Buying mill/lathe tools.

[Sam-Q]

pics!!

[takai]

Havnt gone to pick it up yet, infact no money has changed hands. But he is a fellow racer (albiet Superkarts).
Hoping to pick it up this weekend.

Its this one though:



320x600mm with all the tooling and bits i need. Plus the stand with a modified integral coolant drain, and all the handles have been replaced with custom knurled aluminum ones.

[Sam-Q]

thought you guys might be interested I bought one of these:



it's a poor mans DRO.

Linky:



First up the first surprise was it arrived a single day after I ordered and paid for it on the 23th, I don't even know how that shits possible but yeah. Second surprise is that the thing is seriously solid. The scale part that is, it has a decent weight to it and feels well made, well except for the plate on the back of the scale, thats on a bit crooked. Those Chinese are funny sometimes, they go out of their way to make something nice and then stuff up on the easy part. I expected a modified digital Vernia scale but this is much chunkier, it's quite impressive. Anyhow I am in the middle of mounting the slide on my little lathe and I should be finished tomorrow. I am putting it on the Y axis only as I see that's the one that gives me the most grief.

I also managed to do a deal and get a 1.1kw three phase motor pre-wired to a variable speed drive with an external control box that has an off/forward/reverse & speed switch on it for 0 to 2800 revs. I managed to get the package for $50 which I think is pretty good. This should make my life easier on my lathe. I also learnt today that tool steel parting blades make a decent sound when they snap in half, oops!

Lastly a side note: I just want to rant about machining recesses in cro-mo pipe for slim wall bearings (25/37/7). I have it fit tight to the point where the balls are restricted, I then push on the boring bar with my thumb and the bearing can fall in and out.... aaahrg!! anyone got any tips? I am going to try and boring out my lathe chuck itself to make it more even and also use my new motor when I fit it to turn it at a much higher speed.

[takai]

Ive used sandpaper in the past to assist with the removal of the final bit of material.
Just spin it up with a chunk of sandpaper on the end of a stick and go for gold.

[Sam-Q]

yeah tried that, I will keep doing it until I got I get it right thanks

[takai]

That looks like a decent DRO too, ill keep it in mind for the future. Dont think ill need a DRO just yet though.

[Sam-Q]

well for $111 all up delivered it seems decent, you need room on your lathe/mill to mount it too. If you are getting that Lathe Chris I do suggest this very product, sure a 3 axis professional DRO is a possibility but I think the Y axis is the most wanted read-out for lathe and this should be me a great deal.

I will post a pic of how I crudely modded this product to fit on my machine when I am done. I have to say I don't like drilling into my lathe to tap holes into it. I mean it's survived the last 60 years without having any decent gouges in it and here I am putting my drill onto it.

I have to say I like this thread, there is no enough talk about machining in these forums

[takai]

Yeah, and i have the bonus of being able to pick up locally. However, im already overy my budget by $500 so ill hold off on the DRO.
Wouldnt mind a pair for X and Y.

[Frak]

Sam, looks like those guys are local for me, looks like I'll be picking one up this week!!

Stuff like this is great once you start using it, you wonder how you did without it!

Good find and cheap

[Sam-Q]

the ozmestore1 warehouse? if so thats unusual that they allow pickup. Anyway I finished my install today and it seems to work well. The interesting part is the external screen works independently of the slide screen. You don't need a battery in the slide for the external screen to work still. I now noticed they have a dirt cheap but lower grade unit for sale thats 600mm that I might be interested in