The Home Machinist!

The last few days just been tinkering in the shop. Some work to the lathe and fitting/fine tuning pcs for the vertical head. Just a few pcs left to scrub and clean. Basically killing time. On Sat. got to head down to Oroville to pick up Abec 7 bearings for the quill. And sometime this week I was pro...

Well I officially made the first chips with the Rockwell mill. I had to wait till I got a long length pulley tap before starting. Basically I put a set screw into the motor pulley that I had made. Set screw was 6mm x 30mm. I couldn't get a thread all the way to the keyway. Even after shortening the ...

The bearings in question are an SKF 6008-2Z/C3 made in Italy. I tried to preload the bearing with a ring shim between the inner races. That yeilded the worst runout. First I read off the R8 taper but several small pits prevented a good reading. Even after a good clean-up on the lathe. So I installed...

Hello all. I'm at the point in my rebuild of the vertical head. Rockwell 21-100 vertical head. Specifically the quill. I went to clean and repack the bearings and found 1 of the lower bearings to feel rough after flushing the dirt/old grease. A bearing place recommended 6008-2ZC3 as a relacement for...

Well the table is on and set-up with all the associated little bits except on the RHS.
The bearing/end of table bracket isn't back from powder coat yet.
The backlash is .005 at the ends and .0085 in the middle.
Will check it again after RHS bracket is installed.

I checked out Roberts, but they're wholesale and not worth it for the hassle of setting up an account for a 1 time small purchase. Bill, thanks for your suggestion. After a bit of searching/research I settled on the idea of Japanese milled tooth files at Lee valley. I went down with a few pcs of pla...

I'm working on the table right now. There are no driil marks or endmill oops. But there are a lot of dings which I'm going over with a diamond lap to make sure there aren't any high spots around them. If all goes well, should have the table on tomorrow. By the serial # the mill is from 1968. On the ...

Well the saddle is fully installed and adjusted. The hardest part, besides cleaning up dings and burrs along the edges of the ways was ... getting the saddle to travel the full length of the knee without binding. It always seem to want to bind as it got close to the column. So from what I was seeing...

Nicholson has a file listed in their catalog as a Plastics file mode# 06612.
Described as being designed for nylon/ UHMW etc(softer materials)
I can't find it listed for sale anywhere.
Do any other mfg's make anything similar?

Well, back at it. In getting ready to fit and adjust the saddle. I couldn't remember the orientation of the 2 sliding plates on the top of the knee. So in going through all the combinations( the cutouts for the cross slide/table feed nut are not equally spaced) I couldn't find a happy place to where...

I've been sick the last few days, but finally got the pulleys done. The original 5 step pc plus the extra 6 th speed weighed about 18-1/3 lbs and after the Vees were machined down to just under 15 lbs. The front cast pulley in comparison weighs 7-5/8 lbs. w/o the brake assy. From the Rockwell parts ...

The leadscrew will not be slotted/keywayed anywhere near the threads.
The slot goes in the shaft outboard of the bearing housings.
Near the key for the handwheels/dials.
For the bronze gear of the powerfeed.