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First, I am delighted that some further use has been made of my ideas. No rip off here as I have been putting them in web posts for some years now in the hope that they would prove useful to others. So I am very happy to see this and hope it is as useful to you as it has been for me.
How is vertical axis travel achieved? Well, I mill in what I think of as the Y direction, toward and away from me, the operator. The X direction, along the main lathe ways is set with the lathe's crank and a DI mounted to the ways. The vertical or Z distance is SET before the cut is made with shims and spacers. I have a collection of pieces cut from flat ground stock and shim stock in a variety of sizes that allow any dimension to be achieved in 0.001" increments. I can cut that down to 0/003" or 0.004" increments with aluminum foil shims (about 0.00065"). Not the easiest way to change that distance, but if you do not have a milling machine, it can be quite serviceable.
Some photos illustrating these ideas.
Here you can see a 1-2-3 block plus a couple of those spacers cut from flat ground stock plus some shims holding a partially complete fly cutter I was making to fit the SB headstock. The finished fly cutter has two HSS cutters mounted on opposite sides for balance. The clamps are from one of my clamping sets and the 2-4-6 block behind the fly cutter is providing a stop so that both sets of grooves will have the same depth. It is a bit hard to read, but I have the table to spindle center distance written on the front edge of the milling table for quick reference when figuring out what spacers and shims to use for a cut. It has been some time since I made this fly cutter, but I believe I cut all the grooves with a single set of spacers before changing them. Hence the need for the positive stop (2-4-6 block) behind the work.
This second photo shows a smaller fly cutter of the same design at the first cut. In the lower left you can see the DI being used to control the depth of the cut. I did not think of using a 2-4-6 block for a back stop until after I had made this cut.
You may notice that I choose to make a checkerboard pattern of holes using alternate locations on a 1" x 1" grid. That provides a lot of flexibility but it also provides a lot of tapping. My hand was very tired when I got finished. Nickle-city made fewer tapped holes and that may be enough. Of course, additional ones could be added at any time they were needed.
I did not make any provision for aligning the table to the lathe axis. That can be done with a 1-2-3 or 2-4-6 block and a rod held between centers in the lathe. But, since there are no good, straight surfaces on it to align the work to, I choose to just align the work and let the table sit where it may.
By the way, the DI holder in the photo is my old one that came with the lathe and it is not particularly good. Because the DI is held in the lower, nut part, it has a tendency to allow the DI to move about. I have since replaced it with a much better one where the DI is held in the upper part which has the Vee groove sitting on the lathe way. The DI is rock solid in that one. The lesson here is a DI holder or stop for the lathe ways should have the DI or stop mounted in the same piece as the Vee groove or other locating feature and not on a piece that can wiggle around.
Finally, here I am using the table to bore an accurate hole in an aluminum block. It needed to be both accurate in size (+0.001 -0.000") and very square to the sides. I was able to do this work fairly easily and accurately with my milling table and a boring bar which is also shop made. Again you can see the use of the pieces of flat ground stock and shims used to establish both the vertical dimension and the parallel condition to the top and bottom sides. I guess this could have been done on a regular, vertical milling machine, but that hole is a bit deep for a boring bar, if you ask me. And I would have needed a boring head.
By the way, that block was also milled using the fly cutter being made in the first photo.
Finally, here is the drawing for the table. The mounting is designed to fit a SB-9 but other lathes could be accommodated as well.
It shows only 1/4 of the full table which is 6" x 10". I had to do this because the full drawing would not retain the details when reduced for display here. The center point of the table is shown at the lower right and the other three quarters only have the 3/8-16 tapped holes in the same pattern. The mounting button is shown on the right and it is to fit the SB-9 cross slide in place of the compound feed which is removed when the table is used. I also made a 3/4" thick, spacer block to allow the table to pass over the cross feed crank which allows a greater Y feed. I did allow for three different mounting positions as you can see with the three sets of M5 holes. Oh, I used M5 screws because I have a lifetime supply of them: 10-24 or 10-32 would also work just fine.
PS: I did buy an angle block which I have used on this table. It allows even more flexibility when setting up.
How is vertical axis travel achieved? Well, I mill in what I think of as the Y direction, toward and away from me, the operator. The X direction, along the main lathe ways is set with the lathe's crank and a DI mounted to the ways. The vertical or Z distance is SET before the cut is made with shims and spacers. I have a collection of pieces cut from flat ground stock and shim stock in a variety of sizes that allow any dimension to be achieved in 0.001" increments. I can cut that down to 0/003" or 0.004" increments with aluminum foil shims (about 0.00065"). Not the easiest way to change that distance, but if you do not have a milling machine, it can be quite serviceable.
Some photos illustrating these ideas.
You may notice that I choose to make a checkerboard pattern of holes using alternate locations on a 1" x 1" grid. That provides a lot of flexibility but it also provides a lot of tapping. My hand was very tired when I got finished. Nickle-city made fewer tapped holes and that may be enough. Of course, additional ones could be added at any time they were needed.
I did not make any provision for aligning the table to the lathe axis. That can be done with a 1-2-3 or 2-4-6 block and a rod held between centers in the lathe. But, since there are no good, straight surfaces on it to align the work to, I choose to just align the work and let the table sit where it may.
By the way, the DI holder in the photo is my old one that came with the lathe and it is not particularly good. Because the DI is held in the lower, nut part, it has a tendency to allow the DI to move about. I have since replaced it with a much better one where the DI is held in the upper part which has the Vee groove sitting on the lathe way. The DI is rock solid in that one. The lesson here is a DI holder or stop for the lathe ways should have the DI or stop mounted in the same piece as the Vee groove or other locating feature and not on a piece that can wiggle around.
By the way, that block was also milled using the fly cutter being made in the first photo.
Finally, here is the drawing for the table. The mounting is designed to fit a SB-9 but other lathes could be accommodated as well.
PS: I did buy an angle block which I have used on this table. It allows even more flexibility when setting up.
Originally posted by Bob Engelhardt
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however, I do have BA and ME series also.
...sometimes you just have to get creative
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