Marcuschrist
Aluminum
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2017
it's been a while since I've been on here but attached is a Few pictures of my recent Toolmaster project. I thought I'd post them here for anyone thinking of scraping in theirs as I found some interesting techniques along the way.
The granite parallel was lent to me by one of the guys in our rebuilding club who organized a big granite buy. I found that I could use it to scrape and average out the dinged up reference surface in the center of the Box ways, it of course wasn't wide enough to properly spot either side but I found that I could spot them with an overlap and use my indicator base flipped to map out the ways, this in itself isn't anything special but I was having trouble getting to the far edges without it tipping or having to set a datum and re zero the indicator which was time consuming and often induced a tenth or more of error. I however quickly found from cleaning the parallel with diesel that if I left a diesel film I could have have an overhang of 50% or even greater without the base tipping as the two lapped surfaces did not want to break their bond but could still slide very easily. I check my measurements to confirm I wasn't getting a droop or sag error and it seems to be accurate to sub a tenth. one mistake I made was prematurely putting the knee back on the mill, I scraped the gib side guide with the Biax and the granite parallel off the machine as it had the original grind marks either end and I could bring it down very evenly but convinced myself I could pull scrape the other side on the machine. it was only low in the center by maybe half a thou but it was a right nightmare to scrape on the machine but I found a surprisingly effective way to scrape vertically using a push scraper and a rubber block as a fulcrum, sounds Bizzare but it saved me the hassle of pulling the knee a second time.
The table itself required some straightening which I expected, it was difficult to measure pre-scraping as there was quite a few dings but somewhere in the realm of 4-6 thou. it was bowed as all tables get but the dings at the far end made it appear to be only 2 thou bowed at most. in Hindisght I would have down a hell of a lot more blind roughing passes had I not realized that earlier on. My close friend maciej came up with the idea to fabricate some T handles for the table, I belive I've attached a photo. these handles made it possible for myself (I'm not a healthy man) and Maciej to lift the table on and off the plate without too much hassle. He also built a three point stand that bolts to the holes on to the front face of the knee so it can be bolted down during the scraping of the Knee ways. These things two alone saved me an incredible amount of time and pain.
It should also be stated that the "reference surface" on the column of the machine is simply a machined clearance. is is not even remotely parallel to the ways, I used a Box square and a short master to tidy up the column but to do a proper job you really need to build a cradle and put the mill on its back which is what I'll be doing to the second Toolmaster mill and this mill some years down the track
I'm nearly finished scraping in the bottom end of this mill, its only the table ways I have to finish and will soon be progressing onto rebuilding the vertical head. if there are any Aussies who also own Toolmaster mills in my local area (Burleigh heads 4220) Feel free to contact me and if you're willing to assist with the vertical head rebuild I can render assistance with the scraping side of things Phone: (07) 5522 1726
The granite parallel was lent to me by one of the guys in our rebuilding club who organized a big granite buy. I found that I could use it to scrape and average out the dinged up reference surface in the center of the Box ways, it of course wasn't wide enough to properly spot either side but I found that I could spot them with an overlap and use my indicator base flipped to map out the ways, this in itself isn't anything special but I was having trouble getting to the far edges without it tipping or having to set a datum and re zero the indicator which was time consuming and often induced a tenth or more of error. I however quickly found from cleaning the parallel with diesel that if I left a diesel film I could have have an overhang of 50% or even greater without the base tipping as the two lapped surfaces did not want to break their bond but could still slide very easily. I check my measurements to confirm I wasn't getting a droop or sag error and it seems to be accurate to sub a tenth. one mistake I made was prematurely putting the knee back on the mill, I scraped the gib side guide with the Biax and the granite parallel off the machine as it had the original grind marks either end and I could bring it down very evenly but convinced myself I could pull scrape the other side on the machine. it was only low in the center by maybe half a thou but it was a right nightmare to scrape on the machine but I found a surprisingly effective way to scrape vertically using a push scraper and a rubber block as a fulcrum, sounds Bizzare but it saved me the hassle of pulling the knee a second time.
The table itself required some straightening which I expected, it was difficult to measure pre-scraping as there was quite a few dings but somewhere in the realm of 4-6 thou. it was bowed as all tables get but the dings at the far end made it appear to be only 2 thou bowed at most. in Hindisght I would have down a hell of a lot more blind roughing passes had I not realized that earlier on. My close friend maciej came up with the idea to fabricate some T handles for the table, I belive I've attached a photo. these handles made it possible for myself (I'm not a healthy man) and Maciej to lift the table on and off the plate without too much hassle. He also built a three point stand that bolts to the holes on to the front face of the knee so it can be bolted down during the scraping of the Knee ways. These things two alone saved me an incredible amount of time and pain.
It should also be stated that the "reference surface" on the column of the machine is simply a machined clearance. is is not even remotely parallel to the ways, I used a Box square and a short master to tidy up the column but to do a proper job you really need to build a cradle and put the mill on its back which is what I'll be doing to the second Toolmaster mill and this mill some years down the track
I'm nearly finished scraping in the bottom end of this mill, its only the table ways I have to finish and will soon be progressing onto rebuilding the vertical head. if there are any Aussies who also own Toolmaster mills in my local area (Burleigh heads 4220) Feel free to contact me and if you're willing to assist with the vertical head rebuild I can render assistance with the scraping side of things Phone: (07) 5522 1726