Grind lathe bed in ontario

[Susquatch]

Equipment wise it’s going on a big conventional type (horizontal spindle) surface grinder. They’ve got wheels of all sorts of shapes and angles they use to do machine rebuilding jobs. Lathe beds, Bridgeport knees etc.

Very Cool Rauce! I bet you are excited! That much closer to getting your dream machine running to your satisfaction!

Question - How do they skip over one V-way to get to the next without losing the setting? Or do they even care as long as it's close? I suppose I'm answering my own question - as long as it's even along the entire length it prolly doesn't matter if it's not exactly the same on each way.......

Can't wait to see the photos.

 

[Former Member]

How do they skip over one V-way to get to the next without losing the setting? Or do they even care as long as it's close? I suppose I'm answering my own question - as long as it's even along the entire length it prolly doesn't matter if it's not exactly the same on each way.......

Can't wait to see the photos.

Just for you....I suspect something like this.....knowing how you love YouTube

 

[Rauce]

Very Cool Rauce! I bet you are excited! That much closer to getting your dream machine running to your satisfaction!

Question - How do they skip over one V-way to get to the next without losing the setting? Or do they even care as long as it's close? I suppose I'm answering my own question - as long as it's even along the entire length it prolly doesn't matter if it's not exactly the same on each way.......

Can't wait to see the photos.

My understanding from just chatting with the guy for minute about the approach is this:

They set the machine up on the grinder and align it. He gauged the wear on the V’s the same way I did when I got it, by putting a precision V block on it and indicating off the block. When I did it i measure relative to seemingly unworn flat way, here it’s relative to the machine. Result was the same ~.006” low near the headstock.

The quality of the original hendey build seems to have saved them some time and effort with the initial set up. The two areas where the bed mounts to the cabinet were scraped from the factory on the same plane as the ways. They just landed it up on the grinder table and found they only had to align it in one axis, no need for shims. It’s also a short and stout enough bed that sag in the middle is a non-issue.

Next step was a rough grind a couple thou deep on the flat way. Let it settle for a bit and see if warped at all. Thinning the hardened surface can cause it to warp he says, I imagine like a piece of cold rolled steel will if you machine off a face. Seems like there’s a fair amount of time spent waiting between passes to let it settle/cool off.

They’ll tackle the most worn surface first eliminating the wear and take the same amount off all the surfaces. With the V’s this would be bringing the wheel clear, moving over, bringing it in until it touches off and then taking off the same amount.

 

[Rauce]

Working the Vs. The set up at the far end of the table is a sine dresser on a riser for dressing the wheel at 45deg.

 

[YotaBota]

Good to see you found someone willing to help.

Will they take down the mount for the headstock as well or will you need to shim the tailstock up to spindle center?

 

[Rauce]

Good to see you found someone willing to help.

Will they take down the mount for the headstock as well or will you need to shim the tailstock up to spindle center?

Headstock mounts to the same set of ways as the tailstock on this machine so they are grinding them along the whole length, no gap on this machine so it’s a continuous surface.

Part of the back gear assembly mounts inside the bed underneath the headstock. It had .025” or so of shim from the factory so I’ll be removing some of that.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Headstock mounts to the same set of ways as the tailstock on this machine so they are grinding them along the whole length, no gap on this machine so it’s a continuous surface.

Part of the back gear assembly mounts inside the bed underneath the headstock. It had .025” or so of shim from the factory so I’ll be removing some of that.

sounds like they know what they're doing

Have a safe trip home.

 

[YotaBota]

I had to go back to when you first started disassembly to see how things are put together. I wonder if the shim was by design to allow for grinding?

As TB says, have a safe trip home.

 

[Susquatch]

Headstock mounts to the same set of ways as the tailstock on this machine so they are grinding them along the whole length, no gap on this machine so it’s a continuous surface.

Truth be known, I'm pretty excited for you! Your dream lathe getting all fixed up mechanically, then some nice lipstick, and then some passionate activities to produce beautiful parts!

Quite the journey!

 

[trlvn]

@Rauce Can you give us a trip report? How did it turn out?

Craig

 

[Rauce]

@Rauce Can you give us a trip report? How did it turn out?

Craig

Overall it was great. They were a pleasure to deal with and didn’t mind me hanging around. I wasn’t watching the whole time, I popped in and out to see where they were at.

Price was what we agreed upon. No hassle at the border either way. On the way back I showed CBSA the invoice and went inside to pay the cashier the HST. They didn’t seem interested in inspecting anything.

The grinders took off .007” from all the top surfaces which elimated all the wear. With the Vs he measured across pins as he went and the flats he measured with a long gauge block and depth mic off the table to ensure he was taking off the right amount as he went.

With that machine they are confidant in .0001” /ft straightness so with my bed that’s .0005” end to end.

The proof will be once I get the headstock on which may not be for a few weeks. I need to get it over to my friends shop to get painted in his booth.

 

[Mcgyver]

Good stuff Rauce.

Good to see you found someone willing to help.

Will they take down the mount for the headstock as well or will you need to shim the tailstock up to spindle center?

Not saying it can't be done, because I'm a long way away from knowing everything, but I've not heard of it. Fitting the mating parts to the ground bed is done by scraping them. The manufactures fit them that way. It would be bloody difficult, maybe herculean, to grind in the mating parts to the desire fit to the ground bed.

 

[YotaBota]

@Mcgyver - Understood, that's where I had to go back and look at the pictures to see how the HS mounted. I didn't realize that the HS has two mounting points, one on the Vway and the one not Vway farther to the left that will need to be shimmed.

@Rauce - Have I got that correct?

 

[Rauce]

@Mcgyver - Understood, that's where I had to go back and look at the pictures to see how the HS mounted. I didn't realize that the HS has two mounting points, one on the Vway and the one not Vway farther to the left that will need to be shimmed.

@Rauce - Have I got that correct?

Sort of, the headstock is two pieces you might say on the machine.

The main part houses the spindle, photo below and additional photo with mounting area circled in red.

Behind the main part of the headstock is the other piece (circled in Yellow). This has gears and a belt for feed selector (geared feed or belt feed) and the directional selector/clutch for feeds and threads). This whole area was also lowered the same .007” as everywhere else.

Below the headstock, circled in blue, is a countershaft of sorts that is part of the back gear mechanism. This was shimmed at the factory and will be lowered correspondingly to what was taken off the top surface.

Hope that makes some sense.