JSR's workshop chronicles

[jrrdw]

Yes, you can cut them to your needs, I did mine.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Thanks, not sure if it's me or Amazon that messed up but some of them seem a bit longer than I needed.

[jrrdw]

All the better, it's easier to cut it off then add to it.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Finally some activity!



1mm deep cut in C12L14 steel just for the purposes of testing.

I found a nice little business not far away that does small quantities for a variety of materials and I made an order to start things off:



A neatly stored in an... *ahem* rustic rack made from recovered pallet wood.

Now to mount those DROs, I'm really going to need them if the lathe and mill are going to be usable for what I need to do.

Apart from the machine tools I've filled the workshop up with most of the tools I expect to need, as well as a sturdy bench, work surface and a bunch of shelves for easy access to tooling. I also replaced the original four halogen spotlights with 100W equivalent LED bulbs which made a huge difference.





Took a while but things are starting to come together

[Labtecpower]

Looking good! you've come a long way since the epoxy batcave
Does the machining equipment perform as expected, and do you have any nice projects planned?

[mrfoo]

Nice, a much cleaner setup than my workshop. Hell, even your rustic stock stand is cleaner than my workshop :) I like your mill vice.

Watch out with the LEDs, depending on the type they have a strobe effect that can make spinning things appear to be still, or jut simply give you a headache if you're watching spinning stuff under them for any length of time.

As for the DROs, they're nice to have, but I wouldn't consider them essential as long as your machines are well set up (gibs, mainly) and you get into the habit of using the handwheels the right way. I've got upwards of 0.5mm backlash on my cross slide, but I can still hit 0.01mm precision. Backlash is a problem for milling, mind, but DRO's wouldn't save me from that either.

[hectmarr]

Excellent! I see in the future well finished weapons and a lot of fun for you, and for me.

[Moonbogg]

That's looking great! I believe I see some beautiful looking materials. Is that Delrin, UHMW, aluminum, steel, and brass? Those are the things dreams are made of.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Looking good! you've come a long way since the epoxy batcave

Oui monsieur!

Does the machining equipment perform as expected, and do you have any nice projects planned?

Happy with it so far, and so, so many projects planned. And so little time, but who knows, maybe things will ease up over Winter.

Nice, a much cleaner setup than my workshop. Hell, even your rustic stock stand is cleaner than my workshop

That's only because I barely started using it, give it a few weeks...

I like your mill vice.

I followed the board's advice on that and happy I did, basically a huge version of what I already have on the Sherline.

Watch out with the LEDs, depending on the type they have a strobe effect that can make spinning things appear to be still, or jut simply give you a headache if you're watching spinning stuff under them for any length of time.

These seem to be OK, I don't know if the fact that there's four of them cancels the strobing out.

As for the DROs, they're nice to have, but I wouldn't consider them essential as long as your machines are well set up (gibs, mainly) and you get into the habit of using the handwheels the right way. I've got upwards of 0.5mm backlash on my cross slide, but I can still hit 0.01mm precision. Backlash is a problem for milling, mind, but DRO's wouldn't save me from that either.

The thing is that I'm realizing that I basically need to relearn a lot of things because the Sherline is a different animal. On all the wheels, one full turn is one millimeter of travel, so it's very intuitive. Now on the lathe for one full turn I have 20mm on the carriage, 4mm on the carriage and 2mm on the tail stock, so it's not as snappy as "I need to advance 5mm, 5 full turns". This is why I think the DROs will speed things up.

Another thing is that on the Sherline, you can adjust the speed on the fly, while now I have to stop, change gears, make sure they're engaged and go. I still have a way to go before becoming proficient.

Excellent! I see in the future well finished weapons and a lot of fun for you, and for me.

Hopefully in the near future!

Is that Delrin, UHMW, aluminum, steel, and brass?

5/5!

I never used much steel before but recently discovered the existence of 12L14 that might not have the strength of high carbon steel but seems to be good enough for most purposes and machines really nicely.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

One down, three more to go!

Interesting that the marking on the wheel led me to believe that one graduation is 0.1mm, and one full turn is 4mm. It turns out that it's actually half of that.



Odd. Are the markings meant to indicate the effect on the diameter of the part being turned?

[Labtecpower]

Yes, the readout on that axis is almost always displaying the effect on the diameter of the workpiece, as it is much more intuitive than having to calculate the radius everytime you turn the knob. Most non-lathe-specific DRO's don't have the option to switch from radius to diameter though, and you'll get used to it soon enough

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Most non-lathe-specific DRO's don't have the option to switch from radius to diameter though, and you'll get used to it soon enough

Sherline shows radius so I already am

In other news, carriage DRO done!



Now for the mill...

[mrfoo]

Neat.

Do they have the slight lag we see from, for example digital calipers? What happens if you run the carriage fast?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Do they have the slight lag we see from, for example digital calipers? What happens if you run the carriage fast?

Do you mean between movement and display? I did a quick test and tried 4 full turns on the carriage quickly and slowly and got 79.63mm and 79.59mm respectively.

Not very good with sheet metal but I made an acceptable cover for the x-axis DRO that holds on by magnets, and a panel for the displays.

[mrfoo]

Do you mean between movement and display?

Yeah. My (cheap, admittedly) digital calipers have a noticeable "catch up" time between any fast movement and the display finally catching up. Even the Mitutoyos have it to a lesser extent, although I believe in that case it's more to do with LCD latency.

In both cases, the result is eventually correct* and repeatable, but the lag cuts them out for anything requiring real time tracking.

I just noticed the typography on your DRO. Excellent!

* although with overstated precision

Here's my latest toy. Making a 1000x200 mm surface plate, needed some precision measurement