challenger
Stainless
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2003
- Location
- Hampstead, NC-S.E. Coast
I have used this lathe with the taper attachment in the past with satisfactory results. Today I decided to make a 5MT taper test piece and it was very frustrating. I can't say what is causing the problem but the piece was ending up with a wavy diameter. I think I've seen other refer to is as, "bumpy"
I used a brand new 5MT taper sleeve to indicate the taper attachment setting. It was very time consuming but I got it within less than .001" for the length of the taper sleeve. While doing this I was not getting any abnormal deflections in the DI.
When I started removing material I was getting, what seems like, a loading and unloading of some moving part. I guess it could be the cross feed or the taper attachment or a combination but I ended up walking away because I was so pissed off.
The way the telescopic attachment works, and I think most machines are similar, seems like it would easily expose backlash in the cross feed. When normally feeding the cross slide the lead screw is loading the nut and whatever slop is in the screw/nut is removed by the operator. With the taper attachment the cross slide is pushed or pulled by the bar and the "rabbit" that fits over the bar. This arrangement seems like maybe I need to make the gibs in the cross slide and the taper attachment much looser than I have them. Would loosening the gibs be a good place to start trying to solve this issue?
Another thing I am wondering is if it would make better sense to run the spindle in reverse to do the turning? This would make the tool pushing against the work force the cross slide back so it would be applying pressure against the taper attachment instead of how it operates when the spindle is in forward.
Does this make sense?
Thanks
I used a brand new 5MT taper sleeve to indicate the taper attachment setting. It was very time consuming but I got it within less than .001" for the length of the taper sleeve. While doing this I was not getting any abnormal deflections in the DI.
When I started removing material I was getting, what seems like, a loading and unloading of some moving part. I guess it could be the cross feed or the taper attachment or a combination but I ended up walking away because I was so pissed off.
The way the telescopic attachment works, and I think most machines are similar, seems like it would easily expose backlash in the cross feed. When normally feeding the cross slide the lead screw is loading the nut and whatever slop is in the screw/nut is removed by the operator. With the taper attachment the cross slide is pushed or pulled by the bar and the "rabbit" that fits over the bar. This arrangement seems like maybe I need to make the gibs in the cross slide and the taper attachment much looser than I have them. Would loosening the gibs be a good place to start trying to solve this issue?
Another thing I am wondering is if it would make better sense to run the spindle in reverse to do the turning? This would make the tool pushing against the work force the cross slide back so it would be applying pressure against the taper attachment instead of how it operates when the spindle is in forward.
Does this make sense?
Thanks