Archives for the ‘lathe’ Category

CNC mill parts

Tonight I finally finished the metal parts for the CNC conversion. These were made from a subset of the “phase 1” plans I purchased, and are all the custom parts I need to attach my stepper motors to the G0704 mill.

aluminum and steel parts for my G0704 CNC milling machine conversion

Most of these were pretty straightforward. The standoff-looking parts are steel rod, parted off to length and then drilled and tapped. The fatter bushing-looking things are aluminum, also round rod that was drilled out then trimmed to length. The big flat aluminum parts were a little more challenging, requiring some milling, but the holes were all center-punched and drilled on the drill press (I still don’t trust positioning on the mill due to the backlash in the screws).

steel part for my G0704 CNC milling machine conversion

This cylindrical steel part took several hours. Starting from a 1.5″ steel rod, I first turned the skinny stem part, then flipped it around to bore out the inside. The tricky part was getting the piece clamped into the lathe so it was perfectly concentric to the shaft I already turned. Apparently my three-jaw chuck is not perfectly centered, so I used the four-jaw chuck and aligned the part manually using a dial indicator attached to the cross slide. According to the indicator I got within half a thou for concentricity… good enough!

steel part for my G0704 CNC milling machine conversion

Once it was centered I bored out the inside and put the little shoulder on the end. Next it was drilled and tapped (for set screws), then off to the mill to make the flats on the shaft.

The most challenging part was probably this aluminum bearing block, shown here in the four jaw chuck. Again, concentricity here is key, so a lot of time was spent getting this guy aligned when I flipped it around.

aluminum part turned on a 9x20 lathe for my G0704 CNC milling machine conversion

Technically I’m ready to mount the motors to the mill, but I’m hesitant to start the process. I’ve gotten used to having a milling machine available, and once I take the handwheels off it’ll be out of commission until the CNC conversion is complete and working! Here we go…

antenna ball

For the ham radio operator on my gift list…

antenna topper turned 9x20 lathe aluminum

After eyeballing the spherical shape using a mixture of cutting tools, rasps and files, I wet-sanded the tool marks off and polished it with red and green compound. Then I parted it off (pictured above) and drilled the mounting hole. I was going to measure the sphericity I got by eye but decided I’d rather not know.

home made chuck key

This weekend I spent a lot of time in the shop machining parts for my CNC mill, and ran into a problem with the lathe. The four jaw chuck has these adjustment screws to move the jaws in and out, but I can’t find the chuck key needed to adjust them. They use an inverted key–it’s and innie, not an outie, like most chuck keys–and it’s almost impossible to adjust without that particular tool.

I had a leftover piece of steel rod, so I made my own:

9x20 lathe chuck key CNC machined

The ends were machined on the mill, clamping the piece upright in the vise. The shoulder was turned on the lathe (in the three jaw chuck!).

9x20 lathe chuck key CNC machined

I milled a socket into the other end for a 3/8″ ratchet, although the fat body makes it easy to turn quickly by hand. (I tried to knurl the end but I still don’t know how to knurl properly, so I just mucked it all up)

9x20 lathe four-jaw chuck

 

Operational!