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.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
The 2035ER Taig Boring Head
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"
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"
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Some Projects from Stephen Ellacott
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.
"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.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Ron Kiely's Taig Lathe and Bicycle Lights
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.
Top View
Front View.
Bicycle Lights, Rear View.
Bicycle Lights, Front View.
Added to cartertools.com as well.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
New Pics and Links Galore
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:
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.
Monday, September 21, 2009
A Short Talk with Taig
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Patrick O'Keefe's Countershaft for the Taig Lathe
Patrick has some details on the design and construction of a speed reducing countershaft for his Taig lathe on his blog. A great design!
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