Thanks Dave, i have never seen this on a machine before (hope thats not a bad sign?) I just dreamed it up during the initial sketch up. about the olny bad thing i can say thus far is that when you put tools etc on the try the eventually fall into the bin, this wont be a problem once shes up an running as i wont have pile o crap on the trey.

The coolant tank which i painted a few days ago has hardened up nicely so this morning i bolted up the pump, plumbing and wiring and gave it a test for leaks. I have to do a few minor tweaks but overall she worked great.



Back to the X Axis after the tank was sorted, I decided that the previously mentioned plan was worth a crack so i headed off to my mates place and ground the third side of the nut, i popped a hole through the slide and with a few alterations to the saddle i think its might just work.

Ok guys need a little help now, the ball screws for both axis are on back order (same as the one i have just sorter) I want to ket started on the bearing block should i use thrust ball bearings or standard bearings?

I have in the past used thrust ball bearings with reasonable success, i am however open to ideas?

thanks

Thanks Dave, i have never seen this on a machine before (hope thats not a bad sign?) I just dreamed it up during the initial sketch up. about the olny bad thing i can say thus far is that when you put tools etc on the try the eventually fall into the bin, this wont be a problem once shes up an running as i wont have pile o crap on the trey.

It should work fine, my lathe has a similar kind of set up, see pic. One thing I found on mine was in the chip pan there was the strainer was made of punched sheet with about 8mm square holes and the coolant tank underneath would get chips in it. I fitted some finer stainless mesh over it and its fine now.

Ok guys need a little help now, the ball screws for both axis are on back order (same as the one i have just sorter) I want to ket started on the bearing block should i use thrust ball bearings or standard bearings?

I have in the past used thrust ball bearings with reasonable success, i am however open to ideas?

thanks

A pair of angular contacts at one end are the norm nowadays and if the ballscrew is supported at the other end its  just a normal ball bearing that is used. One of my mills has a pair of taper rollers instead of angular contacts but they have been shimmed to provide the preload.

Hood

It should work fine, my lathe has a similar kind of set up, see pic. One thing I found on mine was in the chip pan there was the strainer was made of punched sheet with about 8mm square holes and the coolant tank underneath would get chips in it. I fitted some finer stainless mesh over it and its fine now.

Ive made sort of a basket to keep the bulk of the chips out within (behind in the pic) is a 50x 40mm bit of scotch bright this catches the bulk of the fine stuff. also within the tank there is a settling area for any solids that should make it that far.

A pair of angular contacts at one end are the norm nowadays and if the ballscrew is supported at the other end its  just a normal ball bearing that is used. One of my mills has a pair of taper rollers instead of angular contacts but they have been shimmed to provide the preload.

Hood

For anyone following this thread:

Ive got the left side and internal wall done, looks great don't it! says the proud father.



As you may have guessed from the saddle i had this done before I started screwing with the x axis ball screw.

You may notice i have the entire top cabinet attached underneath the coolant trey, I'm not sure why i did this, i think it may just have been easer to attach this way, I'm going to pull it all off tomorrow and have ago at attaching it to the top of the coolant trey instead. this will make it a lot more coolant tight i will however have to re cut the internal wall as all the mounting points would be thrown out by the 25mm lift.
Im not sure why but people seem to mount the Z axis motor on the back end of the lathe, to me the logical place to put it is where the gearbox is, its out of the way close to alot of other wiring and you dont end up with a nob sticking off the lathe, i guess what im saying is that the gear box will come off tomorrow.

I don't suppose anyone is interested in buying 3/4 of an AL54b? seems like a real shame to pay good money for a lathe that you just end up reducing to its bones and binning.

Another view from the other side.

Today was my first full day in ages working on my Lathe and i got a bunch of pics to prove it.

If you ask me you can never have to much lighting on a CNC machine, while i was shopping the other day i came across some LED strip lighting the street racers use for under there cars, that evolved into this:







Should do a great job especially with the cabinet being a highly reflective white.