Another 4th of July down and several hundred dollars of money just made into smoke!  We had some friends in from Colorado this year and that gave Kirstyn a chance to have some play time with kids in the house which was a blast for her.  The Wii, as always, saw a lot of action with both the kids and adults.  Nintendo may owe us some finders fees on upcoming sales!   I'll stand over here and hold my breath waiting for that. 

Had some good BBQ on the 4th; Pulled pork and beer brats.  Not diet friendly, but they were quite tasty and so it doesn't count I say!  Got the family together a bit for the lunch and they got to visit a bit with Mark and Wendy.  I worked on a few basement projects over the weekend too.  Finished the lathe carriage stop I was working on and got started on fixing the railing on the front porch. 

I went a little above and beyond on the fireworks this year.  The kids were having such a good time with it (adults too) that we ended up making a last minute run to grab some mortars and a few other bits before the tents closed up on the 4th.  The big problem was the rain that was moving in right as night fell.  By the time we got the extra stuff back to the house it was raining pretty solid.  Not to be undone however we simply huddled in the garage and formed a mortar assembly line and I got to run them out the street, light them, and run back to the garage to watch it.  The little boy with us, Noah, would then run to the street and bring the fired tube back to the house to be reloaded.  We had a pretty good system and the wicks on the mortars were good enough to light even in the rain.  Good times.

We did quite a few the previous night out of fear that it would be raining all day on the 4th but the weather stayed clear till close to 9:00pm and so it was hard to just sit around and watch everyone else on the day of.  Mark got some extras for the early evening and the kids had a ton of fun lighting those and screaming.  The evening display was awesome thanks to Mindi finding a last minute deal on a pack of Mortars that was insane... something like 70 shots.  We didn't get through them all that night.  I guess we'll have some left for New Years.

The new Grizzly 10x22" lathe has finally made the trip from the garage to the basement of my home.  It is now the heaviest machine tool in the house at over 320lbs with it's accessories.  I originally had it on the floor of the garage to test for function and initial break-in period.  If there was an early problem I did not want to have to pull it out of the basement to send it back.  The testing shows it to be in good condition with some minor issues that can be addressed without returning it.

I took two people just to get it onto the dolly.  I choose to leave the wooden pallet attached to the bottom to make it easier to secure to the dolly.  Several ratchet straps were used to hold the pallet and lathe to the dolly and the mounting bolts held the lathe to the pallet.  After that is was up three steps to the kitchen, then down 15 steps or so to the basement.  Going up convinced me that professional assistance will be required to pull that sucker up from the basement if we move.  That, or a come-along or winch.  Going down was no party either.  Just keeping control of that load on the first few steps was a challenge.  It got easier once I could sit down and then scoot one step at a time coming down.

Once down the stairs we rigged it onto a chain hoist with heavy-duty lifting straps around the bed.  CAREFUL NOT TO WRAP AROUND THE LEAD SCREW!! and began to haul it up.  It balanced well enough to continue lifting it towards the level of the bench.  Once it was just a bit above that height we both gave it good heavy push to swing it over to the benchtop and then lower it down to the table.  Not ideal, but it worked ok.   I need to figure out just how I want it to sit and then I'll make a template to drill bolt holes to attach it to the table more solidly.  It's a little wobbly right now.

The lathe adds a great deal of capability to my little workshop that I could not otherwise obtain with just the mill.  It's primary use at present will be in manufacturing the shafting and adapting the lead-screws needed to convert the mill to computer control.  I can also see much use in firearms accessories, and modification. So it has now taken up home in the basement on the newly constructed bench.  It sure made that monster bench look small after it landed.

Here are a list of the projects that I will describe in the coming weeks/months:

1.) Mill Digital Readout (DRO) project. - Mounting digital scales to the X/Y/Z axis of the mill. (Updated 6/13/10)

2.) Sherline Rotary Table Adaptations. - Nice little rotary table that I got for cheap on EBay but needs adaptations to be useful on the much larger X2 and PM-25MV mills.

3.) Table Mounting Clamps. - Neat little clamps that let you hold a workpeice to the table from the bottom when you need access to the full top surface on a part to big or oddly shaped for the vice.

4.) Lathe Tailstock Die Holder - For cutting threads without using change gears and the butt-puckering rate of movement with power feed on the Grizzly's lowest speed of 150RPM.

5.) Boring Bar Holder - A custom holder for my carbide insert 3/8"boring bar.  This will eliminate the massive stack of shims required to get it onto center-line.

6.) Assorted Other Projects - Some of the misc. parts, improvements, and accessories I have made.

I guess it has been a while since I updated things.  Rather than write one massive update I'll break it out into topics.  Click the topic you are interested in for the full scoop.

1.) PM25-MV Mill Saga - I have been busy with making some modifications as well as getting a failed motor controller repaired on the mill.  As of yesterday all the mods that I have made so far are installed and the motor is back in action so more to come.  Click the link to read the whole story.

2.) Spring Camping - Took a trip to Stegall Mtn in SE Missouri and learned that I will not be taking the little Mitsubishi that far from home again.  Got a good night in camping but the second site I choose I was driven out by gnats, huge clouds of the around both my head and the dogs was making it very unpleasant and unseasonably warm weather made hiding in the hammock a no-go.

3.)Spring Camping II - The trip to Eminence to rescue my stranded car and a couple nights in a neat little cabin.

After doing some setup work on the mill and a lot of measuring, it became apparent that my now famous ability to get the bad apple of any barrel has held true.  The table on the little mill is not flat, its raised at both ends slightly which is a big problem.  The table needs to be flat because it is the main reference point to establish squareness.  It it's off then anything you make will be to some degree or another.  The Z axis also had something that was causing it to wiggle around as it lowered past the 2" mark on the column causing it to tilt by several thousandths of an inch.  It was a bit too much of a mess to sort out.  I have a 1yr replacement plan on it but the thought of going thorough the spindle alignment again was painful so what to do?