X1 Mill lifting mechanism

This topic has 14 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 11 September 2015 at 12:52 by mechman48.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

Author

Posts

10 September 2015 at 19:34 #203842

Frances IoM

Participant

@francesiom58905

the latest MEW #233 has an article describing milling of a 50mm thick block of Al to raise the column – the photographs also appear to show some motorised mechanism to raise + lower the head (any change to tooling usually needs a tedious multirotation of the awkwardly placed handle) – has anyone published any mechanism to do this especially if manual adjustment also is required.
Has anyone used gas struts to oppose some of the mass of the head making raising less of a chore ?

Advert

10 September 2015 at 19:34 #17820

Frances IoM

Participant

@francesiom58905

10 September 2015 at 20:38 #203847

Peter Hall

Participant

@peterhall61789

I have 2 X1 mills. I have not done any of the mods you ask about, but I did install a thrust bearing on the rise and fall screw. Still needs tedious multirotation, but essentially removes all effort in turning the wheel, so makes it fast and easy. Did the same to the x and y axes too, with similarly happy results. I can't remember exactly how I did it now, but if you're interested I will try dredging through what passes for my memory these days and give you a how-to.

Pete

10 September 2015 at 20:45 #203849

TrevorK

Participant

@trevork

I have fitted a gas strut. In MEW 150 David White describes how to do this. I also fitted a replacement bearing block and bearing to the Z axis from a design by Graham Meek. There are a couple of photos in one of my albums. These two mods have made a dramatic improvement to moving the head but I'd also be interested in motorising the Z axis.

10 September 2015 at 20:50 #203852

Peter Hall

Participant

@peterhall61789

Yes. I did the X and Y axis bearings to Graham Meek's design.

Pete

10 September 2015 at 20:51 #203853

JasonB

Moderator

@jasonb

Rich (Firebird) posted about his Z axis feed over on MEM forum

Edited By JasonB on 10/09/2015 20:59:37

10 September 2015 at 22:32 #203860

Frances IoM

Participant

@francesiom58905

is there a ref to Graham Meek’s work please

11 September 2015 at 05:45 #203872

Thor 🇳🇴

Participant

@thor

Frances, I have sent you a PM.

Thor

11 September 2015 at 08:31 #203879

Robbo

Participant

@robbo

Nice work by Rich.

He seems to get through a lot of overalls!

11 September 2015 at 11:22 #203897

TrevorK

Participant

@trevork

Frances, I have sent you a PM

11 September 2015 at 12:02 #203900

Neil Wyatt

Moderator

@neilwyatt

The Myford powered lead screw is written up in ME, which may help anyone wanting to motorise the X1 z-axis.

Neil

P.S. the washing is a major feature of all his project s

11 September 2015 at 12:16 #203902

Bernard Reilly

Participant

@bernardreilly64467

Hi all has anyone carried out a similar mod on a Warco WM14 mill which has a very heavy mill head and difficult to access lead screw & hand wheel . No problems on downward direction but a pain in upwards direction as it has a 5 TPI lead screw. Enquires up until now have ruled out a single phase geared motor. I do not have electronic knowledge to take stepper or server motor route.

Thank you all B Reilly Glasgow

11 September 2015 at 12:48 #203907