Other Smithy Owners ?

[Dan Krager]

In that case, any spanner wrench of appropriate size will work.
DanK

[LJDriver]

It slides over the splined spindle shaft and is used to hold the spindle while you tighten or loosen the draw bar nut. I've never seen the wrench but that's what I've been told.....lol

[Dan Krager]

I do not have such a thing, but would at least like to know what it looks like. I don't have a collet chuck, so no need for one just yet. Where does the wrench get applied?
DanK

[LJDriver]

Does anyone happen to have a Smithy P/N G20001 wrench? It's used to hold the spindle while tightening the draw bar nut on a Granite 1324. I've contacted Smithy and they are out of stock but expect to get some at some point

[olf20]

Finally got some pictures of my digital tail stock and my ELS. Have been
using the ELS on several boring jobs and really like it.
olf20 / Bob

[olf20]

Got the digital readout for the tail stock mounted and working. Uhgggg
battery dead. I will post a picture tomorrow.
olf20 / Bob

[ShopGuy]

i use my smithy granite 13x40 lathe almost every day also have a 9x40 vertical smithy mill and 12x30 smithy ltd lathe that I bought 25 years ago. Fitted all the machines with a dro.

[Dan Krager]

I use my Smithy Granite every week. Right now I'm machining a part for a broken tap wrench.


DanK

[olf20]

Dan, Grandpa's Barn. You guys still around??
Been doing anything with your machines??
olf20 / Bob

[olf20]

Finally got caught up with farming. Been working on ELS for my Smithy. For starters I'm just driving it back and
forth. I will add a display and a key pad to enable me the input distance so I can more accurately bore holes
and such. I have it all bread boarded up. Need to dig out a box to put it in.
olf20 / Bob

[Grandpa's Barn]

Thank you guys for reviving this thread. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had all the items to add the Electronic Leads screw to my 1220. Just last week I started making the mount for the stepper motor. I hate to admit it but the impetus for this was an inadvertent movement of the powereed lever with the carriage locked in place. Oops. Mangled a couple of the changes gears and bent the change gear idler shaft. I chose to move on to the ELS and repair/ replace the change gear items later. I'm taking photos as I go and will post them in logical sequence.

[olf20]

Hi Dan glad you are posting your work.
I have a 1220 and have used it for 20+ years.
I don't do production just odd jobs. I recently started to put a Electronic Lead Screw
on mine. I've got just about all the parts and started making the mounts, boring pulleys,
and so on. I'll be using a Arduino and a nema 23 stepper. I like those little Arduino's.

Another thing that I always wanted was a DRO on the tail stock so I know the depth
i'm boring. I got a cheap digital inch / mm caliper and mounted it with 5 small magnets
to the tail stock. Made a clamp ring for the tail stock drilled a hole in the caliper and
have a cheap functional DRO.

Keep posting. I don't visit this often because it was silent for long periods of time.
Now that your posting maybe a few other will chime in with some of their stuff.
olf20 / Bob

[Dan Krager]

I guess I'm talking to myself here.

I reworked a cheap and poorly made angle vise that came among the tooling with a previous Smithy Granite. I made the decision to machine the moving jaw ways once I determined that the bottom was reasonably flat. My inspection influenced that decision because it showed that one side of the ways was parallel to the bottom well within 0.001" (an accident probably) but the other side was not parallel to the bottom and the lowest point was 0.009" below the "good" side. I hesitated taking anything off the ways because the movable jaw relies on those surfaces to keep itself from spinning around on the one shaft that controls it's linear movement. Sure enough, when I got both ways flat and parallel to the bottom, the movable jaw had 0.005" clearance between it's feet and the ways. What to do? I went to the hardware store and bought some nylon bolts and drilled/tapped for one on each side. This allows me to adjust out the slack I created under the movable jaw. After confirming that I had the vise installed against a repeatable stop, I milled the fixed jaw to be perpendicular to the base and parallel to the carriage travel. Clamping a parallel between the jaws then allowed me to machine the face of the movable jaw parallel to the fixed jaw. I dressed up the rough casting on the top of the jaws and milled flats on the tilt dovetail ends so I could easily zero out or confirm zero tilt by feel. There is an adjustable stop for that. Then I could replace the improper screws that held the jaw faces in place. The last step not done is to trim the fixed jaw screws flush with its face. I debated whether to turn the screws around for a more appropriate orientation (bolt heads countersunk in the removable jaw and threaded into the body of vise and moveable jaw, but the new bolts seemed to work OK. The fixed jaw face is resting on a freshly milled step, so the bolts are not the only thing holding it in place.

Now I'm ready to re-machine about half the pins that I need for the long threaded rod handscrews I'm making. This time I'll use the notch in the fixed jaw of the vise so they cannot slip. Somehow, they got drilled and tapped almost 10° from perpendicular. I was holding them in a 5C collet with a stop and didn't notice or remember that such collets only grasp the part at the end of the collet. The pressure of the drilling must have pushed them catywampus. The collet really didn't have a chance on such a short part. A machinist's jack would have cured the problematic setup had I noticed it happening. Zu früh alt, zu spät klug.

DanK

[Dan Krager]

Oh, and another thing. Has anyone obtained or built accordion style way covers for the 1324 or 1340? I made some flat fabric stuff but it bunches up and doesn't stay where I put it. After reading about accordion style, I realized I could put metal straps to hold the fabric in place on the ends, but then it would still bunch up. The accordion covers can be home made and with a bit of creative folding be formed to drop down front and back as well as cover the top of the ways. Has anyone done that? I really want to protect the pristine ways.

DanK

[Dan Krager]

Has anyone found a decent manual for the DRO Smithy is sending with the new machines?

The Chinglish manual that came with it doesn't adequately cover lathe functions. The method it describes for lathe users is to use the UCS system to set predetermined locations relative to the absolute system which one zeros out at CL and one master reference end point, ie, each diameter and one end point of it are presets that become the landmarks to work towards. That works OK for preplanned and drafted (drawn out specifications) operations but not so much for "on the fly", which would be more common for hobby users like myself.

For example, I wish to turn a 3/4" x 2" rod down to 1/4" x 1" to make a small drift for my 2T hand press which is drilled for 3/4". This is a trivial learning example to understand how the DRO can be helpful. I'm hoping there is a lathe function that I can zero out the 3/4" diameter, enter a target diameter of 1/4" and the display result gives me a countdown to target.

I guess I could use the calculator function to take half the difference between 0.750" and 0.250", transfer that to the Y axis and countdown to zero, changing the sign if necessary.

Yes, I'm being lazy, but that's one reason I bought the DRO !!!

DanK