Building the gingery metal mill

[norman]

I have the shaper done, I've used the shaper on machining the mill bases and the bottom of the head stand.
Gadjet is all ready making the mill so some of these photos will look kind of the same. I started this project about the middle of July. Started 7-21-2010.




The bed has a small void where I cut off the pouring gate. Instead of making the 2 bases 1/4" thick I made them 1/2" thick.
I had to cast the head stand twice the first one had a bad void at it's base.

I have the ways installed, the bases bolted to the bed, so now its on to making more patterns. Next is the head stand spindle Gadjet says there is a problem with the dimensions on the head stand?
If your looking at my mess Gadjet could you clue me in before I start cutting wood.
Norman

[Harold_V]

Instead of making the 2 bases 1/4" thick I made them 1/2" thick.

A good choice. You will never regret adding rigidity to any machine tool.

Looking good so far!

Harold

[Gadget]

Norman,
The spindle bearing part of the vertical slide dimension should be 3" not 4". This is on page 66 of the book. I have attached a photo of the prints with the corrected dimension. There needs to be one inch of the spindle slide below the bearing pad for the clamp bolt.
Dan

[norman]

Thanks! Gadjet
I found that problem yesterday. I was watching for a problem and that is what I found the 4" should have been 3" so I went ahead and made the part 3" hoping that was what you had found to be wrong as well.
I'm plunking away at the patterns. I skipped the hand wheels for now and I've gotten the patterns done up to page 85 the work table support pattern. I'll go back and make the patterns for the hand wheels tomorrow or start casting the patterns I now have made.
thanks again.
Norman

[Gadget]

At that rate Norman you may finish before I do. I have been mired down lately with painting the house. Once that's done I'm free to blast ahead though.
Dan

[norman]

Past few day I've been making more patterns.
I have the patterns all made up to page 129.
This thing has a lot of small parts. Some patterns use interchangeable parts, there is going to be a lot of sand pounding to get it done.



These are the latest patterns made. the middle photo has one side of the patterns, this photo shows the other side of the patterns, some of them with the split parts laid out beside or next to it's mate. Only about 6 to 8 more patterns to make I think?


Norman

[Gadget]

Nice work there Norman. I've been building my patterns as I need them. Some of them were CNC cut in lost foam and destroyed in the pouring process but I still have the machine code to create new ones if needed.
Dan

[norman]

Here is the latest casting did last night.
Fresh out of the sand only the small aluminum wires that form from the venting process have been removed.

Now I'll cast the other half of the spindle slide and more small parts
They don't look all that nice but they turned out fine.

[Gadget]

They look good to me Norman.
I cast the bearing cap for the compound swivel today, it turned out well.
Dan

[norman]

Photos of the parts that were cast yesterday. Cleaned up ready to start some machining.
one side

the other side

here they are sitting on the mill where they go.

[norman]

did more casting today here they are right out of the sand.

got 3 done in one pour on this one.

[norman]

Here is the latest on the mill. The slides are done,the parts to bore the spindle are cast and done. I'm now in the process of boring the spindle so here's some photos of that.
the mill is set up to bore it's spindle head. I'm using the drive system off of the shaper to power the boring bar. I should have used 3/4" plywood to mount this as the 1/2" is too thin and makes the drive system sag so being a red neck builder I'm using my face plate for support under the drive system. I may change the plywood to 3/4" before I finish the boring.

Quill support.
the plans say to slit one side of the bronze bushing for the the bearing for this. I didn't want to do that so I made a right angle plate to mount to my face plate and bored the quill support. I pinned the bushing to lock them in place sort of how a vw engine main bearings are locked in place so they won't spin in the block.
I did about 3 to 4 hours of run in on the bearings with a little sewing machine motor mounted to spin the shaft, lot of oiling of the bearing during wear in.

the plans call for using a square bit to bore with, again being lazy I'm using a bit made from 1/4" drill rod no need to make a square hole to mount the bit. It works good for me.

view through the spindle head after 2 passes with the boring bar.
I need to open this up to about 1.124 right now I'm close to .875