On Saturday 19 January 2019 11:37:34 Jon Elson wrote: > On 01/18/2019 09:16 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: > > Thread milling looks interesting. Unfortunately I was > > green as grass when I bought a thread mill probably 17 > > years ago, with an eye to threading on the little hf when > > thats all I had, and the little hf never did grow a > > spindle encoder. > > You don't need a spindle encoder for thread milling. I have > used it VERY rarely, but when you decide to make a > non-standard thread, then it is very handy. I cut some > non-standard internal threads on parts at an angle, and it > made things MUCH easier. Otherwise, I'd have had to mount a > vise, spacer blocks and sine bars on a lathe faceplate, > which sounded like I'd need 5 hands! > So, I put all that on the mill, drilled the starter hole and > then thread milled it. Worked like a champ, although slower > than a lathe would do it. > > Jon
I've always figured I'd need a 2" 50 tpi adjustable plug & threaded hole for something, and use it just to see if I could do it. But so far, everything I've needed has been to small to do with a 3/4" OD thread mill. I assume there is a minimum wiggle room in order to get clean threads, but I've not seen anything in the #27 book to give a clue how much working room it needs before you need to put a few degrees off angle for head rotation to get it into some semblance of the same angle as the threads ramp equals. But the nut cages for the screws I put in the hf were about as big as I've done, no room under those teeny tables for anything bigger than about 5/8", somewhat off center because of the nuts external return tubes. But the screw turned out to be too short by about 2", restricting the x table to about 11" of travel. And that eventually was its death nell, even with limit switches, I finally screwed it out of the nut, scattering .0635" balls in the debris under the table. And damned if I can find that bag of 500 of those I got from ebay all those years ago. So I bought a 6040 gantry I was trying to bring to life when it got rather urgent to get a pacemaker put in, I was down in the mid-thirties for a pulse when I decided something was screwing with my balance, getting a second or so of dizzyness often enough I was worried about falling off a 2 step stepladder. Its working, but I've been told not to use my left arm at full extension above my shoulder until the tickle wire is well healed (90 days or so, back to warmer weather) into place as I might jerk it out of position in my heart! So I'm pretending to listen, but I have the missus to care for too. Ever try to tie your shoelaces one handed? Or pour water into a Mr. Coffee one handed? I told the surgeon when he can teach me how to do that, I'll start wearing the sling. I think we have a Mexican standoff. :) In the meantime, I'm not picking up anything over 2 lbs with it, or stretching it out at all. Take care Jon. Thanks. Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
