the bearing mounts to the right size to fit the Sherline bearings, if necessary. ------- Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 11:59:55 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: Hi http://www.cartertools.com/newjose4.html has the details how to make one if you have a lathe. Several customers have made their own spindle/headstocks. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 15:28:34 -0500 From: "Carol & Jerry Jankura" Subject: RE: Hi A couple of thoughts -- 1. Why not take an instance of Taig's threaded arbor and bore and ream it for a 3/8 inch diameter mill, then use a single-ended 3/8 shank tool with you Taig? I've successfully used the Taig arbors on my Sherline mill to get a 1/2 inch bore. 2. Otherwise, why not simply trade the Taig for a Sherline, or lacking that, purchase the Sherline headstock and adapt it to your Taig? Jerry ------- Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 12:53:11 -0800 From: "David Goodfellow" Subject: Re: Hi I bought a Sherline end mill holder. Works fine, without modification Dave Goodfellow Lancaster, CA ------- NOTE TO FILE: There is a series of pictures and instructions on the Yahoo Sherline group site in the Photos section that shows a clever set of clamps/mods to deal with backlash on all 3 mill axes. Simple and relatively bulletproof. Should apply equally well to mills and lathes by most makers, particularly the smaller machines. ------- Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2002 18:13:56 +0000 From: "steve sc" Subject: Motorized traverse axis Taig Lathe Thought the group might be interested in a project I just completed. I "semi" automated the traverse axis of my Taig lathe. Check out: http://home.attbi.com/~l.scampini/tlathe.htm Steve ------- Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 13:13:59 -1000 (HST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Question regarding the Taig... On Wed, 8 Jan 2003, gt40_gt40 wrote: > I need to fabricate some small bushings from aluminum and Delrin (approx > 1.5" OD). I'm trying to decide of which lathe to get and I'm stuck > between a mini-lathe (Homier, probably,) or the Taig (which is cheaper, > and frankly, looks better made.) My concern is being able to accurately > bore a hole through the center of the bushing. I'll get to this in a sec. > I understand the many of the Taig kits come with a Jacobs 1/4" chuck to > mount on the tailstock. Is a larger chuck available (I'd like to bore > an ID of up to 0.75") Larger chucks are available, but I'd use a different approach, if possible. > Second, do you think boring a through hole is possible with the design > of the Taig's headstock? You betcha. You might need to put a spacer behind your part so the boring bar doesn't hit the chuck, but it's certainly doable. > I'm thinking of possibly machining the bushing perhaps 0.25" too long, > boreing *into* that extra bit, flipping the piece around in the lathe, > and then cutting off the excess material, leaving (hopefully) a cleanly > bored through-hole. Opinions? Are you making two separate bushings, one out of Delrin and one out of aluminum, or is it a single piece with both materials in it? The reason I'm asking is that I'd be inclined to approach the Delrin part a little differently than I'd approach the aluminum part. I'm assuming my material is already at the correct OD. If it's not, I'd turn it down between centers until it had the right OD. At 1.5" OD, you probably wouldn't get that much deflection. If I was making a lot of these, I'd be inclined to set up the three jaw chuck and bore out the jaws to 1.5". That would let you hold the part in the 3-jaw chuck, which would make for faster material changes. It would also give you the option of bolting on a set of custom jaws that would support the part for its entire length. I wouldn't be so concerned about this with aluminum, but if your ID is close to your OD, the Delrin might have a tendency to squish out of round. Using custom jaws, you could essentially grab the Delrin for its entire length and for most of its circumference. Back to boring out the hole: Pre drill with a nice big drill, but still leave some material. Finish the bore with a boring bar. It'll give you a smoother surface, and it won't have any tendency to go off-center like a drill can. Since the boring bar is attached to the cross slide and not the tailstock, this also means that you're not limited by the size of drill bit you can chuck into the tailstock. You can start with a 1/2" hole and open it up to 1.5", though it might take a while. At 1.5" OD, this would be a job well within the range of the Taig. Flipping the bushing around and facing it to length is certainly an option, but it's one I'd avoid if possible. Once you remove a part and re-clamp it, you're never 100% certain if it's lined up the same way. If you can do the entire operation before removing the part, so much the better. Just curious, do you have any other jobs in mind? The reason I'm asking is there are ways to cut down on tooling costs if all you're ever going to make are these bushings. I mentioned the 3-jaw chuck, but you could also do this by making a custom jig on a faceplate. It would mean not having to buy a chuck, and it would still hold the part so the ID and OD would be concentric. > I'm also looking for a good source for the lathe. I got mine from Nick Carter, and have had zero complaints: http://www.cartertools.com Tom ------- Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 10:27:50 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: Live Center? From: > Does anyone know where I can get a larger live center than the one > Taig sells that will fit in the Taig tailstock? Kevin No one sells one, but it would be easy enough to make, just start with some precision ground 1/2" shafting, some bearings which will fit, a snap ring or collar behind the bearings to take up the thrust, and make a 60 deg. cone with a bored recess for the bearings. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 08:37:41 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: ww spindle At 07:58 11/02/2003 +0000, you wrote: >Is it worth the extra $30 to get the spindle that accepts ww collets? >Does this effect the machine capacities at all? It makes sense if you already have a stack of WW collets, (they are fairly expensive to buy, even used ones - I believe Sherline sell their own at not unreasonable prices) and if you are likely to do a lot of work using collets. WW collets are probably more accurate than the Taig collets. What you will lose is: - The ability to use the standard Taig collets (which are cheap & reasonably accurate for most purposes), but if you have WW collets that is not an issue; - The ability to use the Taig headstock drill chuck arbor (which needs the Taig collet taper); - The ability to use the Taig chuck depth stop (which needs the Taig collet taper). One possibility if you can afford it is to buy both headstocks & swap them over according to what you need. Alternatively, you can make up your own drill chuck adaptor and depth stop using the WW taper - neither would be hard to do. I have made myself a headstock drill chuck adaptor from a Taig blank arbor - particularly useful in the Taig mill where the limited Z travel can make it a hassle to use the Taig drill chuck arbor. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 15:16:07 -0000 From: "barrywatch " Subject: Re: ww spindle Bruce: To add to what Tony said, the advantage of making your own 8mm adapter from a blank arbor is that you are able to use the existing taig collets as well as the 8mm collets. What's the advantage? The 8mm collets don't permit through work much above 5mm. Collets above that size only permit a short stub to be inserted. With the Taig collets you can go up to 5/16", approximately 8mm diameter. So there is an advantage in keeping the original headstock, especially for clock work. Granted the 8mm collets are probably more accurate, but the Taig collets are good for their purpose and this just provides you with more options. Barry B ------- Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 16:14:41 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Re: ww spindle Barry - Making an 8mm/WW adaptor from a blank arbor is certainly a possibility, but I suspect that you would lose some (if not all) of the potential accuracy advantage of the 8mm/WW collets in the process. My experience with using blank arbors is that repeatability is not that great - machine it in situ so the bore is true, remove & re-fit the arbor, & the bore is not guaranteed to be concentric anymore. So my personal choice would be to use the WW headstock for WW collets & the standard headstock for the Taig collets. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 16:37:42 -0600 From: "Bad Brad" Subject: Re: ww spindle Bruce: If you do get A WW spindle be aware that WW collets do not offer the same side load ability that the taig collets do. I have a Taig lathe with a WW spindle and it works well. I also have a standard spindled Taig too and use it more often due to the bigger opening in the spindle. Forrest ------- Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 05:21:46 EST From: thomasm923x~xxaol.com Subject: Re:Re: Taig Servo Conversion Msg8320 Has anyone considered BSA's Anti-Backlash Supernuts as an alternative to ballscrews in a Taig retrofit? We have them on a tabletop mill and I really like them. Backlash is almost nonexistent. The half-inch screw would be a tight fit on a Taig, but this is what I am going to shoot for. I know of a guy that successfully used the 3/8 screw on a Taig. http://www.ballscrews.com/html/2/2_index.html Be sure to check out their Fine Line ballscrews. REALLY fine threads... http://www.ballscrews.com/html/fineline/index.html -Tom Murray ------- Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 15:36:27 -1000 (HST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Re:Re: Taig Servo Conversion Msg8320 On Thu, 13 Feb 2003, J Hamilton wrote: --- In taigtoolsx~xxyahoogroups.com, thomasm923x~xxa... wrote: > > Has anyone considered BSA's Anti-Backlash Supernuts as an > > alternative to ballscrews in a Taig retrofit? > Acetyl inserts in the Supernuts sounds like it would be good for the > sort of loading I'm up for. That does seem like the way to go. Now > you've gone all interesting with possibility... as long as they aren't > 1K$. I'll make an inquiry about price. > Does this guy you mention post to the group or have a website (thinking > out loud: that would be too EASY!) ? Fitting it under the table might be a bit of a trick, but BSA's web site says it'll handle 125 pound loads. Their finest 1/2" lead is 0.100", though. For a stepper system that would make it faster on the rapids, but it would reduce the amount of force a given motor could apply. Using the SNAB nut from BSA would require a slightly more complicated mount (you'd have to do threading), but it's a smaller size and has a load cap of 150 pounds instead of 125. The OD on their 1/2" nut is 1.000", and it'll go down to an 0.0625" lead on the screw (still not 0.050", but close.) So it looks like going this route would still entail replacing the leadscrews, but from what their literature says the price should still be easier on the pocketbook than ballscrews. Tom ------- Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 21:33:04 -0800 From: "JAMES BEGGEROW" Subject: Re: Re:Re: Taig Servo Conversion Msg8320 I have converted the z axis on my Taig with a 1/2-10 left hand supernut. The next project is to convert the x and y axis with 3/8-10 left hand supernuts. I also converted a Homier 7x12 lathe with supernuts last year and have run a couple of thousand parts on it and can hold tolernces of +/- .0005. So far no problems. Jim -------- Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 22:31:15 -0000 From: "stevenson_engineers " Subject: Re:Re: Taig Servo Conversion Msg8320 >--- In taigtoolsx~xxyahoogroups.com, Tony Jeffree wrote: > The point about the design is that the spring adjusts the > separation of the two parts of the nut to take up any backlash. > Take a look at the diagram here: > http://www.ballscrews.com/html/2/9.html > When you fit the nut to the screw, you compress the spring. > Obviously, there is a limit to the pre-load that the spring can provide, > but it is better than nothing. I think the design in MEW used aluminium > bronze for the nuts, but this sounds like massive overkill to me. I have modified some lead screw nuts in the past to make anti backlash nuts using those dished belville washers in opposed pairs. Six washers making 3 pairs will only take up about 1/4" in length. You need a series of locating holes around the free nut so you can adjust it and then use a locking screw to locate into the nearest hole. Two screw locations in opposite positions and an uneven number of locating holes will give you double the combinations. This makes for a very compact nut arrangement. Another mod well worth doing is to drill a lubricating hole into the nut block and fit a small nylon pipe. Lead this pipe up inside a 35mm film can and epoxy it in so the pipe is near the top. Then fit a small piece of pipe cleaner into the pipe and bend over into the film can. If this is filled with oil and placed higher than the nut block it will act as an auto lube. To stop it leaking at the end of machine use, just bend the pipe cleaner clear of the oil level. John S. ------- Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 06:46:00 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Re:Re: Taig Servo Conversion Msg8320 At 15:50 13/02/2003 -1000, you wrote: >Say, do you think this trick would work for slides? I've got a shaper I'm >in the middle of refurbing. I put snap-cap oilers on it, but I'd rather >set something up that's a little more like what you describe. I'd >probably find something a little larger than a 35mm film can, though. The >shaper really does kinda suck oil on the ram. Can't see why you couldn't adapt it to work with slides, and even fit a tap below the can to turn off the lube. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 23:59:15 -0000 From: "yrrab57 " Subject: I'm worried - newbie I bought a taig lathe (called a peatol where I live , UK) about 2 weeks ago. I assembled the whole thing in great exitment and started lapping in the crosslide as per instuctions. While doing this I noticed that the carriage ran much more easily at the far right hand end of the ways than anywhere else. After lapping and cleaning off the bed and lubricating the problem persisted. If you imagine a verical axis running down right through the centre of the carriage - I could rotate the carriage about this axis (at the right hand end of the ways), not much, but I could hear, see and feel the movement, only at one end of the ways though. On top of this there was obviously something wrong with the crosslide screw mechanism. It was tight in parts while operating the screw. You could also see that the screw was not turning true. I contacted my supplier and sent the ways, crosslide and screw back to him. Talking on the phone a day or two later my supplier told me that he cold find nothing at all wrong with the ways/carriage and that he had straightened out the crosslide screw. I was confused, (I know what I saw), but bowing to superior experience I agreed to him sending the things back to me. Now that I have it back - it's just the same. If I tighten the gibs up and liberally oil the ways, I can find a state where no play is detectable but to do this it makes the travel of the carriage just a bit too tight at the left hand end of the ways. The crosslide screw is still exactly the same. I know its wrong because I also bought the milling attachment and the screw on that is fine. Being inexperienced I was feeling that perhaps this is how things normaly are and perhaps I was expecting too much, but tonight I have found a new problem and I am just about ready to send the whole thing back and forget about my dream of owning a lathe. I set up the tailstock with a small drill bit in the chuck, removed the 3 jaw chuck and fitted a small milling bit in the spindle. I moved the tailstock up so that the two were close and to my dismay....... They don't meet. The drill bit was visibly lower than the milling tool. Perhaps only half a mm but visible. Am I expecting too much? Can these problems be rectified? Who should rectify them? I really need some advise from people who know these machines. thanks in anticipation. ------- Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 14:54:14 -1000 (HST) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: I'm worried - newbie That sounds odd. Mine is smooth from one end of the ways to the other. And at no point can I grab the carriage and find any sort of play. It's consistant along the entire lathe bed. The cross slide screw is stickier. Mine came with a bent screw. I did what I could to straighten it, and over time it has basically worn itself in. It's pretty uniform now. The tailstock sounds dreadful! Here are some things to try: Using a collet, chuck up a length of material (brass would work well on this, but take your choice). If you've got a compound, use that to turn a taper. If not, rotate your toolpost so the cutting edge hits the brass at an angle. Use that as a forming tool to cut a tapered point on the material. The angle of the taper isn't important, but something close to 60 degrees included angle would be nice. Leave that material in the collet. Take the Jacobs chuck off the tailstock. There should be a dead center on the end of the tailstock ram. Bring the tailstock ram up right next to the taper you cut in the headstock. See if they're anything even approaching close. As a last test, get some thin material (I use my 6" scale for this), and put it between the headstock and the tailstock, and use the tailstock handle to "pinch" the material between the two tapered points. Ideally you want the thin material to be pinned so that there's no tilt to it. It should be straight up and down, and should be parallel to your cross slide. If there's any sort of tilt to it, it means your tailstock ram is not centered on your headstock spindle. All's not lost provided it's close. If it's off by half a millimeter, I'd definitely send it back and try to get something closer. If it's off by a few thou, you can fix it: Before doing anything else, try this test with the tailstock completely retracted and with the tailstock completely extended. Hopefully the two tests will have similar or identical results. This means your tailstock ram is parallel to the lathe bed. Just not centered on the spindle. If it looks like the tailstock ram is parallel to the lathe bed, the next step is to set the left-right adjustment. There should be a cap head screw on the tail end of the tailstock. Loosen this and adjust the tailstock side to side until it looks like the pinch test says it's straight in that regard. If it looks like any up-down adjustment is necessary, find out if the tailstock is too high or too low. If it's too low, you can shim it up. If it's too high, you'll need to remove material from it. Hope it's low. Start with thin shims and work your way up. You'll have to re-center the side-to-side adjustment each time, unfortunately. This should get you going. But again, if it's off as much as you say I'd send it back and get another. Half a millimeter is a LOT. Mine came with a side-to-side offset of about 7 thou, and a top-to-bottom offset of about two thou. Tom ------- Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 10:07:26 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: I'm worried - newbie Sometimes the problem isn't the carriage, but the eccentric for the pinion. If it is set incorrectly it can cause binding. Try setting it looser. For the crosslide screw, I often lap the screw, slides and the bearing, running the whole thing back and forth while tightening the gibs with a cordless drill/driver (easier than cranking back and forth by hand 200 times). Keep adding lapping (bon ami and oil) compound as you do this. Sometimes the nut is set incorrectly, I find deburring the hole it is inserted into so it is a sliding rather than press fit helps. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 10:13:56 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: bearing block thread mystery solved. For those that care, the thread on the bearing block of the crosslide has always been something of a mystery. I was talking to Taig and they revealed it is a 1/4"-28 helicoil/sti thread, so although 28tpi, it is way oversize in diameter. They just found it was the best thread for the job. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 19:24:08 -0000 From: "David Carter " Subject: Re: I'm worried - newbie I assembled my new lathe this weekend, and am having trouble with the crosslide leadscrew -- it is extremely difficult to turn, even with the gib adjustments loosened up. I lapped the crosslide to the carriage, so I don't think that is the problem. I suspect that the crosslide screw nut (100-25) may not be completely straight in its mounting hole in the slide. It was a very tight press fit in the hole. I deburred the edge of the hole, but it was still very tough to get the nut to go in. Any suggestions on how to recover from here? I'm not sure how I would go about getting the nut back out of the slide without damaging it. Thanks, David ------- Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 14:34:55 +0900 From: "Mark Thomas" Subject: Backlash problem (long) [TAIG CNC MILL] Just wanted to tell about my experience in adjusting the backlash on my CNC mill. I have the extended bed version, and have had an increasing problem with too much backlash for a while now, ending up at about .025, far too much even with software compensation. Now I know the procedure for adjusting it, but I found that when I adjusted the grub screws on the saddle nut that the table would start to jam up before the backlash was acceptable, this was particularly at the extreme ends of the table. If I wanted to make use of the full table I needed to reduce my maximum travel speed down to about 10 IPM otherwise the stepper would start missing steps. I knew that others were talking of 30 IPM, in fact Taig advertises this. Okay where to begin? I decided to tear down the X axis and see what I could find. After removing the lead screw, I tested the table by itself and found that with the gib adjusted correctly when the table was in the middle I could not move the table closer than about 1.5 inches from either end without force, this meant I only had a usable 9" of travel. I decided to lap the table thinking that this might be the root cause of the problem, lapping and cleaning took about 3 hours. When I had everything clean of grit I lightly oiled the ways and put the table back on. What a surprise, the table slid across the ways with only light finger pressure. I readjusted the gib carefully and now I had a nice even pressure the length of the whole table. This was getting exciting. I reassembled the lead screw carefully adjusting the saddle nut to what I thought was the right amount of pressure and started to test. Okay, the first setup wasn't that great, I still had lots of backlash, but at least the table moved freely. I started tightening the grub screws in the saddle nut (middle screw loose for now) adding about a 15 degree turn to each alternately and testing the table by running it from one end to the other. This proceeded well and the backlash was improving, suddenly however the table started jamming again before an acceptable backlash was reached (by acceptable I mean that I could still feel table movement by moving the table from side to side by hand) no need for a test indicator at this stage. I loosened the gib on the table and this freed things up. I then went back to adjusting the backlash thinking I'd re-adjust the table once the backlash was correct. I finally got what I thought was acceptable backlash, but didn't measure it as I decided to run a short program which moved the table from one end to the other 10 times. I ran it but even with the gib fairly slack couldn't get more than 12 IPM without starting to miss steps. By this point, I was thinking that I would settle for slower speeds if the backlash stayed acceptable. After running the program a few times I jogged the table to the middle and tried to move it by hand from side to side as before. My heart sank as there was an audible "clunk" and the table shifted by at least .1 inch. This was going nowhere. I decided to strip things down again and see if I could find any other indication of why this was not working. My first thought was to take the lead screw and saddle nut assembly to the bench to adjust it there. I took the table off and gently used the middle part of the lead screw to ease the saddle nut out of the bed. Someone mentioned recently that the factory used locktite on this, but there was no evidence of this. I started to unscrew the nut from the screw and noticed that the two grub screws where protruding from the underside of the saddle by about 0.075, "a hah" I thought, this doesn't look right. I checked the bed of the X axis and sure enough there were two matching gouges in the surface. It looked as though what was happening as I tightened the screws to take up the play in the saddle they were becoming seated on the bed before the nut closed enough to take up the proper amount of slack. Now I was sure I was on to something. I cleaned the screw and the nut and filed about 0.1 off the ends of each grub screw. I screwed the nut back onto the lead screw and adjusted it to a snug but not too tight fit and also made sure that the grub screws were not protruding from the underside. I then re-inserted the saddle nut in the bed, and attached the table. I ran a couple of quick tests and started the fine adjustments over again. I also re-adjusted the gib to an acceptable state and slowly started to increase the travel speed. To make a long story shorter, I now have .003 backlash and can traverse the table at 30 IPM. As a test I ran the program all the way up to 35 IPM without a miss. I'll happily settle at 30 however for normal usage, but it's nice to know I've got a fair amount of leeway. I also believe that I can get the backlash down further, but I also think the threads in the nut may have been partially damaged or misaligned due to the stress put on it by the over length grub screws. I believe that the main cause of the table jamming was the pressure put on the nut, and also the fact that with the screws biting into the bed the nut was frozen in position. I believe that there needs to be a pivotal movement allowable on the saddle nut to take up any slight variations between the lead screw, saddle, and table. If the grub screws were the correct length to begin with then I obviously have far too much wear on the saddle nut, I find this hard to believe, I'll run it this way for a while and see how stable things are. If there are problems I'll consider buying a new saddle nut. Cheers, Mark ------- Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 06:22:56 +0900 From: "Mark Thomas" Subject: Lapping the X-axis In response to my note on backlash several members have contacted me off-line asking about the lapping procedures I used on the X-axis. I have posted a summary of the procedure on my new web pages at: http://home.inter.net/mthomas These pages are very incomplete as of now, but I hope to have some time in the next couple of weeks to expand on them. Cheers, Mark ------- Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 21:54:51 +0000 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Lapping the X-axis Just a thought, but as the X ways are brass/anodized aluminium, it might be better to use a less aggressive abrasive than silicon carbide - in particular, one that is not likely to embed in soft metals (which silicon carbide can do). The "soft" scouring powder-type abrasives that Taig recommend for lapping the lathe beds would suit. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 07:01:54 +0900 From: "Mark Thomas" Subject: RE: Lapping the X-axis Tony, Good point, I tried one of these first and got nowhere fast. However, I'll add some comments on the page about this. I've also re-inspected the gib and ways with a 10x magnifier and don't see any evidence of grit. I think that one other point is to keep the lapping compound as wet as possible to keep it from digging in. Cheers, Mark ------- Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 12:45:56 -0000 From: "David Carter" Subject: Re: New D.C. motor? 90-130 V.D.C. --- In taigtoolsx~xxyahoogroups.com, "int3man" wrote: > Hi all, is anyone else planning on combining this motor on their > Mill? I'm thinking of doing just that. If someone gets one and has > a C.N.C. lathe and makes a Pulley for it plese let us know I'd be > interested in one. Anyone else? Looks like it should be a nice > variable speed combination. Anyone else with a thought? > http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp? I'm using this motor (the version without the pivoting mount) on my Taig lathe. I had a standard Taig six-step pulley bored out to fit the 17mm motor shaft, just far enough for the pulley's set screw to engage the shaft. It works very well. At the time I bought it (just over a year ago) Surplus Center also had some KB Electronics model KBWT PWM controllers. They don't seem to have these in stock now. This is an ideal controller for this motor. Maybe one could be found on eBay? Good luck! David Carter ------- Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 02:13:35 -0000 From: "tungdesignstudio" Subject: Mounting my motor Under the lathe I was wondering if anyone here has mounted