Had a quick question regarding table risers that I was hoping to get some input on. I've been doing some digging, but I haven't been able to find anything on this subject (which may be due to not knowing the appropriate terminology).
Some background: I have a 1992 Fanuc Robodrill Drill Mate T-10 that I'm cleaning up and generally learning my way around. As received, the machine was equipped with a riser bolted to the table that the vise was mounted on (see image). The robo has a pretty large minimum nose to table gap, and the previous owner bolted a fairly substantial cast iron plate with some 2-4-6 Blocks as spacers in order to fill that gap. I've been getting things cleaned up and have turned my attention to leveling the machine and how I want to do workholding.
I've acquired toolholders from Maritool with the shortest gage length possible, but that leaves me with the rather significant gap to fill getting up off the table.
My question is, what is the best approach to bring the work holding surface up? I would like to have an actual fixture plate instead of just a single T-slot. I could keep the cast iron plate on and machine in my own threaded and reamed holes, but the mass of the cast iron plate seems less than ideal, given the relatively like table weight capacity. I could remove the cast iron and replace it with something lighter to reduce the momentum of the table during rapids, but it's not obvious to me what the best approach would be. Level/tram the machine in without the plate, then machine it in place? Purchase a ground plate and some precise 2-4-6 blocks (if the current ones aren't matched) and do a similar stack up as there is now?
Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Some background: I have a 1992 Fanuc Robodrill Drill Mate T-10 that I'm cleaning up and generally learning my way around. As received, the machine was equipped with a riser bolted to the table that the vise was mounted on (see image). The robo has a pretty large minimum nose to table gap, and the previous owner bolted a fairly substantial cast iron plate with some 2-4-6 Blocks as spacers in order to fill that gap. I've been getting things cleaned up and have turned my attention to leveling the machine and how I want to do workholding.
I've acquired toolholders from Maritool with the shortest gage length possible, but that leaves me with the rather significant gap to fill getting up off the table.
My question is, what is the best approach to bring the work holding surface up? I would like to have an actual fixture plate instead of just a single T-slot. I could keep the cast iron plate on and machine in my own threaded and reamed holes, but the mass of the cast iron plate seems less than ideal, given the relatively like table weight capacity. I could remove the cast iron and replace it with something lighter to reduce the momentum of the table during rapids, but it's not obvious to me what the best approach would be. Level/tram the machine in without the plate, then machine it in place? Purchase a ground plate and some precise 2-4-6 blocks (if the current ones aren't matched) and do a similar stack up as there is now?
Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
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