Bit of an update.
Spindle bearings started getting noisy after using the mill for a few weeks, I suppose it was mainly due to the lack of oil that the mill had been getting during its use by the previous owners. Got a price for the pair of precision bearings and had to sit down
Was going to cost me upwards of £350. Looked around a bit and got Brian in the USA to get me a few prices but taking into account shipping and customs it wasnt going to be much of a saving. Got a link to a place from a friend and when I emailed the guy came back saying he had NSK P3 class bearings rather than the P4 (P3 is better) and the price was £200 the pair all in
Got the bearings and what a difference, much quieter than even when I first ran it. I measured the runout on the taper and couldnt even see the needle twitch then put a drill in the spindle and put the dial on the nose and pushed and pulled on the drill and again didnt see the needle move so I am happy
Not got the ballscrews fitted yet, hopefully I will get a chance in the next few weeks.
Have made a tool presetter for the mill, see pic, it uses a linear scale and goes into Mach on encoder 4 input.
What I do is put a probe in the pocket and bring the setter down onto the probe and zero the Encoder DRO, I then move the preseeter up and replace the probe with a tool and bring the setter down to the tool. I then press a button and a box pops up asking what offset I want, I enter that and it writes the offset into the tool table, I then repeat with tool 2 etc etc.
It seems to be working well from simulation. I am about to make a new probe which will be powered via a battery and have a LED in it, so far all I have got done is the taper part of the body but hopefully I will get a few hours spare to complete it in the week ahead.
Hood
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