Bit of machining work.

[MattH]

I need to mount a new water cooled spindle onto my Tekcel CNC router, replacing the Perske spindle with its terrible Syoz collets.
The new spindle is round and came with a mounting clamp but it is in a rough cast form.
I need to machine the base of the clamp flat and parallel and add a key way and mounting holes. I then need to machine a new spindle plate to bolt everything to.

First problem, how to clamp the mount securely for milling:


This was a mockup of the clamping, I have a set of 6" vee blocks but they are not a matched pair and therefore the spindle is not parallel. The tiny vee blocks in the pic are all I have and are not big enough to secure the spindle and clamp. I could buy some new vee blocks but I felt it would be better to build a jig out of some 5" round material.
I wanted some steel pipe that I could weld a piece of angle onto each end and then shim to true but I couldn't find any. I did get a peice of 6" aluminium billet so I have started to machine that.

First is to turn it down to 125mm diameter:



Then I added a M16 threaded hole:


With that work done I need to attach my large 4 jaw chuck and turn the peice around to complete the turning on the other end.

In this pic you can see the old spindle and plate in the background:




More to follow tomorrow.

 

[piman]

Hello Matt,

with such little grip and so much overhang, I would suggest you would have been better to centre drill and use a centre in the tailstock. That way you can take bigger cuts and get down to size quicker. This was drummed into me when I did my apprenticeship, remove the bulk of the material as quickly as possible, i.e. rogh heavy cuts.

Alec

 

[MattH]

I could of. Tbf it's only about 1.5d hangout so it doesn't really warrant a tailstock. I was taking 60thou per side cuts with a high feed rate so it didn't take long to reduce it.
The outside jaws of the chuck where almost fully engaged (it might not look like it because the material is big).

 

[MattH]

I installed the 4 jaw this evening and clocked the billet to within about 0.0005".
I faced the end and turned down the rest of the OD and then drilled and tapped the end.
Thankfully I remembered that in my other shed I have a bunch of big angle plates.
Two of them will make a very sturdy jig for holding the clamp.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@MattH Do you ever go home?

 

[Richard.]

@MattH Do you ever go home?

I think that is his home shop

 

[MattH]

Yep, this is all at home. I would really like to pull it all out and transport it to my unit but that's a lot of work and a hiab hire.
I also need to build a tool room in the corner of the unit to accept all my kit.

 

[ukracer]

Yep, this is all at home. I would really like to pull it all out and transport it to my unit but that's a lot of work and a hiab hire.
I also need to build a tool room in the corner of the unit to accept all my kit.

Just take over your old unit again. Lol

 

[MattH]

Bit more progress this evening. Bolted down the cylinder and got it to with 0.001" over the length which is good enough.
I had to take a fair bit off the bottom of the clamp to make the centre line of the spindles match.

 

[MattH]

Spent a few hours in the shed today finishing off this machining work.

Pilot drilled, drilled and tapped the rear mounting holes on the clamp.


Then I milled of the mounting tabs as they would be in the way:


I had previously sized and squared the mounting plate. I clamped it down and true'd it up.


I then spot drilled, drilled, counterbored and chamfered all the mounting holes:


Finally assembled all the parts ready to be mounted back onto the router: