Help with Replacing Tool post slide, Grinding and scraping in Chicago area

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

Hello everyone,

I have a small 12x40 cheapo enco lathe that i bought a little while ago. Long story short my father decided to "learn how to use it" without my assistance and he ended up getting to aggressive with the speed and feed and he broke the tool post cross slide (See pic). The part climbed up the insert, bound against the tool post, and shattered the casting sending the tool post across the garage. I am just glad he is ok.

I bought a replacement part from MSC and it showed up unfinished. I don't have a surface grinder to true the faces or the know how to scrape something into flatness so is there anyone in the chicago-ish area that could help me out with grinding and scraping? Of course happy to pay for the services but I would love to learn the process if possible. If you have any recommendations it would be appreciated.

SIP6A · Feb 7, 2017

Over by Midway airport there is Condor machine. I have visited and he dose nice work. You should be aware that is going to cost more than the lathe is worth to get it scraped in. The other Ave is to take a class but again this is going to cost more than the lathe is worth. The advantage of taking a class is you at least pick up some skills you diden't have before.

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

Ok so maybe this is a silly question but If I am not doing high precision work, Would it be sufficient to just run a few passes over it with a surface grinder and be done? I hate to think one mistake like that trashed the whole machine. I know it wont be cheap, but I still need the machine.

ewlsey · Feb 7, 2017

How unfinished is it? Most of those cheap lathes just had milled dovetails. They were never scraped or even ground.

michiganbuck · Feb 7, 2017

ewlsey said:
How unfinished is it? Most of those cheap lathes just had milled dovetails. They were never scraped or even ground.

That is a good idea.. you might protractor check the angles needed.and then find a home mill guy that would give you a good deal.

Waste a lot of time searching for such a guy with not knowing the angles needed.. because it would be fairly easy with having the cutter on hand.
Likely need the saddle of to make the fit.

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

The new part is very unfinished. dull beaver tooth marks all over it. my guess is one cleanup pass after it was cast. I could get a smoother finish with a flap wheel and a grinder haha. The slide that was broken and its mating surface on the lathe are both very clearly scraped in. I will get some pictures tonight if that helps. Obviously I want to get the lathe as close to origional condition as possible but at the same time I paid 900$ for the whole thing plus tooling so I want to keep the repair within reason.

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

That is sort of what I was thinking. This is just a little hobby lathe so it isn't the end of the world if it is just milled and assembled. I have a mill and could source a cutter like that I suppose.
Precision cuts may be a trick with my mill though. she is big and sturdy but a little tired.

michiganbuck · Feb 7, 2017

likely a surface grinder guy could make a good job of it being less than 18".. over 18" and it is hard to find a bargain, much because dressing larger wheels is costly. Likely I could do it in less than 4 hours with all grinding..but I am not offering to take the job.

Richard King · Feb 7, 2017

Could you show us some pictures of the new one and more of what the problem is. If it's not to bad You could UPS it to me or down to Steve Watkins in Texas as we are doing a class there on the 17th....also will be doing one in Rockford in Feb too, if your not in a big hurry. I don't have a crystal ball so please send a few more pictures here orIf you want email it to me. [email protected]

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

Richard King said:
Could you show us some pictures of the new one and more of what the problem is. If it's not to bad You could UPS it to me or down to Steve Watkins in Texas as we are doing a class there on the 17th....also will be doing one in Rockford in Feb too, if your not in a big hurry. I don't have a crystal ball so please send a few more pictures here orIf you want email it to me. [email protected]

Sure thing Richard, I will post some pics tonight. I'm curious about the class in Rockford. I doubt I will need the skill very often but I think that would be a very cool thing to learn. Is there more class info on your website?

Richard King · Feb 7, 2017

No...just in the reconditioning forum and word of mouth now. Your arrow goes to the top of the cross-slide and you mention the tool-post flying across the room. That's what is confusing. The top mechanism that your turret tool holder is bolted to that also has the wide T-Slot is called the compound slide. The one it is sitting on with the 2 T-Slots is the cross-slide, it moves back and forth on the top of the saddle /cross-slide ways. Show some more pic's tonight and we can come up with a plan. Rich

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

Richard King said:
No...just in the reconditioning forum and word of mouth now. Your arrow goes to the top of the cross-slide and you mention the tool-post flying across the room. That's what is confusing. The top mechanism that your turret tool holder is bolted to that also has the wide T-Slot is called the compound slide. The one it is sitting on with the 2 T-Slots is the cross-slide, it moves back and forth on the top of the saddle /cross-slide ways. Show some more pic's tonight and we can come up with a plan. Rich

Here is pictures of the damage and the new piece that needs finishing. I hope this makes it more clear as to what happened. Sorry for the lighting, its in a race car trailer right now for storage. If you can see some of the last pics of the bottom mating surfaces they are rough. I cleaned them off with some acetone and then gave them a light coat of oil. Those marks are not that packaging oil or anything else. Its a rough surface.

You can see that little ring that the T-bolts of the tool post bolt to is what ripped out of the casting. thats why the whole piece is junk now

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

Here are some more

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

And a few more

Derek Smalls · Feb 7, 2017

Good grief, I can't believe it would break like that! Looks like a poor design to start with, lot of area where the CI is really thin.

duckman · Feb 7, 2017

It looks like it was milled with a corn cob end mill and probably dull to boot.

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

Derek Smalls said:
Good grief, I can't believe it would break like that! Looks like a poor design to start with, lot of area where the CI is really thin.

I Know! the casting is literally 1/8 thick in that spot... i get the load is not supposed to go through that webbing there but common.

pontiackid73 · Feb 7, 2017

duckman said:
It looks like it was milled with a corn cob end mill and probably dull to boot.

Probably a plastic spoon screwed into a fly cutter

Richard King · Feb 7, 2017

Yeah that looks bad /rough . I think the first thing you should do is lay the old one next to the new one nd start doing some measuring. If the thickness off the surface of the bottom of the circle T-Slot and the total thickness of the new cross-slide I would hope is thicker then the old one like Derek says is unbelievably thin. Measure the thickness of the flat ways to top surface of the old scraped broken one and then mic (mike or caliber) the new planed one. Then we can figure out if it needs to be ground / milled. The location of the nut for the cross-feed screw looks like vertically is adjustable with a set screw but side to side is fixed. Have to do some assembly after the way are fit closer to figure that out...have the gib to think about too....oyvay.... Rich

ewlsey · Feb 7, 2017

I bet that cross slide was machined on a shaper. All bets are off in China. They can spend 2 hours hacking that thing out on a shaper cheaper than it can be done on a CNC mill...

Help with Replacing Tool post slide, Grinding and scraping in Chicago area

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