Nick's Taig Lathe and Milling Machine Blog

Irv Bakeland’s Extended Height T-slot Nut

2011-11-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

"An extended height T-slot nut that I made for the standard Taig tool post from a two inch long 5/16 SAE Grade 8 bolt. Using carbide tools, cobalt drills, and grinders, I used my long time experience with machining hardened and forged materials to make them. Standard hardware store bolts or easier to machine Grade 5 bolts could also be used. The cavity at the bottom of the tool post was just drilled out with a 5/16 inch bit to a depth of approximately 7/8 inches."

Thanks Irv!

Monty Remon’s Extended Bed Taig Lathe

2011-11-10T11:30:00.001-08:00

"I can see why it appears a viable financial proposition to look at a Taig lathe and the addition of 2 or 3 extra lathe beds when compared to the price of a dedicated cue lathe. There is a relatively simple method of aligning and fixing several lathe beds accurately, and it is only possible because as you state "the steel ground surface and dove tail are finished to a standard". All that is required is the lathe beds, sets of mounting bolts, a piece of 2x4 ( over kill?) box steel about 48" long for the bed, pre drilled with over size mounting holes, a good quality 48" straight edge, a supply of a 2 part epoxy (rapid?), a strong friend ( for when the project is completed) and access to a true flat surface -a large surface table, or a long lathe bed, maybe the neighbour's marble kitchen worktop!
The method - invert the lathe beds and set them up end to end, align them with straight edge, mix epoxy and apply coating to the mounting plates, lower the box section with greased dangling mounting bolts into position and let time and gravity do the work, clean excess epoxy before it sets on surface table or kitchen worktop. When the epoxy has cured nip up the mounting bolts. Some locating dowels in each mounting plate would not go amiss. With your strong friend turn the assy. over and install in req'd location. The beds are aligned as accurately now as they were inverted."

"My 'bookends lathe' constructed to work on cylinders and barrels, picture is posed, the gap arrangement is forward planning just in case I have some large diam., work to swing, no riser blocks are needed for the head and tail stock."

"My bookend lathe has the sewing machine motor drive revised, it could really do with halving the speed again but it can handle crowning and breech work on barrels and cleaning up the ends of compression cylinders. Pics of that show another use for my never ending supply of 2 1/2" ally channel and left over pulleys from my Thread Box project."

Thanks Monty!

Mounting the Taig 1200 Top Slide / Compound

2011-10-03T14:27:00.001-07:00

A customer was wondering how the #1200 Top Slide is mounted to the Taig Lathe cross slide.

If you flip the 1200 over you see it has a recessed circular dovetail. The nut fits into the circular slot and the screw draws the two halves together, pulling the top slide down and locking it into position.

How the nut fits in the circular dovetail.

I find it’s easiest to loosen the nut and slide it into the cross slide t-slot first.

Then place the top slide over it. It takes a little practice but after a while becomes easy.

The hex wrench tightens the nut from the back side (you can do it from the front but only on the right t-slot as the cross slide screw bearing block is in the way of the left one. I snug the nut up but don’t fully tighten…

Then I hold a protractor against the side of the slide and the front of the cross slide, get it set to the desired angle and fully tighten the nut. You don’t want to use a lot of torque. If you find that the 1200 top slide shifts or moves then you can place a thin piece of paper between the cross slide and the top slide. Also you can’t take heavy cuts. I generally take about .01” cut max.

Taking a cut in free machining steel. Notice how the tool bit mounts directly to the top of the slide.

After a few passes.

A Few Links

2011-08-11T11:12:00.001-07:00

Frankie Flood shows his y-axis extension on his blog.

Ray Johns’ forum post showing his adapter for a pressure gauge on his espresso machine.

Free 3D software from Autodesk.

Monty Remon’s Notes on His Improved Tailstock Linkage Bracket

2011-06-06T16:49:00.001-07:00

I had some 1/8" brass sheet arrive so I thought it was time to improve the bracket on my drilling tailstock mod.. It will get you 1-1/2" closer to the headstock after reversing the tailstock when working over the x axis slide, it will also reduce side loads the ram puts on the clamping area at extreme ranges of movement. I have only just noticed after all this time that I under claimed the advantages of my rotating the tailstock mod.. The improvement should have been 1-1/2" not 3/4".
I have also just noticed that the bracket could be left in place when the tailstock is repositioned normally, and that it might be beneficial if the ram works against the brass edge then some load is taken off the air gap and is transferred to the clamping bolt assy.? (I did drill the hole first then file the edge until I had a running fit with no rocking evident.)

Monty Remon’s Latest Indexing Attachment For The Taig Lathe.

2011-06-06T16:44:00.001-07:00

Well you suggested fitting a worm /gear assy., to my headstock spindle to do some indexing work, so that is where I started from.
My attempts to come up with a solution that involved a quick flip down, engage gear and brake assy., gizmo using brackets and plates eluded me for hours but as usually happens I got inspiration from elsewhere in the form of a large hex key on my bench, so I came at the problem from a different direction, 90 degs in fact! What started out with a hex key now has more resemblance to a box spanner/tommy bar. I will try and put the pics in some sort of order with a few words of explanation of how I got 'tooled up' starting with a pic of my hex key and first experiments with mounting clamps and "T" bar arrangements.

A picture of all the removable components clockwise from top left - eccentric 1/4" location collar, 1/4" spacer, 1/2" eccentric brake mounting, brake/pinch bolt, 3/8" spacer, mounting arm with worm shaft bearing assy., the worm shaft and worm, seating collar for division plate, division plate/carrier/clamping bolt assy., thrust washer, shaft location collar, indexing arm assy., and securing screw/washer for the arm. What NO sector arms!!!!!A few notes on some of the above components, the spacers I managed to make out of an old syringe with an id of .75" they set things up axially to align the brake and worm when installing the system with my pulley mounted worm gear. The locating collar and the brake mount could be made from 1" diam bar and bored out eccentrically to match the main support arm, but I was lucky having some 1.25" x.25" ally tube that could be offset 1/16 in the chuck turned eccentrically to leave a 1/4" flange on the outside for the brake seating. The collar needs a small drilling for a tommy bar in order to rotate it and set the brake arm to spindle centers distance. The locating collar only needs drilling and tapping for a grub screw. The brake assy, is cut out from 1/4" ally sheet with one hole to clear the 1" diam., adjusting eccentric and at 1.666" ctrs., the other hole is 1.666" diam., (spooky!) to clear the plain portion of the Taig pulley. A saw cut joins the two holes and the edges were thinned down to 1/8" to give it a little spring. A small grub screw is fitted in the top, this is only nipped up once the eccentric is correctly aligned and the spindle/pulley runs free in the brake. The whole brake assy., should be free to swing on the arm. The pinch bolt is a 4mm hex head bolt, within an ally sleeve, the sleeve end is recessed at 7.5mm diam., and the bolt head was pressed into this using a vice.
The main support arm is .75" diam., and should have been 3.5" long (OOPS), the extra .25" I misplaced from the end was an alternative location for the brake assy., to be used when a gear/brake drum was mounted directly on the spindle. The scrap box supplied the tube but I had to fit a plug in the end but this plug would not be needed if the bar is solid. The arm is cross drilled and reamed out to .5 to accept the bearing tube.The worm shaft tube is .5" CDS with 6mm brass bushes glued in the ends, a .25" reamer is fed in after fitting. The bearing tube is located by a screw down the center of the support arm, this screw is not locked down and in tension, but is tightened by torque only (the head is loose). A tapping hole was drilled through both components (only one wall was needed), then a No 2 tap fed in slowly checking the fit of the bolt occasionally until the bolt end can just be seen protruding through the tube wall, when the thread was tight at the tube/arm interface I called it located. Several holes could be drilled and tapped to cater for different worm/gear combination's, and with an asymmetric arm location too a quick 180 gives a degree of adjustment.
The support collar for the division plate should really have been made from brass but the scrap box was lacking. The division plate carrier is ally, bored out to 1/2" to fit the bearing tube, the flange is .75" (Taig spindle fit). The div., plates are fixed to the carrier with 3 c/s screws @120 degs and .75" diam. The extended locking arm is brass and the knob on the end needs to be positioned so that it clears the div., disc radially but its edge is at least level with the the disc surface as it also functions as a datum/pointer. The sector arm is brass, slotted, standard issue but I've hung a clear pointer at one end for reading the protractor and a detent pin at the other.

The detent pin assy., was inspired by one of your emails Nick. The ratcheting pen top mechanism moldings and the spring were kept and a pin was turned from brass to replace the ink cartridge. The ally housing slowed me down as I had to set up my pull through threading system and cut an internal pen thread. Once I realized a spring needs room to function I was home and dry. The ribbed ally (brass later) sleeve permits frantic action without friction burns. The whole thing works a treat.

•The two pics, end on and side on saved me the trouble of drawing a quick sketch to show the layout.

•and a third...another I found that makes me think I should be off Tahiti "Two points to stbd., Mr. Christian"!

The mounting clamp on the headstock is 1"x1"x2" ally with a split .75" diam., hole. No registration plate was req'd, just holes at the corners fitted with screws and large washers. I used a ratcheting lever on the clamping slot, initially I had thoughts of slackening this off and jumping teeth while counting in 12s! but that is slower than winding the handle. As can be seen I used delrin gears from HPC, and the fact that I had some ready made components to mount the gear on the end of the pulley lead me to prepare the clamping face with some cut grooves.

The headstock was reversed and one of my older alclad div., plates was mounted on the spindle and my hex pin pressed into action, a bit mounted in the tool post on the cross slide and set to 7 thou did a splendid job, better than knurling I have examples of. While I had that system set up I reversed the head stock and mounted the dividing head assy., and clamped a previously prepared brass disc blank on the spindle for marking a protractor plate as per Tony Jeffree's article. I set the cut depth to 3 thou, many hours later and a quick polishing the markings were still crisp.

Preparing div., disc blanks. Brass sheet bored out to fit Taig spindle, soon to be mounted and turned to diam..

Installing the dividing head assy., on the head stock. Slide the arm into the mounting clamp, the brake will hang down and slip over the pulley assuming the eccentric has been adjusted correctly, when the location collar abuts the mounting tighten the clamp and check the spindle is free, then release and rotate the arm until the worm engages the gear and tighten the clamp on the arm again.
Mounted

The rotating division plate is my way of not making sector arms. To use it, release the div., plate clamp (datum) and detent pin, advance the disc assy., past the sector arm in DOR by the req'd number of degs/sectors, clamp it. Now wind forward to 'zero' and then the full number of turns as req'd.
Throughout the development work on this dividing head I was constantly referring to Tony Jeffree's two designs and one of the ways I can see I have to go is to use my spare headstock with the legs removed to enable me to mount the device elsewhere on my lathe. Another idea I must follow up is T.J's 120 hole div., plate working to 1/10 deg., but I calculated a disc of 4 1/2" diam., to give 120 holes surrounded by metal, not 3". However I like the idea so much I have found a solution. One set of 60 holes (evens) which could be at 2 1/4" diam., and then another set of 60 holes (odds) offset 3 degs., at a slightly larger diam.. I had better get drilling. It is just his 'egg sucking' I have to try now.

Monty Remon’s Indexing Projects.

2011-04-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

It seems that the majority of people going DC fit a large diam., pulley to drop the spindle speed down so I followed suit. Having some 2 1/2" bar and 5mm aircraft grade alclad sheet I set about fabricating some larger diam.,pulleys. I copied the standard Taig pulley small end to drive my gear box then added a 3/8" disc of 2 1/2 inch bar and machined a belt groove, the parts were joined using 3 c/s screws about 120 degs apart. Wanting to regain a facility I had on an old pulley system I fitted a 3 1/2" disc of 5mm alclad, this would give me a 1/4" and clamping ring clear of the head stock and a really large pulley diameter, the 5mm thickness being enough material for a belt groove. This plate was also attached to the pulley assy., using 3 c/s screws about 120 degs apart, this method of construction ensures that the parts only assemble in one configuration. Not wanting to waste an opportunity I decided to drill some index holes in the plate too, but did not know where. I made quick Bentley type index pin that clamps on outside of the 'T' slot, then out of curiosity I slipped drills into the 'T' slot to see if one would fit, not impressed I slipped in a length of 7/32 hex rod, a perfect sliding fit! So I made my hex index pin 2" long with a 60 deg., point on each end, I tapped a blind hole and screwed home a bolt and ground the head off, a bit of brass hex for the clamping nut and a sticky ally washer completed the job. Both types of pins could be used to mark the hole positions on the disc. The pulley disc assy., was removed from the spindle and fitted in the 4J chuck and the holes drilled. It was convenient having already added the indexing capability to my 4J. It has been noted that the 'T' slot dimensions in the h/stock are all the same, be it the old split type or the new one piece extrusion, but the PCD derived from using the index pins is different between the two h/stocks, here the new h/stock has the advantage in that my hex pin design fits the top or the back 'T' slot, only one pin needed to cover both sets of holes. I took several pics of the above procedures but it was when I was reviewing the shot from the back with my 3J chuck fitted that I got diverted! (Again) See the spacer washer I have to use?

Did you see where that washer was going to take me? Well I just imagined it 82mm diam., with holes in. I thought I would fabricate some index discs, that can be slipped onto the spindle when required to do those little jobs and clamped with 3J, 4J, Taig drill arbour, collet set or face plate. I was lucky enough to have some 16g alclad under the bench so I set to. First I cut out some 85mm oct., shapes and centred them in the 4J chuck, the middle was turned out to .75" diam., and the fit checked by reversing the chuck on the spindle. When the size was right the plate was removed and clamped back on the spindle using a Taig arbour and the O.D. turned down to 82mm. The back face was coated with a marker pen so that the two PCD scribed by the index pins showed up clearly and the disc reversed. Once the decision was made as to which series of holes were to be drilled and the method (I am spoilt for choice here as I already have a selection of gears, index plates and and my modified 4J chuck). The method shown in the pics is the fastest for doing the 72 hole series . I turned a stepped arbour in the 4J to take the 72 gear hub and the .75" disc and clamped them with a dished washer. The drill system was set up at the far end of the x slide, then lined up with the scribed marks and the slide locked. A hex key was clamped to a tool post at the near side of the x slide and set up to engage the gear teeth just before the drill touched. The drill size at these diams needs to be 3/32". 2 seconds/hole was a respectable rate! I transferred the other holes from my 4J chuck at 10 secs/ hole. A few points to think about, either lub the disc to save the ally when clamping or maybe use some steel sheet. The index pin profiles can of course be modified, in the case of pairing a disc with a 4J chuck then two shallow grooves at 2.76" and 2.2" diam on the back face will clear the points. And just to finish this train of thought, a full set of index holes could be drilled in the back of a face plate (next job). Another thought if a face plate has a 60 series of holes drilled on the back and a series of 72 around the the outside diam., there is a difference of 1 deg., in their angles? Hmmm. If I'm not careful I could get side tracked again.

I could not resist having a go at index drilling my face plate, I did what I had threatened to and having all my bits of kit from my index plate mod to hand, I marked the index pin hole location and set to and drilled the back of the face plate with 60 holes, then swapped things about and mounted the plate on the x slide and drilled 72 holes around the outside as per my 4J chuck mod..Now for those that are not aware of where all this is leading, the 60 hole ring has 6 degs between holes and the 72 ring has 5 degs between holes and the difference between them is - 1 DEGREE ! I knew this could be right handy but not how to make use of it. If all else fails I have a cup of tea and sure enough the solution (groan) appears. I just made a slot in the lever mounting used with my chuck mod., so that the lever assy., has vertical and lateral adjustment, only a few degrees needed, it will be in the pics. And now the procedure to tweak my face plate by any number of degrees. eg. REQ'D - Two degs C/W. Slacken 60 hole index pin rotate plate two divs (12 degs) c/w. lock with 60 hole pin. Align 72 hole index pin assy., clamp lever mounting and check index pin seated, withdraw 60 hole pin. Now rotate plate using the 72 hole ring, 2 divs (10 degs) a/c/w, seat index pin. End result 2 degs C/W movement. Well it was either solve that little problem or cut the grass!

Irv Bakeland’s Sherline Motor Adaptation for the Taig Mill.

2011-04-07T13:27:00.001-07:00

Instructions for Installing the Sherline Motor-Controller on the Taig Mill: Caution: Make sure to unplug the mill before making this conversion. Also, hand turn the spindle to make sure that there is no interference before powering up the converted mill. 1. Unplug the mill, remove the belt, the motor, the motor mounting post, the switch box and the cord. Lay aside the two "square nuts" that are used to mount the motor post. These are needed to mount the Sherline motor bracket. 2. Loosen the spindle pulley setscrew with a 3/32 inch hex wrench. Using a heat gun or an 1800 watt hair dryer. set on high, heat the spindle pulley. Do NOT overheat, as you may melt the grease in the top bearing. Using an oven mitt. pull off the old Taig spindle pulley. Notice the flat spot on the spindle shaft that the setscrew locks onto. 3. This is a good time to adjust the preload on the bearings with the preload nut to eliminate any vertical movement of the spindle. Lay the specially made aluminum spacer sleeve over the stub of the spindle and then the modified Sherline spindle pulley onto the top of the spindle shaft, with the setscrew position aligned with the flat on the shaft. Depending on your particular spindle shaft, the pulley will slide on with minimum or no pressure. It has been machined for easy install and removal to allow access to the spindle preload nut. Tighten the setscrew with the 3/32" hex wrench. 4. Place the two short special length stainless socket headed screws through the two round holes in the zinc dicast Sherline motor mounting bracket. Thread the two saved Taig "square nuts" onto the ends of the capscrews until their tips are even with the end of the threads on the nut. 5. Slide the square nuts of the assembly into the "T" slot of the milling head on the right side with the corner of the bracket even with the top corner or end of the "T" slot. Finger tighen the screws to make sure that they do not bottom out on the bottom of the "T" slot. If they do, use the supplied washers under the head of each screw to prevent the screws from bottoming on the "T" slots. 6. Make sure that the belt is on the large sheave of the motor pulley inside of the belt guard. Wrap the belt over the small sheave of the spindle pulley with the motor controller unit tilted to the left. Carefully position the motor controller unit until it lays down with the two aluminum mounting holes align with the slots of the motor bracket. Using the two 3/4 inch long socketed headed screws with the included washers, thread the screws through the bracket slots into the aluminum threaded motor mounting holes. Apply light tension to the belt by sliding the motor unit to the right. Tighten the screws. 7. Turn the spindle by hand to make sure there is no interference or drag on the assembly. The clearance between the belt guard and the top of the spindle pulley should be about 3/32 inch, the thickness between the 3/32 hex wrench's flats. If you experience any vibration, it would be due to incorrect belt pulley alignment. Belt drives are very forgiving. A little wobble or misalignment is acceptable, as long as there is no vibration. All motors and drives, like machines and machine tools vibrate a little due to "backlash." Machines adjusted too tight are hard to move and will generate excessive heat. 8. You have completed the conversion. Enjoy near vibration-less variable speed operation of your new Sher-Taig Mill.

PC Case Made With A Taig Mill

2011-03-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

Over on the Hard Forum, User Jojo69 has posted details of his build of a PC case using a Taig CNC mill. He did a great job one workpieces larger than one would normally attempt on the Taig. EDIT: Here's another user drilling a PCB with his Taig lathe (2nd pic). I need to read that forum more often!

Peter Zicha’s Taig Twins

2011-03-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

“Here is were I am at with the Taig twins , as I mentioned one will be CNC and the other manual / electric. both units will ultimately be mounted side by side.”

Monty Remon’s Adjustable Height Toolpost

2011-03-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

“Once I had seen a design for an adjustable height tool post I new I'd have to make one, the woodruff key design was ideal. I have reconstructed here with photos the operations I used to achieve my goal, hope it helps someone.
I used 1"x1/4" steel off cuts clamped in the tool post, this was used as the work holder and then this was mounted off centre in the 4J chuck. A radius of 0.75" was suitable for machining material 1/4" thick, (a piece of 1/4" brass has been substituted for illustration purposes.)
Method, cutting the external diam.. First, wind out the tool .75" from the centre, zero dial (note reading). Centre the tool post width in the 4J then offset with the other jaws and packing to bring the work piece up to the tool bit. Now crank away from the work, and check everything is clamped tight. 3/8" of cutting will allow enough metal to part off with a saw later. I took 5 thou cuts and was down to the surface ( ZERO/.75" rad.,) in no time. Change your tool bit now for a thin internal cutting one and wind it OUT until the cutting edge aligns with the external surface you have just machined. Slide the tool holder out of the chuck. Remove the woodruff piece and the 2 tool post screws. Mark a line on the face of the tool post 1/4" below the normal tool bit seating. Slip the tool post back in the 4J and wind the jaws until the scribed line comes up to the cutting edge of the tool bit, clamp everything again with padding. Now do the internal boring, here the radius of the cut takes president over the depth (1/4") of the cut, the inside edge of the tool bit will catch the top of the tool post slot if you get this wrong. Set the depth stop and remove metal until you 'zero'. Theoretically both machined surfaces will have the same curvature. Saw your woodruff seating turning off the stump, you could now clamp this back in the tool post and face the edge. This has been harder to describe than to make!”

Monty Remon’s Diamond Tool Holder

2011-03-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

An internet search for diamond tool holders reveals that this method of grinding and mounting tool bits has been around for years and that several designs are manufactured for the industry and retail at considerable (inhibiting) sums.
I like many must have puzzled over the geometry and the tool holder machining to get the magic angles at the sharp end. I was lucky my solution came in a flash and I made the prototype in five minutes. I just worked back from the bit in a straight line (keep it simple), the tool holder was a piece of 5/16 square door handle furniture mounted in a Taig tool post, jacked up 3/32" then the end drilled through 1/8" diam., at 10degs 'ish and then a saw cut 1/3 down and long enough to get a far as the clamping bolts. It took a further 15 minutes to try and grind a tool bit. My non-standard Taig tool post was reduced in height by 1/4" to allow for the tool bit geometry and a 1/4" packing washer fitted to the top to keep the clamping bolt happy and the large corner reliefs allow the tool access to the work piece. The theory that the vertical clamping force would lock the inclined tool bit proved true.
OK so that was the tangential system sorted but the 'diamond' part needed internet help from those in the know. I found figures of 30 degs tool bit grinding angle and mounting in two planes at 12/12degs., to be common. Much head scratching and drawing yielded the result that the tool bit should be inclined at 16 degs., in the tool holder to give the req'd angles with the holder/ tool post clamped at 45 degs to the work face. (Could it be this simple?)
I came up with a system to accurately drill and broach 1/8" square hole in a tool holder at the 16 degs., and achieve a 30 deg., face on the tool bit. Basically two tool holders are made at the same time, with part of each forming the drilling broaching /guide for the other.
The broaching tool was a length of 1/8 sq., tool steel set in a flanged brass turning, the drill chuck transmits the cutting force via the flange to the broaching bit. A diamond disc in a Dremel was used to make notches on the end of the cutter.
The 5/16 bars were bolted together and packed up 3/4" one end then clamped to the side of a 1x2x3 block for drilling and broaching. Flipped over and the process repeated. The parts were unbolted and the small clamping bolt holes drilled and tapped, then separated with a saw and slotted. Grinding the angle on the end and fitting the clamping bolt and washer completes the tool holder.
Bit sharpening the correct angle is achieved by using the tool holder. If 7/8" diam wheels are fitted as per the drawing and a roughly ground (30 degs.,) piece of 1/8x1/8 tool steel is clamped with 1/16" protruding from the bottom, then rolling the assy., to and fro on a diamond stone will give the correct angle.
A couple of points. Flatting the surfaces of the bars with a fine file prior to bolting together and broaching would seem advisable and and it would help with stability in the tool post, but you could of course start with thicker stock and mill it down but it would seem that 5/16" bar fills the bill.
If the axel hole is omitted from one of the parts then the slot could be extended to the mid clamping point and the inboard tool post bolt used to clamp the bit as in my prototype effort.
How well does it work? It performs just like in the videos. I was only surprised at how good it felt to slowly hand feed the tool and see the metal come off, what a good finish!

Monty Remon’s Power Feed Leadscrew Mod

2011-03-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

I rarely use the drilling tail stock with the cross slide in place, so it's a case of swapping one component for the other. Anyone with the new power feed lathe will be aware of the problems of sliding the carriage back on the bed with the lead screw flailing about. For those that don't the lead screw is driven by the g/box via a spring and it is really floppy, its end locates in a pivoting block on the carriage assy., trying to line up these components several times per job is a pain. My solution to the problem was to limit the angular movement of the block to a few degrees by bolting a plate and a bit of 1/2x1/2 to the bottom of the carriage. I turned a bullet shaped guide out of brass to fit the end of the lead screw. How do you machine the end of 12 inches of 1/2" diam., lead screw in a Taig lathe? It will not go through the spindle and it is too long to mount in the chuck. I attacked the problem from a different direction. The drilling tail stock just happens to be great for clamping 1/2" lead screws if you remove the ram and lever first. A mill was colleted (?) and drill and tap was chucked in the head stock end and the work fed into these by sliding the tail stock in by hand. With the guide fitted the assy., was reconnected to the gear box and now the carriage can be slid onto the bed and the lead screw located blind with the minimum of fumbling. The other problem with the spring coupling is the lack of control with about 3/16" of axial play in the lead screw it feels like you are machining rubber! The way I tightened things up was to put a groove in the brass guide fitted on the end of the lead screw and make a sliding bolt assy., to engage in this to restrict axial movement. The whole thing clamps in the dovetails on the back of the bed in the same manner as the g/box mounting. It now feels as responsive as the older rack and pinion system.

Monty Remon’s Engine and Misc. Projects

2011-03-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

Another little problem I finally got round to sorting is the end of the milling slide l/screw marking the top edge of the cross slide when located in the fore/aft position. I fitted a limit stop in the form of a grub screw and lock nut to a redundant corner of the l/screw mounting plate and set it to give a few thou., clearance on the l/screw. The observant amongst you will have noticed the resemblance of the slide to a Swiss cheese, the extra holes help to mount the slide at 45 degs on the cross slide.

I guess you might wonder what I do with my lathe rather than what I do to it, so I'll include a few photos of what I am really interested in. I like to modify/tune/repair model diesel engines, I selected P.A.W. engines because they are cheap and cheerful, if a bit agricultural. One pic is of a PAW 2.49 contest diesel going through my hands at the moment, the only parts not replaced or tweaked are the gudgeon pin and the prop., nut. I have developed two new induction systems (both work well), two new carb's., one is a straight swap with the PAW venturi but works like a COX peripheral, the other one is adjustable, annular jet, made to fit my Oliver Tiger but suitable for any thing that sucks. I also have an automatic variable venturi system not yet running. As for cooling, I have just got on top of cylinder heads (groan), well I was going to say I had cylinder jackets all wrapped up (you want more?). Porting and transfer passages is the latest avenue (!) I am exploring, my mock-up cylinders are made out of acrylic tube as it helps to understand work/tool alignment and where the cutters are going and how much material is left, but I'm sorry to say I can't show any pics of the porting as the results would be clearly seen (is that one groan or two?). A few pics of my first bar stock engine with a new induction system running on the test bench, far better than I expected for a new concept, still room for tweaking things though. A pic of some bar stock components ready for induction experiments, I have been getting my moneys worth out of the milling slide.

The next stuff I will be sending is in progress, I'm going DC. I've tacked all the boxes together to test it. So I've just made a slightly larger pulley extension that includes a drum 60 div., facility, machined in the same manner as my chuck mod., but now I realize I've lost a facility I used a lot with my old disc type system, I could use clamps on the perimeter and stops on the headstock so that I was able to mill arcs with a degree of precision- so today it will be another disc system. Last night I found out that 5.5mm hex bar locates and slides smoothly in the 'T' slots, so using the side slot and a top slot on the new head stock there is a .25" radius diff., room for 60+72 div., holes and a clamping zone on a 3.75" disc, I can feel it is all going to come together nicely.

Steve Fornelius’ Headstock Dial Indicator Holder

2011-03-04T11:44:00.001-08:00

Here's another idea I put to use, a Headstock Dial Indicator Holder. We all need a way to hold a dial indicator so that we can align workpieces in the independent jaw chucks. I tried putting a steel plate on the headstock with double faced tape, and while that worked, I still needed to take off the whole thing before I machined. I decided to make a simple fixture that would hold the shaft of the dial indicator, but would be able to swing out of the way once the measurements were done. I came up with this idea: Turn a cylinder from steel that fit the hole in the dial indicator clamp. I made mine about 1.5 inches high. Then turn and thread one end 10-32 so that the square nut will thread on it. Make the threaded end about 3/8" long. Thread on a nut and slide it into the slot on the headstock. Tighten gently, and file off the end of the threads so that the base sits flat on the headstock when tightened into the nut, but when loosened, the base slides easily. This allows for about 3 inches of front-to-back movement, and the length of the commercial dial indicator shaft (with adjuster) lets me go out about 5 inches on a shaft to check for runout.

Steve Fornelius' Indicator Attachment

2011-01-18T10:50:00.000-08:00

“Here's what I made so that I could mount my dial indicator on the headstock arbor. Using this I'm able to get the variance of the milling attachment to less than .001 easily.
The unit is simple to make: Use a blank arbor, drill halfway through with cut down 1/2 inch drill (available at any hardware store. I drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole to take a SHCS. Since you're not turning on the lathe with this in place it isn't important how long the screw is.
For the holder itself, II used a piece of 1/2" 12L14 stock about 3 inches long. I used a 3/8" mill and the milling vice to cut down both sides so the finished size is about 1/4" thick. The reason for this is to allow the dial indicator plunger and dial to clear the holder.I drilled a 1/4" hole in the end.
To use this, mount the dial indicator with 1/4-20 bolt and nut, then slide the holder into the adapter.and tighten down the set screw. Screw the adapter onto the headstock arbor. Put the work piece into the milling vice and move the cross slide down so that the indicator goes around at least once. Crank the cross slide until one side of the work piece is indicating and gently tighten the rear milling adapter screw. Crank to the other side of the work piece and note the difference in readings.
Then I simple twist the milling attachment so that the indicator reads 1/2 the difference. I keep moving the cross slide back and forth, adjusting out the variance until there is no movement of the indicator needle. Then I tighten down both milling attachment screws evenly and recheck the variance. The first couple of times you will probably need to loosen the screws and adjust again, but it works better than any other way I've tried. I can get a repeatable 0.0005 cut on the milled pieces when cutting grooves.”

Ron Kiely's Toolmaker's Vise

2011-01-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

“I’ve had a rest from doing bicycle lights for a bit and after seeing Dean’s home made tool maker’s vice. I thought I’d have a go at making a mini version. So out came the vertical slide for the lathe and in the end it all turned out nice and square. I fitted some brass jaws as it will be used for making jewellery so soft jaws won’t mark the work. All turned out well thanks to the vertical slide the pictures should speak for themselves.”

Peter Zicha's Taig Mill and Projects

2011-01-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

“This is my Taig CNC mill as of today.”

”I am starting to do the manual electric drive & CNC drive retro fit on both units machining parts . I made some 3/4 inch base risers for both units . one mounted and the other waiting for its partner in the mail . “

Guy Zattau's Taig CNC Mill Limit Switches

2011-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

“Here's some pics of the setup and the limit switch arrangement with no holes drilled in the mill. The white things are the trippers and the run close to the brackets that hold the micro switches.”

Here are the pics of the mill limit switch brackets before being installed. #'s 1, 2, 3 are the X axis that mounts on using the holes for the rubber way protector. It mounts using the two end holes with access holes thru the top for an allen wrench. The rubber is sandwiched in between. The slot is 3/8" by 1/2" and the relief for the post is 3/8". Material is 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" x 6 1/2". I used .080" but it's a little too thick and makes it hard to get the trip levers to actuate the micro switches.

“Z, made from 1" x 2" x 7 1/2" x .058". It is mounted using the holes tapped in the vertical axis post that mounts the power switch. Compression posts made of tubing sleeve the holes. Holes on the part next to the post are clearanced for the screw and the ones on the outside are just big enough for the tubes to pass and finish up flush.”

“the Y axis, made of 1" x 1" x 8" x .058" with two brackets. The brackets are 2" tall with a 1 5/8" foot, 1" x 1 1/2"
wide. The micro switches are approximately 1" x 3/4" x 1/2" and are mounted with 4-40 countersunk screw so the moving parts clear. The trip devices are made of a Teflon like material machined to ride on the moving component just off the surface of the brackets and tripping the actuator lever of the micro switch. It may be necessary to add a piece of shim stock to the lever to make them work, I used .030, glued to the lever with epoxy. “

Here are the pics of the microswitch trip pieces for the mill. The Z is a simple angle piece with a small ramp cut at the top so it can allow the Z axis to go to the limit. X was made as one piece, then cut in half. Drilled the holes first then milled away the sides to leave a ridge. The ridge centers the part and prevents the screws from marring the groove in the table. Cut the 4-40 allen screws to length so they don't bottom against the back of the nut retainer slot in the table. The Y is a piece of work and difficult to get off as it is necessary to remove the microswitch bracket first. The drawing that is enclosed with the copy's I sent you is probably more understandable that what I can write. It's a goofy design but the best I could come up with at the time. All the material I sent you is just meant to be an idea and not an exact blueprint. Everyone should make their own measurements. The main theme was to not drill any holes in the machine, just use the existing ones.

Monty Remon's Taig Lathe Mods, Part 5

2011-01-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

“We all suffer from trying to clamp the compound slide securely, so much force your fingers turn red and the little annular dovetail arrangement can't hack it and then the air turns blue! I fitted additional stops it the 'T' slots as I had seen on your (Nick) site and was contemplating trying the additional clamping slot in the body I'd seen there too. Well, I laid all the compound slide components out gave them a severe looking at and even with a cup of tea the solution (groan) never came, only a general direction. I had a piece of 1/2"x2"x3" alloy for the body, ok, for a 2" diam., annular dovetail! Next. A look at the end section revealed a few problems, the Taig body measured 0.435" thick, if 0.125" is taken off for the dovetail clamping there is only .060" metal remaining, to copy the 'U' channel arrangement only 30 thou left, not very stiff! However drilling down the middle then milling out a slot to house the split nut will retain rigidity. Great. I decided on drilling the 1/4" hole 1st., I attacked it from both ends, and met it the middle with no binding. The split nut housing presented no problems, just mill and drill.
Because as much metal as possible was req'd to chuck the work piece securely, turning down the the base to make a 2" diam., cylinder that is 0.130" deep, then under cutting at 45 degs was the next job, it was as entertaining as always mounting the work in the 4JC.”

The dovetail milling was next. I slipped a piece of steel rod through the appropriate 1/4" hole in the work piece and clamped down on this giving myself 1/2" clearance for the cutter. This was to be my first attempt at machining a dovetail in anger but my dovetail cutter was too small so I had to do it in stages, the profile is not correct but at least at least it turned out be an accurate cock-up that proves I am on the right track. (If I take the nose of one of my gib plates then I have good contact.)

“Next job, for the two brass clamps I used 1/8"x3/4" but would recommend that 1/8"x 1" is used so that the locating c/s screws can be positioned clear of the turning. Production turned out to be easy. The brass plates were bolted on to the face of a piece of 1/2"x2"x3" and set up in the 4JC. I turned the plates to get 1 3/4" diam., recess then switched to a 45 deg., cut, removed one piece and tried the fit - close but not enough. Bolted back in place, a deeper cut was taken then the same piece removed and tried for fit again, close enough! The clamps were removed and the holes c/sunk on the back side, deep enough to ensure that they are recessed. The clamping assy., must have less depth than the circular seating to make sure that the base is clamped to the xslide surface. Tickle with a file if req'd.
The only short coming with the system at the moment is easy location and locking on the top slide, readers may come up with a neat solution before I do. At the moment I can only locate and lock at either end of the xslide. The system req'd I drill and tap either end of the top slide between the 'T' slots and use a bolt and washer to apply the clamping force on the loose clamp. To set up the clamps are located in the 'T' slots and the screw/ washer assy., set a 1/4 turn out, the end clamp locked against this. The compound slide is seated against this end clamp and the other clamp seated against the slide and locked, the end clamp is then slackened off a touch the compound slide set to the req'd angle and locked using the end screw.”

Monty Remon's Taig Lathe Mods, Part 4

2011-01-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

“Following a need to change the range of divs., on my pulley mounted disc type indexing plate I was contemplating a peripheral arrangement, a sort of drum extension fitted on the pulley, but I required 3 rows of holes and it was apparent that there would only be room for two, and as I did not have any large diam., metal to hand the back burner beckoned this project. Then while downing another cup of tea the solution (pun?) appeared, three inches from the problem! It was the band of metal at the rear of the 4J chuck. Ok so I had the Where, now the How. I elected to have 50,60 and 72 div., and obtained some gear wheels with teeth to suit. I turned some clamp able mountings out of acetal, the height to suite the gear/chuck height req'd with a small spigot to fit each gear and a captive retaining bolt. Each gear has a short spigot to match the 4J registry. A centre drill is mounted in a head stock chuck, this is lined up with the captive bolt with this using the x slide, lock the x slide. The hex key was mounted in the tailstock chuck, select a size that sits between the teeth and does not bottom. Make sure the gear teeth are clean. Disconnect the drilling lever. For each series of holes the gear is kept in register by the stepped adaptor and double sided sticky tape - forget this at your peril. One important check, rotate the chuck by hand to ensure there is no wobble in the stacked assy.. (One of my gears was sawn from stock not turned, it looked like my wife's sliced bread!!)
I elected to start with the middle row of holes (X60).
Setting up procedure. Touch chuck to drill and back off 1/2" from drill. Slacken gear/chuck nut, slacken ram clamp, move tailstock assy., up to the carriage and lock. Hand feed the hex key/chuck into the gear teeth, this will align the gear radially and the hex key vertically at the same time, clamp both.
Switch on. Wind the carriage left and drill the 1st., hole to req'd depth, set the carriage stop. Back off, slacken off nut, right carriage to index next gear tooth, tighten nut, carriage left - drill second hole, back off, slacken off - - 58 to go. Ready for that next cup of tea?
The same procedure for the other gears, just remember the correct thickness packing for the corresponding gear to locate the ring of holes on the chuck.”

“The sliding lever assy., is more or less self explanatory. The asymmetric mounting footprint was to cater for other items to be fitted to the head stock. The bracket assy., was made from 1/8" steel angle, like wise the flying clamp part, both of these components were crimped in a vice to key the inner faces. The slotted lever is from 1/4" alloy, and the slot long enough to slide across the three rows of holes. This clamping method was found strong enough to support the weight of the lathe! Move your clamping hole 1/4" to the left (ref., my pics) and extend the lever by the same amount, you can see in the pics that one of my mounting bolts is under the lever, OOPS!
The only downside so far - I can't index using chucks or collets. YET------. Now where is that cup of tea?”

Monty Remon's Taig Lathe Mods, Part 3

2011-01-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

“Does anyone out there in Taigland suffer from or remember the black fingers, friction burns, shortness of breath and finger cramps from over enthusiastic operation of the standard xslide dial? Well after a few months (that long!) I resolved to make life easier with a larger spinning handle, mounted on a long strap across the end of the Taig dial using two bolts to increase the swing. Standard stuff, a piece of 1/2" diam., brass and some 1/8x1/2" brass strip a bolt and 2 c/sunk screws, dump the original knob. Well I hung my first handle on loosely then did my usual, made a cup of tea. It was returning to the results of my endeavours that was fortuitous because what I saw was the GAP under the handle! and I visualised the flange of a sleeve restrained by it. Well I had worked out where to get the metal for the sleeve before the screws were out. I had some large diam., brass plumbing fittings for that rainy day, you can find them in a DIY store, don't cost more than a beer. Sleeves, step downs, flanges and blanks, all are ideal because you don't need to remove much metal. I turned down the flange face first, then internally 1/8" less than the Taig dial diam.. The division markings and finger grips were next. The sleeve was parted off at Taig dial thickness plus the flange depth. Turn the job round in the chuck to bore out the inside to clear the \Taig dial for depth and diam.. Depending on the type of fitting you started out with you might only need to take the tops off the threads. Not much swarf then. The only other component is a packing washer that fits the hole in the flange with clearance holes for the two screws. Friction can be tweaked by backing the disc or the back of the arm with stiff card. Well it worked for me, just a few hours work, and it has to be cheaper than fitting a Sherline part. OOPS! I nearly forgot use a scrap piece of sleeve split or shrunk on as the index marker.”

Monty Remon's Taig Lathe Mods, Part 2

2011-01-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

“I have 2 different copying systems for thread cutting plus a dedicated(?) threading system under developement, and have actually only cut 5 threads in anger!!!! The first was very simple copying system, consisting of 1/4" alloy bracket mounted on the carriage just clear of the x slide. A pivoting 1/2" square brass block tapped with 2 different target threads was mounted at the top, a sample of the target thread in rod form was screwed to the work piece, this attachment point was machined away after the thread was cut. I found a similar system on your site but it used a flexi plate or a bendy rod mounted on the x slide? Not wanting stacks of gears, shafts, levers and lead screws I did more research. I got confused by the Knaell systems, but liked the Keith Brooke copying method, I could understand that and had visions of slowly producing parts over weeks, so I made a start on the plate that fitted to the front of the carriage and then stopped! Time for a coffee, I then gave the whole lathe a severe looking at for half an hour and decided I was straying from the strait and narrow (PUN?)! I laid two lengths of 1/4" diam.,rod on the bed poking through the space in the headstock the Taig designers thoughtfully placed there for me, and measured a clearance of 4" diameter, enough to chuck 3.3" diam., work. A simple arrangement was arrived at to get from the clamp able mounting block made from 1"x1" scrap box alloy, through the guide assy.,(two 1"x1/4" scrap brass) clamped to the headstock and on to the carriage mounted plate. A piece of 1/2"x1/2" alloy is bolted on a vertical face of the clamp block and used to mount the thread magazine. The magazine is an off cut of 1 5/8" diam x 1/2" delrin with the target threads drilled and tapped at 45deg., stations. My scrap box is taking a beating. It's all been too easy so far, a bit of drilling, reamer work and tapping, sawing and threading and milling if you want to. Knowing that two 1/4 rods side by side are not as stiff as one 3/8" I elected to forget the drill chuck for target thread holding and try to get within 2" of the pulley assy., to reduce the bending forces. I made several dedicated male thread followers that clamp a through the spindle rod in place via the collet taper. The tpi range I selected are 18,20,22,24,26,28,32, & 40. The system worked well, a definite smug factor when I produced my first engine crank case back plate. A couple of points to note, the two guide plates are mirror image, the hole location was worked out to give 1/32" over the lathe bed and the same side clearance. The guide plates were machined as one and then used to machine the holes in the clamping block and the connecting plate for accuracy. When setting up the guide block assembly fit the clamping block to the l.h. end of the rods and position the carriage near to the headstock, tighten things up, now any alignment errors can only decrease and the system should not bind. The guide assy., can be left clamped in place, the carriage plate bolts were slackened off a flat, the rods finger tightened and then the plate locked? Not counting the bolts this gadget can be made with 10 simple parts and two of those are rods.”

“Now the other system, my Thread Box. It has not been a labour of love, more a pain in the backside, too much coffee and head aches over a six month period, but I'm at the MK 2 version. It is the mounting system that I've yet to sort out. Basically it is just a box (HA!)that is bolted to the head stock and the output rod connected to the carriage. The input shaft is driven by a gear or toothed belt mounted on the end of the pulley. The drive of 2:1 ratio can be swapped round to 1:2 ratio, this gives two ranges but infinitely variable pitch selection within each range, at the moment this version has a 5 to 80 TPI range (5-20+ 20-80), a design change could make this 10 to 160 easily. To cut a thread just dial it in, the settings are obtained from a chart, METRIC? B.A? A.N.F? CLINGON? M.E.. NO PROBLEM, I YOU CAN SPELL IT YOU CAN CUT IT. The down side- you can't cut rod lengths but a cut of 1/2" to 1" depending on the range selected is ok.”

Monty Remon's Taig Lathe Mods, Part 1

2011-01-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

“First, the drilling tailstock. I got rid of the hex head clamping bolts like every one else and elected to replace them with ratcheting levers fitted with brass washers, they can now be aligned for ergonomic or aesthetic reasons. Note the length of 1/8"x1/2" brass angle under the ram clamping lever to spread the load over 3 /4". Next job to be attacked was that little lever which has caused so much pain after a heavy drilling session. I decided not to go down the 'mine is bigger than yours road' and attach a 12" billet of titanium so that it dug me in the ribs as I walked passed, and instead this telescopic assembly sort of evolved. It is 1/2"x1/2" alloy bar fitted with a ss draw knob at the end for comfort and a spring and ball bearing catch let in near the other end. The original arm is replaced by a length of 5/8" x 18g box section steel with a short length of 1/8" bar silver soldered on the side and holes drilled to accept the ram and link pin fixings(*). The underside has holes drilled at 1" spacing to allow the lever to step out to any length required, 9" is enough to hang your hat on.
(*)It is too easy to copy the pivot spacing dimensions of the original lever but they are not the best! Set up your lever assy., to mid., travel and you will most likely see lots of 90 deg. angles. Now if you are like me and you do lots of full stroke drilling then any deviation either side of the ram mid position causes the link to deviate from parallel and increases the ram side loading (on 1/8" air gap!) If the hole spacing on the lever is made 1/16" greater than the ram c/l to link pivot dim., then the side loads are decreased because the link swings through an arc and is aligned twice, and therefore decreased side loads.”

“The next addition was stimulated by pictures from other web site donors who rotated the tailstock assy., 180 deg. to get the drill chuck nearer (3/4") to the work piece (the 't' slots were used to retain a bar for dropping a mounting for the link /pin). My scrap box came up with a different solution. Two links and a triangular mounting plate (should be brass). The plate thickness must be such that it is a loose fit in the existing clamping slot when the drilling ram is locked, the plate is located by the slot, the clamping bolt and the sliding ram (that's the reason for the brass). New pins were made for the pivots to take slack out the system. A quickly reversible job. (A sort of pun)”

“The next job of making the ram wind in and out with accuracy eluded me for ages. I had a system on the drawing board that used the end of my telescopic arm to engage in an acme type thread for quick disconnect but it would not give linear micrometer type accuracy - back burner for a while. The solution was found by accident! One day I had in my possession a used drilling tailstock and I noticed a hole drilled and tapped 1/4"x20 set below the ram? I had no idea of its original purpose so I fitted the assembly to a lathe bed and screwed a length of 1/4 x20 rod in place, I stared at this setup in a menacing manner for the duration of a cup of coffee. A visit to the scrap box yielded a short length of 1/2" diam.,brass bar, this was drilled and tapped 1/4x20 for 1" length and the rest was 1/4" to clear the thread. A 1/8" external groove at the threaded end to finish, this was then screwed home and a long split pin dropped through the ram end into the groove. I found it possible to drill 1/4" holes by rolling the rod between thumb and finger! I allowed myself a ten minute smug break then substituted DELRIN for the brass rod and a temp., knob/spinner fitted, there is no slack in the groove/thread department. The threaded rod is now fitted to a piece of 1/2x1/2 alloy bolted under the tailstock so that things line up with my telescopic lever assy., this system will permit changing to a stiffer 3/8 rod if needed. The ram pin features a knob with saddle seating at two depths and 90 deg. apart, a 1/4 turn on this allows instant switching between systems at any stroke position. YI - HA. A new free index able graduated winding knob is on the cards, it involves acrylic, antifreeze, printer ink and an 'O' ring! If it works I feel a smug level '10' coming on.”

Håvard Buhaug's Extended X Axis Taig Mill

2011-01-12T10:17:00.001-08:00

“I made an extended x axis. The axis is 1500mm long, and I made it for cutting rifle stocks blanks and other long wooden items. Attached some pictures from the setup and product coming out. The parts needed machining in order to make the axis were obviously made with the Taig.”

Milling Squarely

2010-11-16T12:05:00.001-08:00

A customer was having problems milling parallel and square surfaces using the Taig milling attachment. It’s been a while since I used the milling attachment as I have the Taig mills, but the principles are the same for big and small mills. Anyway, I quickly (hence some blurry pics) put together this post to show what I achieved. I'll put up a better guide later on Cartertools.com later.

Setting up the milling attachment square is a bit of a chore. First, move up the quick alignment fence of the milling attachment. It’s fine for rough work but gets in the way here.

With a good parallel in the vise indicate it square along the axis of the cross slide travel, twisting the milling attachment as needed to get a consistent reading over the travel of the cross slide.

This is a basic setup.

I always tap the work down in the vise with a deadblow hammer. Note that this can cause misalignment if something slips...

And tighten up the jaw screw after getting it snug. This also can have unexpected effects on squareness though.

Milling.

Testing for parallel after milling both ends. .209” on one end.

.203” on the other. Not so good.

Raising the work off the bed with a dowel pin.

Milling again.

.198”

.200”, so good within a couple of thou. I could have done better, later…

Using some toolbits as parallels to raise up the block. It's important to check that they are the same size.

Milling.

.5097”

.5062”, so about .0035” off from the unmilled surface.

Flipped and milling the other side.

.5042”

.5007”, so about .0035” off again.

Well that’s not terrible for rough work, but I’d like to get within a thou’. So I mounted another parallel and checked back and forth in the two planes.

Off about .007”, not good.

The bed was parallel though.

I checked the jaw.

Way off. So I removed the fixed jaw, cleaned it, aligned it as best I could without the steel jaw attached, cleaned oil and such off the steel jaw and replaced it, Basically making sure that the fixed jaw, which is the primary reference, was square. Remove any burrs and lapping may help. This isn't a precision vise compared to a toolmakers vise or a Kurt vise though.

Testing after replacing and it’s dead on except at the very bottom where the steel is slightly deformed. I could remove this by filing/lapping.

Since the edges aren’t square (remember they’re a few thou’ off.) I used a dowel pin between the moving jaw and the work. This rolls between the moving jaw and the work as it’s tightened, keeping the work from moving at all in relation to the fixed jaw.

Here’s another shot.

.04869” at one end.

.04864” at the other. About .0006" off.

One spot, where the end mill raised a burr is .4876”, it’s important not to be misled by an artifact like this.

Anyway, the lessons are to check the setup of the vise, make sure the fixed jaw and bed are square to each other and that all travels are square/parallel. Use a dowel pin between the moving jaw and the work to keep the force of clamping from misaligning the work. Hope this helps. There are a bunch of other tricks that can achieve the same ends.

Using The Taig Lathe As A Cutoff Saw.

2010-10-26T11:09:00.001-07:00

A customer prompted me to try something out, using the Taig as a cutoff saw. He needed thin pieces cut from round and square rod. While parting tool would certainly work, the saw allows a thinner cut, especially if you source one from MSC, etc. that is thinner than the stock Taig saw, as well as a truly flat cut where a parting tool can flex a bit if you’re not careful. When setting up the saw and when clamping the work always unplug the motor, the last thing you want is the saw spinning around while your hand is around it.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the Taig 1110 on hand, so I had to use the ER Spindle adapter to chuck a home made saw arbor in the lathe, but the idea is the same. The Vise is mounted directly to the cross slide. I show the 2225 rather than the 1225, but the 1225 is probably what a lathe user has, and will work the same.

I bent up some 3/16” steel rod to make a stop for the work.

An overall view.The carriage is locked. It pays to take the time to align the vise square with the cross slide travel.

Cutting off.

A thin disk cut off.

When clamping work in the vise I move the jaw so that it’s snug, tighten down the moving jaw top screw, then tighten up the clamp screw. Again it’s important that the work be resting square along the bottom of the vise.

A Few Links

2010-09-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here are a few Taig and Machining related links:

Adam Collins started a blog about his adventures with a Taig Mill.
Andy Rawson has a blog about robotics and his Taig Mill.
Draftsight is a free CAD program from Dassault.
Intracad Grasp 3D Laser Scanning Alpha (free for now?).

Steve Fornelius’ Steady Rest

2010-09-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

Steve Fornelius says, "I needed a following rest for my lathe and after a basically fruitless search, I decided to heavily modify on by JR Bentley.
I had to make it simple, because I don't have a mill to make anything fancy! If you can tell me how to post to your site, I'll submit there.
Anyway, here's the gist of the project:
One piece 3/4" x 1/2" four inches long for the base
One piece 3/4" x 1/2" fly cut to 1/2" x 1/2" x 3 inches long for the crosspiece
Two pieces 3/4" x 1/2" fly cut to 1/2" x 1/2" x 2 inches long for the upright and guide support
Two pieces of 1/4" brass rod for guides
Five 3/4 inch 10-32 socket head cap screws
Simple drilling, tapping and counterboring for the cap head screws. I found I could use my Delta 9" bandsaw to cut the metal, so I saved a lot of hacksawing!

John Silvia’s Quick Change Tool Post

2010-09-22T13:24:00.001-07:00

This is my version of the quick change tool post by E. Paul Alciatore III as published in the Feburary/March 2010 Machinist's Workshop magazine. I modified his design to hold 1/4" tools and to fit the taig. Instead of using steel for the tool holders, I substituted aluminum. I figured if it was strong enough for the original tool holder it would be fine for this one. As long as I was using aluminum I thought it would be fun to try anodizing, hence the red color.
I made the tool post out of 3/4" drill rod. I also used a piece of the drill rod to make a D-reamer to size the hole in the holders. On the bottom of the post I milled flats to match a 5/8" square hole in the mounting plate. The mounting plate was made of 1/4" steel. Mounting the post to the plate made it easy to mill the large flat on the post at 45 degrees. The large flat is 5/8" from the other side. The combination of mounting plate and post can be mounted on either the left or right side of the taig cross slide and, because of the square hole, it can oriented to cut on the left or right. The base of the post does not come all the way through. When tightened down with the two bolts, believe me, this post is going nowhere! Of course, by using only the bolt through the post it can be used at any angle.
The tool holders are 1 3/4" on a side and 1 1/16" thick. When cutting the corner off the tool holder the side with the fixed bolts needs to be flush with the D-post. The other side is milled 2-3 thousands deeper to allow tightening. I'm ashamed of the knobs, but at $2.50 for 10, they were too cheap to pass up and are easily strong enough.
Mr Alciatore came up with a great design! It is easy and cheap to make. It took me about 1 day to make the first tool holder, but less than two days to make the next 9. It is a lot easier to do them in batches.

A Plumbing Adapter

2010-09-12T14:51:00.001-07:00

The faucet for our water filter broke and the new one had different plumbing than the old one. Rather than redo all the connections I made an adapter to go from the faucet (7/16”-24 UNF for a 1/4” compression fitting) to the tubing (3/8” compression fitting)

A piece of “medical grade” Pomalux Acetal Copolymer.

Center drilling

Drilling for the tap.

Tapping (under hand power…)

Drilling the rest of the way through 1/4”

Flipped in the chuck and turned down to 3/8” diameter for the compression fitting.

Milling a hex so I can get a wrench on it.

The finished adapter.

In place under the sink.

The new faucet on the sink. The picture makes me think I need to tear apart the whole kitchen counter.

Anyway, no need to drive to the hardware store, although I was lucky (or a good hoarder) to have the 7/16”-24 tpi tap on hand. It isn’t common.

John Devost’s Taig Lathe Cross Slide Drilling Rig

2010-08-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

“Some pics of my Taig lathe showing a 'mod/hack' that I did to drill brass rod with the 'cross-slide', as opposed to the 'tailstock', it's for a puzzle I'm making that has 30 brass dowels with magnets at each end...my current tailstock has kinda' been through the ringer and this set-up makes things easier and more accurate as well ;) BTW - Pic also shows your 'index plate' that I finally got around to putting on :)"

Check out John’s Pens and Puzzles for sale.

John Silvia’s Knurling Tool

2010-08-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

John Silvia sent these pics of a knurling tool made on the Taig lathe and mill:

"I was inspired to make a set of knurling tools based on a picture I saw of an old German knurling tool. The design and construction was heavily influenced by the material and tools that I had on hand. As can be seen in the photos I was experimenting with the exact design and dimensions as I made it. It is somewhat oversized for the taig but I intend to use it someday on a larger lathe with the addition of a second pivot assembly.
Speaking of the pivot assembly, although it looks like brass in the photos, it is made of some bronze I happened to have. The 1/4" bar for the taig tool holder is attached off center to help raise the tightening knob as high as possible to keep fingers well clear when knurling close to the chuck.
I had planned to hold the knurl pivots in place via set screws; but two sets of knurls that I ordered had shoulders on them that increased their width to the point that there wasn't enough room for set screws, so I had to use a different retaining mechanism made from "hacksaw blades" from the dollar store. This means that more clearance is required on one side when knurling but this really doesn't matter since the arms can be flipped to put the retaining mechanism on either side.
I'm pleased with the results. The first thing I knurled is the knob for the tool itself.
If I were making another one for the taig only, I would make the arms shorter. When I try to knurl a long test piece, a lot of torque is put on the tool holder. It is difficult to get it secured well enough that it doesn't accidentally pivot when advancing the knurler along the knurlee. Shorter arms would probably help reduce the torque. I bought the springs at the local hardware store. They make it slightly more convenient to use but are not necessary.
This is only the second item of any complexity at all that I have machined myself so please be understanding when viewing the pictures. This was very much a learning experience for me."

Athena’s Inlay And Some Links

2010-08-16T14:05:00.001-07:00

Athena sent in two pics of her first inlay tests using the Taig CNC mill.

A cross in silver and abalone.

"A shot of a little test I ran yesterday. I have tons of designs for fretmarker inlays. One is little silhouettes of various pistols and rifles. I did a test run of an Uzi to see what it would look like in real life. It's less than a half inch tall. My builder friend is going to make an M1 Carbine theme guitar I'm designing an inlay for right now, so guns are kind of a theme now."

And some links:

Caligari’s Truespace 3D Model software is now free

Dean put up details of his Taig mill Countershaft

Youtube video about a hidden door company that happens to use a Taig mill. (0:42 to 0:46)

Leon Dionne’s Taig Lathe Leadscrew

2010-07-21T11:23:00.001-07:00

Leon sent his latest Taig modification, a leadscrew.

The lead screw on my lathe is a slightly modified version of the one by Dean Williams. Details for its construction can be found here on his web site. Thanks Dean. The hand crank mounted at the tail end of the lathe does not hinder the removal of the carriage, as I will show in the following photos.

A 1/4 inch drive was cut, drilled and mounted to the lead screw at the tail end of the lathe.

A socket (any size will do) was machined and silver soldered to the hand crank.

The hand crank can be installed and removed without the use of any tools for easy removal of the carriage. A .010 shim (not visible in the photo) was superglued to one face of the shaft to eliminate crank wobble.

Half nut assembly shown in engaged position.

Half nut shown in disengaged position.

Some Quick Clamps

2010-06-30T20:18:00.001-07:00

I needed some clamps for holding word down on a sub plate that were less time consuming to adjust for workpiece thickness. This type of clamp is available commercially (Rite-Hite, etc) but at their simplest they can be made from tubing.

Sawing some scrap thick wall aluminum tube that was handy.

Sawn into thirds

Slotting on the Taig mill.

I radiused the ends and deburred on my belt grinder.

In an ideal world I’d make some washers that had a concave radius to match the pipe sections. But no need for now.

Shimming The Dovetail To Align The Y Axis

2010-06-20T13:29:00.001-07:00

Refer to my setup guides, V1, V2 part 1, V2 Part 2 first.

Sweep the indicator mounted in the spindle on the Y-axis. A 6” parallel is useful as you gain some diameter.

Note whether it’s higher in the back or the front.

Remove the headstock, revealing the dovetail plate.

Loosen the screws on the plate and insert a shim. Start with a .001” thick shim.

Depending on the condition you may have to shim the top or the bottom. You will have to realign the dovetail plate in X after this and tram again. This can make you crazy and you will probably have to do this a couple of times. Don’t try to get it perfect.

Here’s a shim peeking out from under my headstock.

Joseph Osborn’s Indexing Pin Setup

2010-06-18T16:34:00.001-07:00

Joseph writes:

I finally got my index pin block made. After failing to find any suitable aluminum locally, I had to get it online. I used your affiliate link with Online Metals, so you should get a royalty from the sale. I made the block as simply as I could; the brass pin fits tightly enough that I don't think it needs a clamp. The diameter of my pin (3/16") was just on the edge of being too big: three holes stacked together leaves very little metal between them. If I ever make another one I'll use a 5/32" pin and holes.

Clint Chron’s Taig Lathe & Project

2010-06-18T16:33:00.001-07:00

Clint Says:

The motor setup is the Penn Industries unit with controller. I have attached one more picture of my setup. I had always wanted a Unimat lathe for the past 40 years, but never could afford one. Started looking on eBay last January and saw the very high prices for used units, so I ended up with the Taig. I made a storage box similar to the Unimat from a surplus high quality cabinet drawer.

The tool is about 95% finished - not perfect, but very usable. I need to shave off about 3/1000" from one side in order to minimize the run-out as I rotate the block. I have attached some pictures of the unit and my facing setup. I went back and used a different tool for the facing. Was using the standard Taig cutoff tool - about 1/8" wide at the tool end. Used a HF tool that had about 1/4" wide end. You can see the bigger tool in the pictures.

I am getting the hang of making very small incremental advances for each cutting. I need to look at getting a better way to make small movements on the cross-slide that attaches the tool post. Using the cutting tool in the tool post might be better than using the Taig fly cutter. I think that I can work on bigger pieces of flat stock, plus having the cutting tool stationary might be better as opposed to having it rotate on the head stock. You would have a much better idea on this.

This has sure been a good training exercise for me. I still need to get better at using the Taig boring bar. It is really too big to start with small holes and I had trouble with cutting off the first part of the hole while trying to cut off deeper into the hole. I picked up a blank stock and will try to make one that can start with a 1/4" OD hole. BTW - I have some countersink deburring tools coming - using drill bits just does not work too good :-).

Bob Eckstein’s Vortex Cold Air Gun

2010-06-18T16:28:00.001-07:00

Bob says:

I have recently made several small vortex tubes which provide a stream of cold air that can be directed at cutting heads, lathe tooling etc. where you may not want to use a flowing liquid or spray for purposes of lubrication and/or cooling. The exit air is much colder than can be obtained by adiabatic expansion through a simple orifice. The model shown uses a little under 4 cfm. @ 90 psi. Depending on your source of compressed air, you can attach any of a variety or adapters to the inlet tube by way of compression fittings, solder, etc. Commercially available vortex tubes are pretty expensive, and this one is under $25.00 ( less if you raid the junk box ) The inlet tube is 1/8 brass tubing with an insert of 1/16 tubing sweat soldered inside it. The nozzle is protruding 1/16 tubing cut at a 30 degree angle. The solder I use is a 4% silver bearing alloy. The brass tubing may be found in craft / hobby supply shops ( K&S product ). Bob Eckstein

Some Links

2010-06-18T14:18:00.001-07:00

Ken Ferrell, Woodchuck Tools, sells wood turning tools made on his Taig Mill.

Thomas Performance Parts makes motorcycle tools on a Taig Mill

Todd Schultz makes live centers for the Taig:

He doesn’t have a website but can be contacted at jtoddshultz@yahoo.com

Scanning and Software

2010-05-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

Playing around a bit this weekend.

I was watching a show on Revision3 (more later) called "Hak 5" and they mentioned a site called Ninite that allows you to download and install a bunch of freeware all at once. One of the programs was Inkscape, an open source vector drawing program. Mention vectors and you have my interest! I downloaded and installed it. I loaded the logo of my favorite beverage, Moxie:

Taken from the internet...

Cleaned up in Inkscape and loaded as a dxf in Rhino... Very handy...

The other project was playing with the David scanner software. The demo is free but limited in resolution. The software, a line laser ($15.00 at Home Depot) and a webcam is all you need, more or less...

First scan I did...

Another scan in Rhino...not perfect but certainly shows a lot of promise and I'll play with it more.

Back to Revision3...they used to have a show called "Systm" and there's a great episode on using the David software. In the show they mentioned "Meshlab" which is a mesh manipulation program. It crashes a lot (at least for me) but has some cool features for aligning meshes taken from scans, smoothing, etc. Here's an Instructable about using it.

Have fun!

Leon Dionne's Mill Tooling Plate

2010-05-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Leonne Dionne's latest, his tooling plate and mill tooling:

My Taig mill is mostly unmodified except for the tooling plate I made for it.

Tooling plate is made of 1/2" thick aluminum, 5 inches wide.

The Sherline rotary table is shown here mounted in the vertical position.

This riser block allows me to use the Taig tailstock with the Sherline rotary table on my tooling plate.

Vee blocks (or should I call those X blocks) made from 1" square aluminum stock.

Joseph Osborn's Tail Duct

2010-05-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Joseph Osborn says, "By the way, your instructions for the radius turner were great; I was able to get the first part I needed from it made up fairly easily. I've attached two photos showing the raw part and the finished assembly. It's a 1/35 scale tail duct for an MD520N helicopter, which doesn't have a conventional tail rotor but instead blows air through its tailboom and out a perpendicular duct at the end of the boom. The main part is turned polyurethane resin and the brass is photoetched and bent into assemblies to fit the main part. No way I could have made this part without using the lathe!"

Landrum Haddix's Column Brace

2010-05-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

Landrum Haddix wrote, "I know this has been done before, but check out my Taig column brace. I'm tired of adjusting the column before and after I use anything with much side force, like a boring head, fly cutter, or shell mill. I had an end mill get 'sucked' into a part and before it broke it knocked the column over went for China into the part and finally threw it across the room. All I did was try to walk across the hall to use the bathroom and boom. Moral: nothing fails when your hand is over E-stop."

John Rollason's Taig Leadscrew

2010-05-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

John Rollason says, "some pictures of the lathe recently supplied by yourself via my friend in Florida. We have fitted a manual leadscrew as I can't get on with the rack and pinion. The production version utilizes the redundant carriage handwheel at the right hand end. There is no drilling or damage to the bed. We are proposing to market the kit, is there any interest from your side of the world? Cost would be be about $90. ex works. I don't have a web site but I would be happy to be contacted via email:" g3wco@idnet.com

Bob Eckstein's Handwheels

2010-05-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Bob Eckstein sent pics of his latest mod:

I thought you might like to see a very simple way I found to improve the readability of the scales on Taig lathe handwheels. The diameter of the wheels is approximately 31.46 mm. giving a circumference of 98.85. With the additional thickness of a sheet of good quality paper, the circumference is exactly 100 mm.
I used an open-source graph printing program to print 2 mm gradations on the paper and then applied narrow strips to the handwheels on the cross slide and compound by moistening the paper in thin cyanoacrylate cement. This gave 50 divisions per revolution for a measured advance of 0.001 inch per division. Much more visible than the markings engraved in the metal.

Use of the 1210 Radius Turner, New Article

2010-05-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

I put up an article showing one way of setting up and using the 1210 Radius Turner.

Use Of The Taig 1210 Radius Turner

Leon Dionne's Taig Lathe

2010-04-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

Leon Dionne sent in some great details of his Taig Lathe setup.

My lathe is powered by a 1/4HP 220 volt 3 phase motor with a jack shaft attached to the motor

The motor is controlled by a VFD (variable frequency drive), which gives me speed control from zero to max, forward and reverse, controlled start and stop, and a number of other features which I have as yet not found a use for.

Why the need for a jack shaft?? At very low RPM, the motor also produces very low torque. With the reduction in speed, and conversely the increase in torque I get with the jack shaft,(a factor of approx 2.5), I can get a spindle speed of approximately 50 RPM and still get plenty of torque (the belts will slip before the motor will stall)

This method of mounting the dial indicator allows the use of the carriage stop.

The tailstock has the usual modifications, the lever extension is simply a 5 inch piece of 1/2 inch copper pipe with a brass knob locktited at the tip. A tommy bar replaces the hex screw.

Simple tip: Sliding a 7/8 inch ID O-ring over the carriage hand wheel, provides the friction required to prevent the hand wheel from "creeping" out of adjustment.

My motor mount is made of 2 inch angle iron and 1/4 inch slide rods mounted on a wood base.

A front view shows the belt tensioning screw.

Gerald Hynes Taig Accessories on his Mini Mill

2010-04-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Gerald Hynes sent in pictures showing his use of Taig accessories on his import mini mill.

Thought you might be interested to see a couple of fixture plates I made for use on my "non TAIG" milling machines but set-up for mounting many stock TAIG accessories for a variety of clamping options. the fixture plates are drilled and tapped 1/4"-20 on a 1" grid pattern. they mount to the mill with T nuts thru the counterbored holes using 1/4"-20 sockethead bolts. All unused holes in the grids are plugged with short set screws to keeps the chips out of the holes.

The TAIG vise sub-plate is drilled/tapped 10-32 on a 1" grid to allow use of the TAIG vise without modifing the existing counterbored mounting holes. Also since the TAIG vise jaws are mounted on the same spacing they could be removed for direct mounting to the plate. Also the 2 vises can be mounted end to end and with some reconfigration of the jaws allow clamping upto about 5 3/4"! Not bad for a pair of vises under $30 ea ! The beauty of the whole set-up is the ability to move work from the lathe to the mill and back without disturbing the part! Bear in mind that these are not precision plates and are merely made from affordable 6061 bar stock. If needed I can mount a sub-plate and then machine it flat at that position and then mount work to it. Overall though they are very useful devices for most required set-ups. I have sanded them flat on a granite surface plate so the are generally good for the sorts of projects I undertake. I may at some point have a friend flycut them on his bridgeport for a more precise flatness and parallellism. Or at some point I may get my own bridgeport sized CNC knee mill finished and flycut themself! The mill of course is a whole other project!

Bob Eckstein's Motorized Taig Lathe Power Feed

2010-04-20T15:38:00.001-07:00

Bob sent in his latest project, a motor drive for the Taig lathe power feed.

A few shots of the drive I made for the carriage on the lathe.

The original drive.

I made a little hand-held control box with instant forward / reverse switches.

The motor is used in a majority of HP DESKJET printers. They can be had in thrift stores for usually under $5.00. The whole project cost maybe $15.00.

The motor mount is an "L" of 3/32 brass silver soldered to a hinge.

The friction drive to the gearbox input pulley is via a couple O-rings on the plastic pulley of the motor shaft.

Carriage Depth Stop With Riser Blocks

2010-04-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

A customer was wondering about the use of the carriage depth stop with the riser blocks installed.

Normal use of the depth stop.

Riser block installed. Note that the dovetail is offset to the rear.

The thumbscrew fouls against the riser, and the rod wouldn't hit the carriage.

Drilling a #21 hole.

Tapping #10-32

Works just fine. So a couple of minutes of non-precision work and the depth stop is now useable.

X Axis Travel Stops for the Taig Milling Machine

2010-04-01T13:06:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been needing some travel stops for the X axis (the table) of my Taig Mill. I finally broke down and just hacked out a pair. I didn't any design work and just made them up as I went along.

The project started by finally figuring out that the front t-slot of my Taig Mill table would accept #4 nuts. I started with a piece of 1/2" square free machining steel. I faced the top first. Then I picked up the edge.

I started milling a tongue that would fit in the front t-slot of the table to keep the stop horizontal.

Finished tongue. The slot is about .125" wide so I made the tongue about .110The slot fills up with oil, chips, etc so a looser fit seemed like a good idea.

I used an end mill to get below the level of the surface as the drill for a #4 screw is just about the width of the tongue. I then center drilled and drilled through with a clearance drill for a #4-40 screw. The holes are about 1/4" from the ends and 1/2" apart.

I flipped the piece and counterbored for the screw heads with a 3/16" end mill. I'd probably go 1/4" if I made them again as the screw heads were a tight fit.

I sawed the piece in half. I could have just made two pieces to begin with but I really was doing this all off the top of my head.

I faced both ends flat of each stop.

I had to cut the screws to the right length (I use an electricians crimper that has screw shearing holes built in). The parts were deburred.

As you can see the #4 hex nut is a sliding fit in the t-slot. I'm a bit worried it will catch but so far it works fine. Maybe in the future I'll make a flat nut the full length of the stop.

The finished stop. While two screws probably would hold fine, 3 seems better. It's a bit of a pain to loosen three screws per stop but I definitely don't want it to shift and I don't want to have to over tighten the screws either.Seems rock solid and repeatable (there's a degree of feel) to a few thou. Chips caught between the stop and the post will likely be an issue though.
Also posted as an article at Cartertools.com

Bob Eckstein's Taig Lathe

2010-03-30T14:40:00.001-07:00

Bob Eckstein sent in these pics of his lathe:

It took a bit longer than I had expected, but the Taig lathe is now a going concern.

The tailstock as delivered was a collection of sharp jagged edges. Judicious use of a fine file cleaned up the extrusions and made it a lot more pleasant to deal with. The motion of the ram was somewhat rough and uneven but a session with lapping compound took care of it. The handle is made of layers of CORIAN plastic laminated with epoxy and carved to shape. The knobs are from the hardware store, 10-32 thread. The chuck is a Craftsman keyless 3/8"

I didn't have a boring bar to use in truing the lathe jaws, and a carbide lathe bit made a real mess of it, so I took a cylindrical solid carbide milling cutter and placed it in the drilling tailstock. I closed the chuck very gently until there was the slightest contact and turned it slowly by hand, then tightened it a little more and continued until the jaws had been cleaned up. The milling cutter was small enough that I could run it to the back of the jaws and avoid having to remove them to file off the "lip". The whole process went very quickly. There is still a little run-out but far less than what the chuck had as delivered.

The motor is a 46 volt DC unit. Power supply is a 5 amp Variac with a full-wave rectifier. The motor has a 1/4" shaft and I found the perfect adapter to use the 1/2" pulley: It's a chuck sleeve for Hitachi routers to use 1/4" bits in a 1/2" router chuck. The Hitachi part number is 956-927Z, Model TR-12.

Variac

The little clamp is used to lock the handwheel on the carriage so you don't have to hold it to use the power feed. By the way, the power feed advances the carriage approximately .003 per revolution of the input pulley.

Milling The Rack Channel Off the Taig Lathe Bed

2010-03-26T15:19:00.001-07:00

I wanted to see how hard it was to remove the rack channel from the bed for those who don't want to flip the bed around when retrofitting the new lathe power feed.

The channel.

I wanted to see if it could be sawn off easily using a hacksaw blade (without a frame, as the rack channel is too long). Short answer is that it would take you a very long time.

The bed set up on the mill.

I was able to mill almost the whole channel off in one pass.

Then I had to re-clamp to get the last little bit.

All gone.

Enough clearance for the lead screw coupling.

And the screw.

So if you have a mill it's doable. Without a mill you are probably better off just flipping the bed 180 and living with the foot at the other end.

New Pictures

2010-03-15T17:13:00.000-07:00

Some new pictures sent in by Lew Bishop, Lou Somers, Michael Paznar and Norman Crowson.

Lew Bishop writes, "Finished a milling attachment similar to the one made by Dean Williams and now need to get a set of collets to avoid the jaws of the chuck (which seem to be attracted to my fingers). I think that using the stock Taig units at this time will work just fine as the range of size is OK . I'm enclosing the pics of the attachment to show my interpretation of Deans fixture. I actually got the attachment to work and immediately realized that rigidity is the mother of milling - had to add additional bolts to the T-slots - total four - rather than the two that fit the holes in the angle plate. "

Lou Somers:

I used a 100 tooth blade as an index for graduating lead screw dial. As a detent I used a block of aluminum set against the motor pulley to hold it square and simply moved it back and forth as I rotated the blade to the next tooth. Worked great. All re cuts were dead on.

I set the carriage stop at .125 and cut all 100 divisions, each one being .0005. I then reset the stop at .250 and recut every other division, each being .001. I then reset the stop at .375 and recut every tenth division, each being .005. Finally I removed the stop and made a full cut at every twentith division, each being .010.

I find this dial much easier to use than the one on the Taig carriage. As you can see there is no cursor on it. I graduated it simply as an exercise to see if I could do it. When nessecary I use an indicator on the carriage.

boring bar holder

This may or may not be news to anyone but if you should break or wear out a short belt snatch one of your wife's elastic hair ties. They're not a perfect solution but if you take light cuts they can help keep a project moving till you get a new belt.

For reverse twist to figure 8.

Michael Paznar:

drilling a "prop saver for my little rc airplane"

"I should mention I modelled mine after the black one on the left."

"the prop saver is the first thing I have machined, it involved mostly using my taig lathe but also my sherline 5400 mill to drill and tap the holes.soon this will be on my GWS slow stick."

Norman Crowson:

Thought you might enjoy seeing a tiny brass gear made on my Taig mill... used a rotary table plus a gear cutting wheel to tooth a gear blank I turned on my atlas lathe using a microscope and DI.The brass gear replaces the delrin gears (black in the photo) that go on my Bachmann Climax HO Locomotive... the delrin gears are splitting on their axles.One gear down and 11 to go to finish the project. More details are available by email to any that might have an interest.

a tiny universal joint or "swivel" made on the Taig mill and atlas lathe for Bachman Shay and Climax locomotives ...

Thanks Guys!

Pete Rees' Mill Accessories

2010-02-24T11:36:00.000-08:00

Pete Rees sent in these pictures of some of his modifications to the Taig Mill:

"Some stops to limit table travel in the X direction on the mill. I have seen a few variations done by other Taig owners on your web site. Here is what I came up with. Since the T-slot in the front of the table will only accept a 4-40 size screw, and I wanted the stops to be as ridged and repeatable as possible, I decided to use two screws per stop. Each block is 1" long and 1/2" high and sticks out from the front edge of the table 1/2". Both screws thread into the same "nut" as you can see in the exploded view picture. I made two of them. They are plenty rigid and work great."

"T-nuts and clamps for the table. I decided to use 1/4-20 hardware, so the T-nuts are threaded for that size. I made them (and the clamps and table stops) from 12L14 steel. The threads stop just short of going all the way thru, so that the studs bottom out before making contact with the bottom of the table T-slot - just like the "real" ones for the bigger mills. They are also 1" long - probably overkill, but that's not a bad thing, right? It gives them lots of contact area with the table, and being so long, they will never ding up the sides of the T-slots from twisting forces when tightening down the nuts. The clamps are also basically just copies of full size versions. I looked and looked but could not find any where that sold them sized for 1/4" fasteners, so I made my own. However, since I made them, I now see that A2Z CNC has some extremely nice adjustable "rite height" style clamps for sale. Had those been available at the time, I would have purchased those. I may still yet.To go with the T-nuts and clamps, I bought an assortment of different length studs, swivel-flange nuts, and coupler nuts from McMaster-Carr. Also, McMaster has some very nice American Made "Taig size" step blocks. Those work great, too. Whoever invented those was a genius!"

"For a vice, I currently only have one - a 2" precision "screwless" vice. I think, if I remember correctly, it was made in India. It works great - no complaints. Although I needed to make some clamps to attach it to the table. I made 4 identical clamps from aluminum. If the vice is going to be clamped on the ends, I use 2 clamps. But if I need to rotate it 90 degrees, I use 2 clamps on each side, for a total of 4."

"My 'poor man's' parallels - pieces of square key stock, cut to 2" lengths. I have a selection of 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" pieces. They seem to work fine with as much precision as I need. They can be used either as one pair, or stacked up on top of each other - I.E. stack a 1/4 on top of a 3/8 to get 5/8."

"My cheapest and easiest mod to the mill (free!!): I wanted some kind of shield or cover to protect the bottom area of the Z lead screw and ways. I'm almost embarrassed to show you what I came up with. In the one photo with the vise in the foreground and the Subway cups (for swarf) in the background, you can see my solution - a 6" wide by 3.5" high piece of cardboard form a cereal box held in place by scotch tape. Don't laugh! It works great! It rarely gets in the way, but if it does, pealing the tape off takes all of 5 seconds. Some day I will make a nicer version out of similar rubber to match the other covers."

"I knew even before I got the lathe what my first project was going to be - a pair of extra heavy duty washers to replace the original two that hold the mill motor to its mount. The new ones are very thick and work good."

"A holder which mounts a dial indicator to the mill table to monitor X travel. This is way more complex than it needed to be, but I wanted to make it that way just for the challenge. Lots of hours in that part. Initially, most of the big areas were removed by very carefully using a hack saw. It is symmetrical, side to side, and can be mounted either on the left side of the table (as shown in the photo) or on the right side."

Thanks Pete!

The Kenbo Dremel Holder

2010-02-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

My friend Kent is making Dremel holders for the Taig and other small lathes.

The Kenbo Dremel holder.

In use.

A page of pictures showing the tool is here.
Contact him for details, the price is $25.00

2010-02-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

I have a post up at my other blog showing how I made some bit brace adapters for a friend.

The setup involved mounting a 5C collet block at a slight angle in the Taig mill.

The collet block needs a stop against it for repeatability.

Milling the tang of one of the adapters.

You get the idea.
5C collet blocks are handy.

Ed Chesnut's Latest Injection Mold

2010-01-26T16:09:00.001-08:00

Ed Chesnut sent in pics of his latest injection mold

Lou Somers Power Feed Update

2010-01-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

Lou Somers sent in some pictures of his updated shop made Taig lathe power feed.
"I rejiggered everything for portability. when I get tired of standing I set it on a drywall bucket and sit down. Drive cable for leadscrew is stuck on a screw to keep it out of the way when not in use."

"Moved gearmotor topside. At left lower corner is a temporary drive link for my attempt at Keith Brooke's thread cutting rig. I used 3/8 x 24 tap as a leader. Didn't want to spend too much time on it till I was sure it would work. Will rework as time permits."

"After a couple of passes with the thread tool. Chuck is a 3" from Little Machine Shop. I have a 4" from LMS on my Atlas 618. Both are money well spent"

"Blurry action shot"

"Don't know how I missed my mark as much as I did. Rather than make another drive rod plate I drilled and tapped the drive rod for a 10 x 24 screw"

"Drilled a generously oversize hole in the drive rod plate for the screw to pass through. Tightened it til there was just the slightest play to allow rod to move latterally due to misalignment. Seems to work just fine."

"The chuck arbor is on a piece of 10x24 all thread."

"Made a taper to keep everything centered in the spindle nose. Although this set up looks like Beethoven's last movement and Keith would probably throttle me for the way I've chopped up his idea, it works perfectly."

Back to Work, New Pics, Article, etc.

2010-01-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

Back to work!

Rick Kernell sent in these pictures of his graduated Taig lathe handwheel.

"The power feed is working really well. This idea has been rattling in my head for a while. Maybe some one else may find this a help.
The new carriage feed moves at 1.800 inch per revolution. I marked off the wheel so that each 0.100 inch and 0.300 inch (black lines) has graduations. They are not knock-dead accurate due to the lead screw/gear play, but they are surprisingly reproducible."

Note that this is the new power feed version of the lathe. Rick was one of the first people to make the conversion.

Keith Brooke sent in a short PDF article on his method of Free-Hand Turning on the Taig Lathe.

Jacobs closed its last US plant so there are some deals out there. One that caught my eye: Jacobs 6208 1B Medium DutyChuck 6.5 mm 3/8-Inch 24tpi, There are some other good deals if you search for Jacobs on Amazon, especially if you need large 30 to 50 taper end mill holders.
[EDIT, it appears the deal on the chuck is gone and it's back to the regular price]

Finally, for those of you who probe in Mach3, there's a great probing routine here that promises to greatly reduce time. I haven't tried it yet but the thread on the Mach forum is encouraging.

Lew Bishop's Latest

2009-11-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

Here's Lew's latest:

My old mahogany box salvaged from an old model flying buddy - in this case with some of the current crop of pens. Of note are the two on the right that are made from a 10 mm blank of fairly soft aluminum. Since the bodies are without the center band, a much more gentle shape can be turned. The finish is still eluding me and will require a lot more study and practice.

My current set up with the drawer box to hold the tools and act as a stand. The new additions are the longer dead center with more travel along with a new lever with softer edges and a cute knob on the end - borrowed from my b-in-law's parts drawer. The knob is also on the new tailstock lock lever as well as the new tool post lock.

The tool post is a refurb of the original tool post received with the purchase of the lathe many years ago. The hole was not clean so a new .25 hole was hogged out with a new shoulder recess to fit the new lock as well as new threads for larger hold down bolts for the tool. The anchor for the post is a machined 1/4 -20 bolt with the head milled and slots cut for the "t" to hold the bolt straight. Additional threads were required on the bolt to allow for proper clamping force. It works pretty well and loads into the slot very easily. I need to do a new post with the different anchor to test the process and to put the tool at the correct height without shimming. Later on the old post will be a guinea pig for an adjustable height device or something.

The latest pen turned from one of the rifle blank scraps that I cut last month. The grain of the walnut is just beautiful and is great to work with.

posted at cartertools.com as well.

Latest on the Power Feed Retrofit Kit

2009-11-13T11:28:00.000-08:00

Taig Says:

"The K1016 is going to be $119.00 each. Should have them ready by next week. We are just waiting for the paper work to be printed."

Ron Kiely's Latest Light

2009-11-12T16:53:00.000-08:00

Ron says: "I have just made this off road mountain bike light at the request of a total stranger who lives in Portugal. Made from 45mm Aluminium bar it was quite a challenge for the rear mounted cut-off tool, these lights get very hot so require 7.5mm deep grooves in order to keep them cool, I almost run out of lead screw trying to get the cut-off tool that far back. Also lots of very deep boring for the electronics compartment but the taig coped very well."

Finning...

Boring.

Posted on cartertools.com as well.

Powerfeed is ready...

2009-11-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

[EDIT: Taig just emailed me that they forgot to include the cost of the new carriage extrusion in the power feed upgrade kit...so they're on hold until they get pricing figured out...Orders that have gone into them get the $80.00 price but everyone else should hold off for now...]

Taig says the Power Feed and Power Feed retrofit kits are ready:

The power feed lathe is # L1015.
The lathe includes the power feed, pulley set and mounting board. It is $305.00 retail.

The power feed retrofit parts kit is # K1016. It is XXXX retail.

Details of the retrofit are up at Taig's Taigmachines site

As always I'll give 10% off plus S&H.
I haven't had a chance to try the retrofit kit myself yet.

Taig also does not yet have individual part#'s for those wanting to mess around with the new useful parts. I'll let you know when I know.

Some more power feed details

2009-10-30T09:05:00.001-07:00

Taig has some more details about the power feed up:
http://www.taigmachines.com/Boss_s_Corner.php http://www.taigmachines.com/Whats_New.html

They say it's available but I haven't received pricing, etc yet.

The 2035ER Taig Boring Head

2009-10-19T16:22:00.001-07:00

Taig sent me their 2035ER Boring Head to test out. The boring head is now for sale: 2035ER Boring Head $45.00

The boring head comes with two import carbide tipped boring bars.

This is a simple boring head. The large cap screw adjusts and locks the dovetail. The small setscrew front and back are used to adjust the position of the boring head. There is no graduated dial. You just adjust it close, and tweak the front and back setscrews to get it close, measure after cutting and adjust a little more. You can of course place an indicator against it to measure travel and I don't think it will be long before someone clever modifies it to have a typical screw feed. The boring head is made of aluminum and has a 3/8" shank.

As you can see it is a simple design.

Opening up a 3/8" hole.

As you can see I got a tiny bit of chatter. This is the biggest problem with boring on small mills. You need to take the time to experiment when boring with different feedrates and depths of cut. Generally you want to bore at the slowest spindle speed you can.

A large diameter hole (yup, same hole, I like to test things thoroughly). Again you can see the smallest amount of chatter.

Boring out a steel bushing. I did this at 1000 rpm just to see whether those with the 1/4hp mill motor could use the boring head. Again I got a small amount of chatter but overall the hole is round.

This is the largest circle the bar will bore with the boring bar in one of the holes, about .4"

Unfortunately this is the smallest hole the bar will bore in the next hole, about 5.5"You can get around this problem by rotating the bar 180 degrees (put a flat on it!) then you get a range in between the large and small range.

This is the largest hole, about 1.25" so the range of adjustment is about .7"

Some Projects from Stephen Ellacott

2009-10-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

Stephen Ellacott sent in pictures of his latest projects.

"I finally got your indexing plate mounted with a simple indent pin arrangement on the top of the tailstock - works great! Thanks! I made a simple jig to help remove the headstock pulley - 6 1/2" of 5/16" steel rod with a counter bore in one end to fit the point of the gear puller and turned down to 1/4" for a length of 1" at the other end. It is inserted through the headstock with the 3 jaw chuck mounted and the jaws tightened on the reduced part of the rod. The gear puller can't push the shaft through the 3 jaw because of the lip of the cut. I also made a simple spindle threaded 1/4-20 at one end and used it and a washer to hold the pulley on top of the vise while I drilled and tapped the three holes. The plate spins very well without any wobble at all.The indent pin is 5/32" in diameter and tapered to ensure it centers every hole in the indexing plate. It doesn't go all the way through the plate and has a slightly rough finish to stop it from dropping out. It is stored in the top right of the indent pin plate when not in use (see the second picture of Dean's center).In the first picture you can also see a small steel plate I use as a magnetic mount point for my test indicator on top of the headstock and the most amazing piece of brass swarf! After a year of dodging sharp little brass needles I finally found the recipe for turning brass! Zero top rake, 7 degree front/side rake and a 20 thou deep cut at 2100 RPM for a 1/4" rod. I was enjoying turning down the brass pin so much I had to scrap the first one!"

"A modification to Keith's excellent sharpening jig (well worth the effort to make!) which allows you to use it on a drill press without a vise by clamping through the center hole or slots on the table. Much easier to reposition! I also use a hard felt wheel and honing compound in the chuck with the jig to get a "scary sharp" edge on my cutters."

"Taig vise clamped to the drill press using a couple of vise clamps. The basic clamp design is on the Little Machine Shop web site, I just scaled it down for this vise."

"A modification to Dean's headstock center using a coupling nut tapered to fit the pulley. This gives you a self-centering rig which cuts down on vibration quite a bit."

Front view.

"3/4-16 spindle for the Taig chucks made from a 2" 3/4-16 bolt. The trick is screwing the bolt into the front of the four jaw chuck (without jaws) or the machinist's plate then parting off the head and turning the shaft down to 3/8 or 1/2". This ensures concentricity between the threads and the newly turned shaft. The nut is split and used to hold the machined spindle in the mill to cut the Weldon flat without damaging the threads."

Posted on cartertools.com as well.

Ron Kiely's Taig Lathe and Bicycle Lights

2009-09-30T10:04:00.001-07:00

Ron Kiely writes, "Thanks for posting the picture of my new Taig lathe back in May. I have done a lot to it since then and also a lot with it as I use it to make high power mountain bike lights and the housings have to act as a heatsink. I stole some ideas from others on your site and all is working nice and smooth, great to have the "T" slot on the new carriage to mount the dial as I didn't want to drill holes in the lathe. The dials were very important to me as I am in the UK and can only work in metric. "

Top View

Front View.

Bicycle Lights, Rear View.

Bicycle Lights, Front View.

Added to cartertools.com as well.

New Pics and Links Galore

2009-09-23T16:19:00.001-07:00

I fell a bit behind last week so here are a bunch of pictures.
Lew Bishop sent these 4 pictures:

"The first group of pens that I turned. The interesting part of this project is that I have much better luck (control) of the shape and finish of the pen barrels by using the metal cutters purchased from you . By setting up a right hand cutter almost parallel with the work and using a fairly high speed, the cutter makes a very smooth finish and gets the size down quickly. "

"We took the shop apart and redid the benches, storage, shelving and the rearrangement of all the tools. It is working really well. he shop is 7'-5" x 9'-7" inside. Marilyn and I did a lot of thinking and planning to get it all in. There are still some additions that will need ot be made as more things get sorted out. I have already replaced my old belt/disc sander and done an additional rework of the band saw with new blades and a fresh alignment by my son-in-law ( an ex cooper). The base of the lathe is a work in progress also - built from left-overs and other scrap to provide a convienient drawer for all the attachments and to raise the work to an acceptable level for an old guy. "

Rick Kernell sent these great pics of his motorized top slide.

"the project that used the spare compound that you sent to me. The idea is to create a smooth movement when cutting precise tapers. I want to produce very precise pivots that will fit into sapphire bearings. I have cut them but I found that hand cranking the compound gave inconsistent movement. The thought is that the motor will move at a steady rate therefore making the cut into the rod cleaner. I am using a 5/12/24 component power supply and the 12 volt tap for this motor drive. I have set the pot prior to the DPDT switch and then the leads go to the motor via Radio Crap connector. This allows me to change the voltage feed linearly to the motor regardless of which polarity that the DPST switch is selected. The inductance of the motor is the primary current draw so the pot isn't much of a limit in comparison, but it is enough that I will change to a PWM driver pcb when I have all of the control components ready for the lathe and the mill. "

Also two new blog/pages of Taig related stuff:

Dennis Schissler's blog shows his awesome digital clock built with the help of the Taig CNC mill.

Wei Terk Mok's CNC page shows off his Taig modifications, also check out the jewelry he makes with the mill.

All the above added to Cartertools.com as always.

A Short Talk with Taig

2009-09-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

Had a short conversation with Taig just now. The power feeds are almost (a few more weeks/month out) done, assuming all goes well. It will be difficult to retrofit the power feed to existing lathes. You either have to flip the bed around so the foot is at the tailstock end or you'll have to mill/file the lip that holds the rack off.

They also told me they are almost done with boring heads that have 3/8" shanks. I don't know what they'll look like but they're sending me one so I'll report on that when I get it.

I also asked about the rack/pinion pitch for a customer - turns out it's 64 DP 20 deg although the rack itself is off slightly (like 63.4 DP he wasn't sure) having been threaded on a special fixture. But close enough.

Patrick O'Keefe's Countershaft for the Taig Lathe

2009-09-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

Patrick has some details on the design and construction of a speed reducing countershaft for his Taig lathe on his blog. A great design!

Taig on semi-vacation, etc.

2009-09-10T20:59:00.001-07:00

The shipping dept. at Taig is going to be on vacation next week so nothing will ship during that time (Mon 14th- Fri 18th).

I have a terrible cold so I haven't done much of anything beyond treading water, metaphorically speaking.

My friend Derrick shows some Taig milling attachment action in his post over on the airgun blog:
http://anotherairgunblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/modified-mount-for-crosman-steel-breech.html

Free 4th Axis Conversion Program

2009-09-05T11:22:00.001-07:00

Surfing the internet this morning I came upon this thread on the Vectric forum talking about a nice bit of freeware for 4th axis G-code conversion. Here's another thread about the use of it. I haven't played with it yet but it looks good!

Stephen Ellacott's Taig Lathe Powerfeed

2009-08-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

Stephen Ellacott sent in pictures of his latest project. This is the first project I've seen that takes advantage of the dovetail on the front of the new extruded carriage.

"I hate lead screws...big floppy swarf magnets....there, I've said it. So I'm working on motorizing the carriage traverse to try to provide the same smooth finish as a lead screw. Here are some shots of the prototype version that I thought you might enjoy. The regular traversing handle and pinion has been replaced with the geared pinion and a block with the Geared Motor (5RPM) and drive gear attached."

"It slides onto the dovetail on the front of the carriage and is snugged against the pinion gear (whatever size you want) and tightened in place. I used two 12 tooth 24 pitch Acetal gears for the prototype - probably brass for the real thing."

"The 12V motor reversing circuit controls the carriage with three buttons- Forward, Stop and Reverse. You must hit Stop before changing direction. I'll package this up in a 1.5" x 3" swarf proof project box when I'm done. It draws about 70mA cutting .0010" in brass at a 3 inch/minute traverse with the one-to-one gear ratio (too fast, but it was easier to layout the prototype using like gears). The goal is to be able to loosen one thumb screw, slide the motor block to the left and have manual traverse back. Total cost - less than $30 (real dollars). The final pinion gear may just be the stock handle with gears cut around the perimeter....Hmmm...may have to order one.."

"A better shot of it installed using dovetail clamping (works great!) with the body cut down to size."

"Another shot of the back of the block. Just loosen the 10-32 set screw and it slides off under the cross-slide knob."

Pictures also posted on Cartertools.

Run of the Mill Projects.

2009-08-28T15:53:00.001-07:00

I needed two tee nuts for my Palmgren x/y table. So I found two oversized 1/2" thread nuts and milled them down.

It's tough steel but milled fine.

I reduced the width as well. Then I found that the vise I was mounting would only accept a 3/8" bolt...not a 1/2"...and I found two nuts that fit perfectly in another drawer of clamping hardware...oh well. At least if I need to use a 1/2" stud on the table I'll have nuts to fit.

Turning a grooved dowel for a toy fishing rod repair.

A #1050 3 Jaw Chuck Jaw Boring Test

2009-08-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be interesting to look at #1050 3 jaw chuck boring.

A relatively new #1050 chuck, with unbored jaws. I tested runout using dowel pins, which may not be perfect compared to gage pins, but will do for this. With the unbored jaws I found the runout was:

3/8" dia. pin, .001" runout
1/2" dia. pin, .004" runout
3/4" dia. pin, .008" runout

Boring the jaws using the factory supplied washer. I made sure to set the carriage depth stop so that the boring bar wouldn't hit the washer.

After boring.

I thought it was odd that the bored jaws didn't have a uniform width. I'm not sure why. Could be that there's enough play in the jaws that the jaw lifts, throwing off the boring. Or it could be that the jaws were slightly deformed, as I'd been using them for a while unbored.
In any case the results were:

3/8" dia. pin, .003" runout (+.002" over unbored)
1/2" dia. pin, .000" runout (-.004" over unbored)
3/4" dia. pin, .006" runout (-.002" over unbored)

So a slight improvement was gained except in the case of the 3/8" pin.

Next I inserted a 1/4" pin far at the back of the jaws.

And bored them out with a smaller boring bar.
The results were:

3/8" dia. pin, .000" runout (-.001" over unbored)
1/2" dia. pin, .002" runout (-.002" over unbored)
3/4" dia. pin, .000" runout (-.008" over unbored)

Which is pretty interesting. Note that when I say .000" I mean the needle didn't move even a quarter a division on a .001" indicator but may have wiggled a few tenths.

Next I bored out the jaws without any preload at all, just opened them up about an inch and bored them.

The results were:

3/8" dia. pin, .002" runout (+.001" over unbored)
1/2" dia. pin, .000" runout (-.004" over unbored)
3/4" dia. pin, .002" runout (-.006" over unbored)

Then I rebored the jaws with the factory washer and found that things had changed again...

The results were:

3/8" dia. pin, .002" runout (+.001" over unbored)
1/2" dia. pin, .000" runout (-.004" over unbored)
3/4" dia. pin, .001" runout (-.007" over unbored)

So what did I learn? I have no idea except that it's probably worth experimenting yourself to find the optimal diameter of the preload washer for a given diameter or range of diameters of workpieces. It does definitely suggest that leaving the jaws unbored is not a good idea.

It may be that it's a good idea to undercut the back of new jaws before placing the washer and boring them as any uneveness in the jaws will cause poor preload?

A Small Improvement to a Small Improvement

2009-08-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

Before I started the Taig-centric blog I would post stuff on my other blog. A while back I posted that I had made a small improvement to my Taig lathe workarea by rising the lathe up on top of a toolbox. Well, Saturday I stopped at a garage sale and picked up a better toolbox for this purpose, a Waterloo middle toolbox. So now I have 4 drawers instead of 2, and less wasted space.

Making Some Small Delrin Washers

2009-08-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

For an airgun project I had to make some small delrin washers.

The delrin was turned down to size and center drilled.

Then I drilled the ID to size.

I ground a thin (.032") parting tool that is not square at the front but tapered so as to generate less of a burr on the finished washer. I held it in the 1171 back toolpost.

The dowel pin captured the parted off washer as the parting tool is plunged into the work.

Adapting a Sherline Boring Head to the Taig Mill.

2009-08-15T13:13:00.001-07:00

I had a Sherline boring head laying around and figured I should modify it to be used on the Taig mill.

The two parts were separated. Notice it uses the screw to push the part that holds the boring bars out from the body attached to the spindle. There is no way to adjust precisely in the other direction.

I put two leaf gages in the clamping slot to keep from collapsing it in the 4 jaw.

I turned the MT1 shank down to 3/8" It machined easily.

Mounted in a 3/8" ER16 collet.

With a cheap import carbide boring bar I got a lot of chatter.

Using a good HSS boring bar I managed to get an acceptable finish.

Have Blue's Blog and Frankie Flood...

2009-08-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

Michael Guslick, "Have Blue", emailed me about his new blog. Not all the posts are about his work on the Taig, but using the "Machining" category to search will turn up some neat projects like his Taig CNC Mill engraving head. Michael also has a business supplying parts for paintball guns.

Michael recently took a metalworking class from Frankie Flood who most notably uses his Taig lathe to make his awesome Pizza Cutters. Frankie also has a new blog. Well worth reading.

Thomas Burgin Extends His Z Axis

2009-08-08T10:19:00.001-07:00

Thomas Burgin sent in these pictures of his Z axis extension.

"Here's a few pics of a quick extending of the Z axis. Moved up 4 more inches then the max. Had to do some work on the end of some parts. This is problably not good for long term use though. I think I will make a better easier way of doing this for when I need the extra travel."

Side

Front

Back

Added to the pictures page.

I also added a link to new Taig User Matt Wellhouser's Blog.

Silvano Villaroel's Watch Case

2009-08-05T11:07:00.001-07:00

Silvano Villaroel sent in these pictures of his first watch case made with his Taig lathe.

"I would like to tell you as well I finshed my first watch case the last weekend. I am very happy with that. I think there is a lot of things I could make better and I will but that will be on the second case I will began to work on soon."

Lots of parts!

(uploaded to the cartertools picture page as well)

John Bear Ross's Taig CNC Router Mount

2009-08-04T17:17:00.001-07:00

John Bear Ross emailed me these pics. "I fabbed up an adaptor plate to mount a K2CNC router mount to my Taig's head, enabling me to mount a Bosch Colt router."

"Off comes the old spindle..."

"New Mount..."

"New Collets and Nut from Precisebits.com"

"And in she goes..."

Looks great.

John needed the higher speed for milling his wonderfully detailed military SF miniatures.

Pictures also uploaded to the Taig picture page. This blog is definitely forcing me to update pics more often.

Making Scrap on Purpose

2009-08-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is an odd tale.

A few years ago I bought a shelf full of junk at an auction. Included were a bunch of scrap parts from one of the screw machines. They look like stepped washers. About half of them had 7 holes drilled around the periphery. After tripping over the box for a year I was thinking of taking them to the scrap yard and then out of the blue Felice asked if she could use them for jewelry. So our Widget Earrings were born!
They sold pretty well and we finally ran out of the ones with the drilled holes. So it was my task to replicate what were essentially scrap parts out of the remaining undrilled ones.

I cross drilled a blank arbor for a spanner hole.

The finished arbor. I had to get rid of the thumbscrew as it was too large in diameter. Yes, that's an aluminum blank arbor - that's another long story I won't relate.

The CNC mill was set up and I started drilling.

All the holes drilled.

A Youtube video of the operation.

The Program is short and sweet:
G91
G00 X0Y0A0
M98 P1000 L7
G00 Z1.000
M30

O1000
G81 G99 X0 Y0 Z-.10 R.1 F6
G00 A51.428
M99

I'm going to tweak the program a bit as the G00 X0Y0A0 line isn't needed and I want it to move to the side for loading and unloading after running.

Your ER Spindle Collet Nut is OK

2009-07-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

I received another bunch of emails from people worried that their ER Spindle nut was incorrectly manufactured. So I figured I'd mention it here.

You can see that there's an eccentric ring inside the nut. This is what throws people off. They insert a collet into the spindle, try and screw the nut on and it won't go on, or throws the collet off axis. Then they look at the nut and assume that the nut is defective as the ring isn't concentric. It does look wrong.

The proper way is to insert the collet into the nut until the eccentric ring snaps into the groove in the collet. This allows the nut to pull the collet out of the spindle when loosening it.

Then the nut is screwed on loosely, then the tooling is inserted into the collet and tightened fully.
Taig started putting a sheet explaining this in with the mills, but not the new 1045ER adapter, and who reads the paperwork anyway?

Dennis Hill's Patio Umbrella Fix

2009-07-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

Dennis Hill sent in these pics of his patio umbrella fixes.

The fixed umbrella

"2 of the 8 ribs supporting the umbrella canopy were broken in the middle where the lifting ribs were attached. I milled the broken rib ends square and made inserts to fit inside the extruded alum ribs. Then I secured them with screws. The lifting ribs could then be remounted to the new alum rib inserts."

Closeup

"The umbrella column was broken clean off where it went into the patio table. I milled the column off square and then turned an alum insert to fit up inside the original column and down into the base support tube. I then constructed a small spring driven push button in the insert to allow the umbrella to be locked in a specific position within the column. The new column insert was attached to the original column with a bolt and lock nut hidden under an existing plastic shroud."

Another view.

Pictures also posted on the Pictures page.

Poor Man's Boring Bar

2009-07-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

For an airgun project I'm working on I had to cut a 5/16" radius in a piece of steel.

I made a simple boring bar. There's a cross hole reamed to 3/16", a #10-32 setscrew in the center and a short bit made fron a broken end mill. I set the tool to cut the 5/16" radius. (3/8" bar diameter+1/8" tool sticking out of bar, for a circular sweep of 5/8")

I did a test piece in aluminum, feeding in then down, progressively.

Final cut.

Radius gage fits perfectly.

Stephen Ellacott's Tachometer and Tailstock Lever

2009-07-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

Stephen Ellacott sent me these pictures.

"the tachometer I made that Shad was describing in the Taig group."

Measured with a multitester.

"and my version of the extended tailstock lever with a nice ridged finish for grip (and lots and lots of brass knobs!)."

Pictures also posted on the Pictures page.

Lew Bishop's Gimbals

2009-07-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Lew Bishop received a second hand Taig lathe from his brother in law and got it running for his first project. (pictures added to the Picture page.)

"I fly model airplanes and recently had to obtain a new radio. The gimbal sticks were too short and did not have sufficient adjustment to make them comfortable - so new stick grips were in order. The first three pics show the radio with both sets of gimbal tops - the originals are laying on the transmitter face with the new ones on the gimbals."

The old ones certainly are short.

A great first project.

His lathe.

Taig on Vacation 7/29-8/4

2009-07-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

Taig will be on vacation between the 29th of July and August 4th. No orders will be shipped during that time. I don't get a vacation, so I'll be around as usual...

Rick Kernell's Compound Mod.

2009-07-23T15:37:00.001-07:00

Just put these pictures up on the site as well.

Rick modified his compound slide for more positive clamping.

A good idea if you have problems with slippage although setting up becomes a bit more involved.

Drawings of the 1045 ER spindle adapter

2009-07-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Are available on the Taigmachines Weekly Update page, along with some powerfeed timeline information.

BTW, You'll see posts here from Felice, but it's me when I'm too lazy to sign into my other Google account...

Added Some Links, ER16 Collets

2009-07-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

I added some links to the Taig pages:

Matt Shumaker's E-bike project built with his Taig Mills
"Luke Vader" Flickr Set of his Taig Lathe
DoubleCAD is free.

I also sorted out the ER16 pricelist to show the three other collet sizes Taig offers.

Fisher Machine Shop, who makes the edgefinders I sell, has their own website now

Now a couple of pics you would have seen if you read my airgun blog.

Recessing a urethane piston seal.

Using the new Kenbo dremel holder to grind the seal to final size. It's so new it's not on his page yet, but you can email him.