The Home Machinist!

Hi guys .. just picked up a 12-22tc shoptask 3 in 1.

I am going to have sooooo many questions .. but right now I only have
two.

one thing it is missing is the gib (I think thats what it is called) under
the tailstock to shim it up against the bed. Where the heck can I get
this part from ?

the other thing it needs is a motor. I have a nice 2hp sitting around but the
motor has twice the rpms of the included but bad original motor. So I am building
a jackshaft type thing .. little pulley to big pulley to cut the rpms in half.

I have everything I need but .. was only able to get a smooth steel rod for it ..
and all the pulleys I am getting are slotted/keyed .. so I was wondering if I
could just rough slot it ... with my dremel .. or where can I get slotted shafts
of the length I need (18")

Oh .. and anybody sell manuals for these older 3 in 1 's ?

thanks
Mike

I know nothing about that model, other than there is a picture of it on the Shoptask web page. But I've mostly noticed that JT, the owner and one man company that is Shoptask, does not change much from version to version. As an up front word of caution remember that a 2 hp motor stepped down by a factor of 2 will have almost 4 times the torque of a 1 hp motor. Be carefull and don't be tempted to take too big cuts as you might break the table.

(1) If the 'gib' on the tailstock is anything like what he has on the newer machines it is not really a gib, just a 5 sided bar. Since you now have a milling machine make it. Unlike a real gib the material used is unimportant, but you would need a milling vice that includes a tilt capability. Having acquired a machine your next discovery will be that it requires lots of tooling to be effective and milling vices are part of that need.

(2) As for putting a slot in a idler shaft I would say the same thing. You have a mill so buy a key cutter and make the slot. I realize that the 12-22tc does not have a seperate motor for the mill but you have one that it wrong only in that it is two fast. But you have lots of speed reduction via the mill pullies so temporarily use those to get to an acceptable speed.

(3) Shoptasks manuals don't really tell you how to run the machines. They provide a exploded view with references to component part numbers and gear/speed ratios. JT may be able to provide a manual but I would not recomend paying much for it. You will need to know the gear/belt speed reduction ratios to set necesssary SFM (surface feet per minute) for cutting, but you can caculate those ratios by just counting gear teeth and measuring pully diameters. If that fails set up a belt combination then hand turn the motor one revoultion while measuring how far the chuck turns.

Any of these machines are the beginning of an enjoyable hobby so have fun and congratulations.

Tom

Thanks Tom ... I understand and appreciate your thoughts.

The new motor is quite different from the original and I pretty much need
to create this adapter for it to work. So .. maybe I'll get the pulleys on there
as best as I can ... to get it working .. then create a good shaft and replace
the makeshift one.

I was curious if there was some source that had a pretty good variety of
machine parts and machinist tools.

Thanks again

I mostly go to http://www.use-enco.com. They provide Off-Shore and US manufactured product and frequently have a sale where they either take off 10 to 15% or provide free shipping and rarely both. There is always a needed code and once you buy something they start emailing the code. I find that MCS, http://www1.mscdirect.com has better prices but only if you can use their specials but doing so is hard. They like to have 30 or 35% off if you buy more than $300 or $350 but their sales only last one day. I’ve had a list ready to go for months, but it’s normally 10 PM before I see their e-mail and by then I’m too tired to make out the order. There are numerous other places with effective web pages but I don’t have the addresses handy. Do a Google search for “Little Machine Shop”, Granger or Grizzly. Grizzly is especially good if you happen to live within commuting distance of one of their six stores.

Perfect ...

Thanks so much Tom