CX601 Milling Machine

[brian Rupnow]

We had a quiet day here yesterday. Had family home for big feast and everybody got to meet Jacob, the newest grandson. I snuck down after everybody had left and cut down most of the head thickness of one of the bolts in the milling machine base which was going to interfere with my Y axis read head bracket. I'm up early this morning, so again, in aid of being quiet until good wife gets up I have finished all of the 3D modeling of the mill. This is not just an exercise in creating pretty models. This will assist me when I go to drop the head raising handwheel. I have to buy one piece of aluminum this morning from my supplier to make a new bracket for the X axis read head, and then I will mount the scales and the electronic display head. If all of my customers leave me alone, i may have read-outs by the end of this week.---Brian

[RB211]

That mill looks to be a more rigid design than the Sieg X3

[BMW Rider]

I'm learning as I move along here.--I have been thinking about drilling the holes in the back of my milling table to mount the X axis scale. I want the top of the glass scale to be about 0.68" below the top of my milling table. This would leave adequate space above it to mount the flange of the guard, plus the thickness of the guard, plus 3/16" clearance as the DRO guys recommend between the underside of the guard and the top of the scale..---However--The limiting factor here is where I drill the holes to mount the bracket for the "reading head". I just got my smallest electric drill up on the table and measured it, and the closest I can drill a hole to mount the reading head is 0.9" backing. This puts the top of the scale only .17" below the top of the table. This simply won't do!!! Tomorrow I will design a new bracket with offset ends which will let me mount the X axis scale where I want it.

What I did was mount the scale up where it was easiest, then I trimmed the flange off the guard to make it fit as close to the scale as possible to minimize the travel loss. I just attached the guard to the scale with double sided tape on the top side of the scale.

[ngriff]

The casting are considerably bigger on this mill. When I took apart the table I was shocked at how heavy just the x portion of the table was. The dovetail construction is closer to a full size mill than the x3.

[old mart]

What about the Z axis? Will you get some kind of readout in the future? Also the quill could benefit. I have fitted one of the cheap digital Vernier type to the quill of the museum drill-mill. It's at the front, easy to read, and away from contamination and accidental knocks. It is a godsend as the fine feed worm drive is not straight so it is impossible to take out the backlash.

[brian Rupnow]

This mill comes with a digital readout on the Z axis.

[brian Rupnow]

So---Let's try this again---All the brackets are finished now. Now it is time for some more finger crossing and breath holding, and to drill and tap the holes for the X axis scale, bracket, and guard.

[brian Rupnow]

This mornings "Quiet time" was spent modeling the lowered head lifting handle. This is a very simple modification, using #35 pitch roller chain and an 18 tooth and 28 tooth roller chain sprockets, along with a couple of home made pieces. I have an old injury to my right shoulder that doesn't like it very much when I reach up high to turn the handle that lifts and lowers the head. This modification brings the handle down to a much easier reach, and even gives some mechanical advantage when turning the handle. if anyone wants I can give more detailed information on this mod.---Brian

[brian Rupnow]

Over a lifetime, I have had too many holes move while being drilled to do this without a drilling fixture. the "fixture" is simply a piece of 3 1/2" x 3/8" cold rolled flatbar, with two 1/4" diameter pins inserted in the bottom to "straddle" the dovetail below it with zero clearance and the two holes I want to drill in the back side of the saddle pre-drilled in the bar on the mill. Two toe-clamps on the mill table hold it securely in place. The right angle drill attachment is something I bought 6 years ago for a different purpose and have never used.---it worked out very well for this. The holes are now drilled and tapped with no misplaced holes or broken tap disasters. The reading head is mounted in place and the table is drilled and tapped to hold the scale in place. I am going to put some travel limiters on the 23 1/2" X axis table movement, because at full travel it gets alarmingly close to the full travel of the scale. the next size larger scale would have been longer than my mill table.

[brian Rupnow]

Somebody was asking about table stops for the Y axis. This picture shows how I made them on my previous benchtop mill, and they worked very well.----Brian

[brian Rupnow]

Here we go, as requested. This will get the head height adjusting handwheel down out of the sky, to a more comfortable height, and give you some mechanical advantage as well. A word of warning though---There is no provision for tensioning the chain, so pick the approximate position you want the lowered handwheel to be in, then form a length of chain complete with master link and "hang" the lower assembly from the top sprocket. This will give an exact location to drill and tap your mill column so that the chain will be neither too tight nor too loose.

[brian Rupnow]

The electronic display and support are installed. If it bounces around because of being installed on the sheet metal motor guard, I will relocate the support bracket to the column. I purchased a piece of 3" x 3" x 1/8" aluminum angle and used it to make a cover for the X axis scale. Since I don't have the capability here to weld aluminum, I made up two end plate/mounting brackets from 1" aluminum plate and bolted them in place. The top of the aluminum guard angle is about 0.100" below the top of the mill table. I will lose 1 1/8" off the Y travel because of mounting the X scale where I did. The only fabrication I have left to do is to make up two table stop brackets to limit the travel of my X axis to 23" so as not to damage the scale by ٍvertravelling`the reading head.

[Rosco-P]

How do you oil the ways covered by the bellows?

[Seastar]

How do you oil the ways covered by the bellows?

Good question!
Bill

[brian Rupnow]

I don't.