Subject: Adjusting for Wear in Ways

From: [email-masked] (D.Diamond)
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 00:49:29 GMT

My lathe is rather old, and there is some wear in the top-slide and cross-
slide ways. A number of adjusting screws with lock nuts bearing 
upon a brass wear strip in each way provides for taking up the 
lash in these. I presume the amount of wear is uneven, for I 
cannot adjust for uniform "firmness" throughout their travel. None of the 
texbooks I have mention a recommmended method of tackling this problem.

Should I make new brass wear strips? Clues anyone?

Kind Regards,

Drew.				"Measure Twice- Cut Once"

				  (Machinist's motto)

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From: [email-masked] (ron ginger)
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 12:38:36 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (D.Diamond) writes:
|>
|>My lathe is rather old, and there is some wear in the top-slide and cross-
|>slide ways. A number of adjusting screws with lock nuts bearing 
|>upon a brass wear strip in each way provides for taking up the 
|>lash in these. I presume the amount of wear is uneven, for I 
|>cannot adjust for uniform "firmness" throughout their travel. None of the 
|>texbooks I have mention a recommmended method of tackling this problem.
|>
|>Should I make new brass wear strips? Clues anyone?

 Making a new gib strip wont likely help- its the ways that are worn, not the
strip. This is very common on all old dovetail slides. I have the problem
in my milling machine.

The only real solution is to remove the high spots at either end re-fit the
sliide. This is usually done by a process of scraping and fitting. A VERY
tedious and time consuming process.

For a short item like a lathe topslide you might be able to set it up on
a milling machine and re-mill the dovetails on both the fixed and moveable
slide. It would take great care to do correctly, but can be done. You would
not need to hand scrape it- the orignal manufactured part was likely just
machined, not scraped.

Or, you can adjust the gibs to a best compromise and live with it.

I live with my mill, but have spent a lot of time thinking about fixing it
someday.

ron ginger

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From: [email-masked] (Wm. W. Martin)
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 93 18:50:55 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (D.Diamond) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (D.Diamond)
>Subject: Adjusting for Wear in Ways
>Keywords: Wear
>Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 00:49:29 GMT
>
If your wear is uneven, new wear strips probably won't help. I had an old 
LeBlonde with very similar symptoms, and found that the only cure would be 
to have the ways re-scraped or re-ground, depending on how bad the wear 
was... Either way (no pun intended) it expensive.

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From: [email-masked] (Dana Dabiri)
Date: 15 Aug 93 08:29:59 GMT

So now i'm a grad sutdent at berkeley in mechanical engineering. while my
research advisor was flipping through a catalog of HP signal analyzers (you
know, one of those $10,000 boxes with a million tiny buttons) with my project
partner. i lightly demanded "if he gets one of those, i want a mill" and he
replied "new or used?". cool!

so he won't let me buy a new bridgeport, as they are too expensive (i myself
haven't ckecked prices yet) so here's a question for y'all: know of
any high quality bridgeport imitaions i could look up? any brands i should
avoid?

so in asking around, i learned that old machines with worn ways can be
refurbished by building up the metal, and regrinding (and perhaps
hardening as well) for about $500. anybody out there with a similar
tale to tell?

and one more thing, guys: i've seen some heavy duty mills in catalogs
with square ways, not dovetail. what for? i've seen near accidents that 
look like they could pull the saddle right off the knee if it
we'ren't for the dovetails holding everything in tension. just wondering.

steve gaudio.
[email-masked]

(my berkeley acccount isn't alive yet...can't wait to check the weirdness
of the local net up here)

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From: [email-masked] (ron ginger)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 12:11:06 GMT

From: [email-masked] (ron ginger)
Reply-To: [email-masked] (ron ginger)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Subject:Manual wanted- Univ Tool Grinder
Keywords: Manual

I have a nice Delta Universal Tool and Cutter Grinder. I use it mainly
as a surface grinder, but its clear the machine can be setup to do just
about any kind of tool or cutter grinding. The head swivels, the table
can be set at angles, etc.

Problem is, I dont have any manual for the machine, and havent been able
to figure out some of the setups. I may be missing some jigs of fixtures.

Does anyone have a manual? I will pay for copy cost and mailing.

ron ginger

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From: [email-masked] (ron ginger)
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 12:38:36 GMT

ron ginger

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From: [email-masked] (Wm. W. Martin)
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 93 18:50:55 GMT

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From: [email-masked] (Dana Dabiri)
Date: 15 Aug 93 08:29:59 GMT

steve gaudio.
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (ron ginger)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 12:11:06 GMT

ron ginger