If I only had a CNC.........

[HMC710]

or, What I did this Memorial Weekend.

Hi All and Greetings from Heavy Metal!
I get a lot of questions from people about equipment and tooling and it usually starts out with, "Man if I only had a CNC mill I could make all kinds of cool stuff." My first reply to them is, "Well what are you making right now?"

Be careful what you wish for........ or, How do you fix a taper in a lathe?

First you start by taking things apart so you can get to the area you need to adjust. This is about 6 hours into the project. All the crud in the chuck looked like the same crud I had to clean out of the tail stock to get it working.
Make sure you have a large, clean, work area with all the proper tools and plenty of help. Bueller?...... Bueller?.......

Then you need some less than perfect weather so you can rationalize that doing something else wouldn't be as fun or rewarding or important or .......

But most important, you will need some understanding people that realize that quality, like Freedom, is not free and somebody out there today is making sure your coffee is hot, your beer is cold, your barrels are straight, and you have the ability to enjoy them all.
God Bless and please remember those who gave all.
Tim

[greywuuf]

I'll Take you fishing here in Alaska if you Come help me refurb my Lathe ( or two ... I have a nice old Southbend that would be worth saving)

[HMC710]

I'm on my way, put the coffee on ! ;D
Been up there berfore, great trip.

[love2shoot]

Sounds like some fun........I been so slammed lately with the new job I have barely had time to get into the workshop, let alone cut anything......

[HMC710]

Tune up time at the shop.
Being on the road has taken its toll (especially when someone else has a key) and starting to get things back in shape. Working on barrel fixtures and getting some soft jaws cut....... its been a long day. Man, if I only had a cnc.

[HMC710]

I tell ya, after cutting two set soft jaws with the wrong tool and the same results its time for a break. The manual fkn rocked today so going to do some more set up and checking and see if I can get these pistol barrels set for the cnc. Surface finish is excellent and the threading just plain kicks ass. Once you get it set. So as soon as I can get the chuck to hold true (do I hear 2/10ths somewhere?) we'll give er a try.

[HMC710]

Been having and "issue" with the tail stock on the manual. It holds true, but when you unlock it, it moves! I mean like .003"! I keep wondering where its going to end up....
Took it apart and cleaned it up today. Nothing made sense until I put it together and the offset adjusters tweak the top just ever so, never would have guessed it. Small adjustment made and now it is rock steady! Love it

[HMC710]

Fired up the old Clausing last week just for kicks (its been brain dead for years) and bless my soul, it woke up! I was going to do an upgrade on it but seeing how it woke up, we are setting it up with a rotary axis so we can cut reamers and compensators. New batteries got here yesterday so we'll get while the gettin' is good!

[HMC710]

Clausing up and running and the Tornado adjustment has been completed and down to 5-10ths run out in 8". Just a shade more to go! Big Blue 4th axis is alive and setting that up for our rotary work. :