Quote:
Originally Posted by artdutra04
Does this mill have digital read outs?
If it does, then keeping tight tolerances isn't generally too bad. But otherwise, you better be the master of feeling the backlash in the ball screws of the table to keep tight tolerances. But seeing how almost all of your holes are in the same line, even if you don't have DROs, you can keep precise (though not necessarily accurate) tolerances as long as you never overshoot your target distance (read: you are always staying on one side of the ball screw backlash).
|
No digital readouts, but it does have thousandths increments on the dial. I'm aware of the slop on most of the machines we get to use, so there's a chance that the holes will end up where they need to be.
Earlier this morning I made one of the axles just for fun on my dad's clunky old lathe (backlash galore), and I was able to get the ends turned down to within .001" of where I wanted them. We'll see how it turns out on an endmill, though.
And you are right about them being in a straight line; I'd like to do as few adjustments as possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vivek16
That thing could become MUCH more compact if you're willing to have fancier side plates. There's no reason that the gears need to be in a straight line. Also, you can make the whole gearbox thinner (less distance between sideplates) by flipping the small and large gears on some of the axles.
Does that small blue gear need to be there? Doesn't look like it's doing anything.
thanks, Vivek
p.s. I'm a fan of heavily lightened 1/4" al sideplates. Besides being light and effective, they're absolutely beautiful.  |
It definitely could be more compact, but I wasn't aiming for anything fancy for a first attempt. Perhaps for future gearboxes.
The small blue gear is molded onto the big one (it's one piece). I would shy away from cutting it off... it would make the hub much weaker. It may survive, though. We were planning on torquing the blue gear until failure with a torque wrench to see just how strong it is.