Warco VMC Head Riser.

[Matthew92]

Thought I might as well start a new thread as I progress in making a riser block for my milling machine. It's going to end up around 4 1/2" I miscalculated when I bought the steel blank, thinking just over 5" would result in a 5" riser. I didn't account for the register on the bottom though, so I will loose about 1/2". Doesn't matter though, I think it will be enough.

Here is the blank chucked up and dialled in ready for turning.



First end faced off.



Rough turning of outer diameter. Final dimension will be 150mm.



End drilled and boring started for register.



Bored out to final dimension of 83.94mm.



Next weekend will begin with a bit more turning of the outer diameter before turning the whole piece around and turning the male register on the other end.

 

[slimjim]

When I made one for my Chester 626, I couldn’t get a piece of steel big enough, but I found some 6 inch turned into a tube, with 30mm wall thickness, so I turned the registers and welded them in, I ended making a 5 and a half inch riser, but had to ask someone to make a new metric acme screw that was 5 inch longer, otherwise when lifting the table up it would unscrew off the nut, it works great though, when trimming the mill, it was about 0.30mm out, so easy to pack out, the extra height is great, because you can use an adapter to morse taper and still have enough height to drill stuff, I have a few morse taper drills and reamers, it doesn’t seem to affect the rigidity of the mill

 

[Matthew92]

I was amazed at how cheap this piece of steel was. It was ready cut on the shelf, cost me £28+vat, I’ve bought odd bits and pieces before that was priced on weight and it seemed expensive, but when you buy for a project like this, it’s a bargain. I haven’t yet found what the maximum height is that I can raise the table to without the lead screw disengaging, I want to find out and then mark or make a stop so it can’t come out. Hopefully I won’t need a new screw, with the table up and the quill locked down I should be ok.

Not sure yet how I’m going to drill it, I’ve got a plan where I will use a long series 10mm drill and go all the way through using 3 M10 bolts about 6” long. That will save me having to mill pockets for nuts, the 17mm hex fits nicely in the tee slot in the column and the nuts will screw on the in the same place they do now. Of course I don’t have the height needed to drill it using the mill.

 

[doubleboost]

That is the best mod you can do on a 626 mil
Put a stop on the Z-axis lead screw to stop you screwing it out of the nut
I ended up making a longer screw for mine

 

[slimjim]

I was amazed at how cheap this piece of steel was. It was ready cut on the shelf, cost me £28+vat, I’ve bought odd bits and pieces before that was priced on weight and it seemed expensive, but when you buy for a project like this, it’s a bargain. I haven’t yet found what the maximum height is that I can raise the table to without the lead screw disengaging, I want to find out and then mark or make a stop so it can’t come out. Hopefully I won’t need a new screw, with the table up and the quill locked down I should be ok.

Not sure yet how I’m going to drill it, I’ve got a plan where I will use a long series 10mm drill and go all the way through using 3 M10 bolts about 6” long. That will save me having to mill pockets for nuts, the 17mm hex fits nicely in the tee slot in the column and the nuts will screw on the in the same place they do now. Of course I don’t have the height needed to drill it using the mill.

I think that there was only another inch before the screw came out of the nut on mine, it didn’t work out that expensive to have the new screw made, a member on here kindly made it for me.

That is the best mod you can do on a 626 mil
Put a stop on the Z-axis lead screw to stop you screwing it out of the nut
I ended up making a longer screw for mine

I copied mine from watching you do yours.

 

[Matthew92]

@doubleboost @slimjim

Once I've got the block fitted, I'll get the table up as high as I can and then fit a stop. I've heard that it can damage the thread or the nut if they become disengaged or at least prove difficult to rethread.

Progress tonight, I got the outer diameter turned down a bit further, I think its at about 155mm now. Then flipped it around in the chuck and machined off the last of the rough finish. Male register is roughly machined, it's quite warm now so it can wait until another day before I machine to final dimension. At least if I want to do it at the weekend I won't have to sit and stare at it whilst it cools down.





What to do with this lot?

 

[doubleboost]

Try and run slower with a deeper cut to get the chips to break
Spacer is looking very nice

 

[MattH]

Try and run slower with a deeper cut to get the chips to break
Spacer is looking very nice

Good advice, remember colour is speed chips are feed.

 

[Hood]

Vid showing same RPM, Same DOC but different feed.

 

[Matthew92]

Will do thank you, I’ve been getting some really nasty stringy b*****ds (thank you for that line) I’ve slowly crept the speed up, most of the turning has been done at either 300 or 460 rpm, which I feel is too high, but with a good feed and .25mm depth of cut the finish has been passable. If it doesn’t come off long and stringy, I get tight little coils about an inch long that fly all around the workshop and when you get one down your neck, you know about it.

Under 300, I’ve got either 190, 115 or 70rpm.

 

[MattH]

Will do thank you, I’ve been getting some really nasty stringy b*****ds (thank you for that line) I’ve slowly crept the speed up, most of the turning has been done at either 300 or 460 rpm, which I feel is too high, but with a good feed and .25mm depth of cut the finish has been passable. If it doesn’t come off long and stringy, I get tight little coils about an inch long that fly all around the workshop and when you get one down your neck, to know about it.

Under 300, I’ve got either 190, 115 or 70rpm.

Those little one’s really hurt, I had one stick to my cheek one time. The air was blue.
Don’t worry about finish until the finish. Just get the metal out of there as efficiently as possible.

 

[Matthew92]

@MattH @Hood thank you, I’ve been fiddling with the feeds, a medium to fast feed seems to produce the best results, producing the inch curls I mention, which Henry can cope with.

Haha, one of the few times my mum came to see what I was up to she got a little chip off the mill down her neck. I was wondering why she hadn’t brought me a cup of coffee since.

 

[Hood]

Your DOC sounds a bit on the low side but possibly the lathe does not have enough power for more.

 

[MattH]

Your DOC sounds a bit on the low side but possibly the lathe does not have enough power for more.

Agreed, you might be better off at a lower rpm but at 0.5mm doc.
0.25mm would be a finish pass.

 

[MattH]

Efficiency aside, great work so far mate.

 

[Richard.]

Your DOC sounds a bit on the low side but possibly the lathe does not have enough power for more.

Should be able to take a bigger DOC on that. I can take 0.4 with the right insert and right speed on mine and it’s half the size.

 

[Matthew92]

I’ve tried a .5mm doc and it’ll do it, but it’s the flying chips that have stopped me and the lathe does sound a bit strained. Saying that, I’ll try it again, because 460 is in high range but 300 is in low so the back gear should give it more torque and perhaps it’ll cope better.

I’m used to my old lathe where the flat belts slipped if I took anything like a decent cut. It’s all about playing around with it and getting to know what’s what. Perhaps I should have bought a second piece of steel to practice on.

 

[MattH]

Just looked you your lathe specs, it’s 2HP and 500kgs. You should be able to go upwards of 1.5mm per side.
My old Cardiff is 3HP and I regularly take .150” per side (~3.5mm).

 

[Richard.]

I’ve tried a .5mm doc and it’ll do it, but it’s the flying chips that have stopped me and the lathe does sound a bit strained. Saying that, I’ll try it again, because 460 is in high range but 300 is in low so the back gear should give it more torque and perhaps it’ll cope better.

0.4-0.5 is as far as I would ever push mine but like I say it’s not as big or rigid as yours. I do it with a positive rake carbide insert at 145 rpm in the back gears and it will take that cut

 

[MattH]

I’d be at somewhere around 150RPM on a heavy cut. Then push the feed up until you get nice small chips dropping.