Just Picked Up A Kent 4vk

Jim said the VFD we are going to use has a simulated tach output, so not sure what will work with it. Have to do some checking on that.

I'm swapping my power drawbar over to the Acer had and will need a new drawbar. I found Kurt has a build your own kit for $73. I need to get that ordered. Looking for paint to kind of match the Kent base, but no luck yet. My local automotive paint shop say they can match it and make up spray cans for $23 each. Kinda pricey I think.
 
alloy said:
Looking for paint to kind of match the Kent base, but no luck yet. My local automotive paint shop say they can match it and make up spray cans for $23 each. Kinda pricey I think.
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Since you're not going for a spot-on restro, what would be wrong with a contrasting two-tone scheme?
Better yet - I've got it! Truck Bed liner for the head. $7/can. :congratulate: (I'm running for the door now...)

Gotta love how it worked out though. Finding that Acer head on a pallet at just the right time was good, instead of a week after buying a new motor.
 
Hmm........ I think I'll pass on the bed liner :)

Since we have it apart I might as well paint the head, and unless I can find an close paint match in a rattle can I may just paint the entire machine. I'll do the head at Jim's, and do base at home. I like to have a decent looking machine so when a customer brings his irreplaceable transmission housing over he doesn't see an ugly old machine sitting there. I've actually got comments on my Bridgeport, and they don't believe it's a 1962 machine.

It is interesting how things happen. I bought the Kent on a Friday, and I even told Jim now that I bought the mill a perfect lathe will come up while I'm out of play funds. And that's exactly what happened 2 days later. But thankfully the EBay god's shined on me and I sold a conversion and I barely had enough to get the lathe. But it's exactly the lathe I was looking for. And it's up and running, just need to find a couple of chucks for it.

Now this milling head came up. I thank Jim for finding it. Saved me big bucks and is a big upgrade also. And it gives me a new project to work on. I'm lost unless I have something going on like this. My GF says I'm driven man. She has never been with someone like me.

One of these days I'll stop buying machines.

Oh no, what did I just say??? I think I may need to go lay down for awhile. I believe I'm experiencing temporary insanity :)
 
More progress on the mill yesterday. I got the head cleaned and painted this week and took it out to Jim's to put together. Took most of the day for us to get it put together. We had a problem wit the quill being very tight, way to tight to use. After a lot of head scratching we discovered that the back gear section was mis aligned with the quill housing. When I put it together there aren't any dowel pins to align it, just the bolts. Jim said his identical head went together without any problems. This was a new one on both of us.

Today Jim is working on making a new switch housing for the front of the mill. It will have the FWD/REV, Speed, E-Stop, and a tach in it.

After this all that's needed to finish the mill is getting a VFD and wiring it, and figure out why the X axis scale isn't working.

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A few pictures of the new switch box on the head.

The Acer VS head has a built in switch panel like the picture below. The head that Alloy got at auction did not have that feature.

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So why buy one when you can build it? Not having an aluminum foundry to cast one, the next best thing is to just carve it out of a solid 3x6x12 chunk of aluminum.

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So first make sacrificial base plate to attach it to. 6x12x3/8 aluminum over a chunk of 3/4 MDF bolted to the T-slots with flat head cap screws. NOTE: the holes at the red arrows, these are dowel pin holes so to insure precise alignment when it's flipped over to do the work on the front side. The other 3 holes are to bolt down to the T-slots through the entire piece while profiling the outside. The 1/2 inch holes are drilled through where the switches and tach will go. The four 1/4-20 holes are for securing it once it's flipped over.

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This pic just kinda gives some perspective. This is the original speed control from the Kent head.

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Aligning the block to the base plate. 5/8 from the edge, this is so the holes in the part can be aligned to the T-slots.

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Clamped in place for drilling

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OK, now it's drilled and secured with the bolts. First a face cut just to make sure it's flat. Again the mating dowel pin holes. The other two 1/2 inch holes are where the tool is going to plunge for the inside pockets. Just gives the tool a bit of relief.

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A couple of passes into the outside profile. The end mill is a 1 inch, two flute, with a 4 inch length of cut. Because of the long end mill, DOC was limited to 0.100 to prevent too much deflection and chatter. 900 RPM, @ 5 IPM feed. This gives a chip load of 0.005 per tooth. Coolant is WD-40 fogless spray mist.

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Pocketing the inside, a couple of passes in. Same conditions as above, but with the 1/2 inch bolts removed. Clamps added to make sure it stays put. This pocket will be 2.75 deep when finished. It's running as I write this. By the time it's done, we will have removed about 90% of the material in the original block.

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More later, Stay tuned! :)
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coolidge said:
That's going to produce about 2 gallons of chips, keep the pics coming!
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A bit more than that I think, this is just what is on top of the mill
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OK, got the pocket done! 644 minutes of run time, I didn't think the end mill was going to make it through the last couple hundred thou! Was getting pretty ragged, about 1000 minutes of total run time on it, well past it's expected service life. I kept the chip load pretty high and the spindle speed down, with lots of coolant. So that's how it survived.

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Tomorrow I'll flip the part over and do the work on the face. That won't take too long to run, only going about 1/4 inch deep on the face pocket.
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