Mounting a Sherline 4400 Lathe on 80/20

We can order 80/20 here in HI but the shipping is a killer, which is why I don't use it.
 
I view it as light weight junk for machinery , but it does have its' uses .
 
Gotta say OP, I love the setup! I think it looks clean and youre off to a great start there!
Thanks.
I had to look up the meaning of "OP". It means original poster.
 
I view it as light weight junk for machinery , but it does have its' uses .
The manufacturing engineer where I work is a machinist who took night courses to become a mechanical engineer. I proudly showed him the 80/20 print catalog that I requested and received. He poured cold water; he told me that he doesn't like 80/20. He said that he sees it and Unistrut being overused for machines in manufacturing. He designs welded steel frames instead, which someone else builds.

I am not a mechanical engineer. I took a civil engineering course on statics and a mechanical engineering course on strength of materials when I was an undergraduate student. My only exposure to vibration was in a math course on partial differential equations, which exposed me the complexity of vibration. Through this basic knowledge, I will endeavor to use 80/20 only where it is appropriate.
 
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Thanks.
I had to look up the meaning of "OP". It means original poster.
Ha, yea it can reference the Original Poster, or the Original Post. Quite often its the same difference.
 
I am making progress with replacing the hidden corner connectors in the 80/20 frame with standard anchor fasteners. This is my first project with my Sherline 5400 mill.

I first reduced the length of the two front corner channels from 1.006" long to 0.980" long, using the Sherline insert fly cutter. This will allow the bottom end of the pieces to be flush with the bottom of the frame, while not distorting the steel bar that is attached on top of the front channel.

I cut the first of eight 9/16" dia holes for the anchor connectors, in two steps: 3/8" drill in Jacobs chuck, followed by 9/16" end mill in Beall ER32 collet chuck.

I attached a photo. On the left side, the photo shows a fly-cut corner channel with an original hidden corner connector attached (and to be replaced). To the right are the front channel with a 9/16" dia hole, and a standard anchor fastener.10-series 8020 hidden-corner connector and anchor-fastener.jpg
 
I don't think making the headstock was even much of a challenge for this guy, he is always making kind of wild stuff. I found the post where he showed the headstock, the spindle bore is 0.937". His current project is reverse engineering and building a Deckel tool and cutter grinder.

Honestly I think some of these guys use a Sherline just to be ornery because people said you can't do that kind of work on a mini-lathe.

View attachment 329521


Aaron,

Got a link to where that pic can be found? I'd love to read about that project. I recently replaced one of my lathe headstocks with the 9/16th bore and find it very much handier. Thanks.


Cat
 
To my 80/20 lathe base, I ended up using two connectors for every bar-to-bar connection: an internal anchor fastener, plus some kind of external fastener. The external fasteners consist of 2-hole flat plates (4107-Black) at the rear, 2-hole gusseted inside corner brackets (4132-Black) at the front, and the rear steel plate using screws. I found that the internal anchor fastener was not strong against being twisted, and an external fastener was a helpful aid in getting the connections square and the bars in one plane.

Here is a photo showing the three kinds of external fasteners that used.
DSCF5736.JPG


I also replaced the feet (standard floor glide 1/4-20 x 1.070" 2203) with threaded rubber bumpers from McMaster-Carr (https://www.mcmaster.com/93115K211/). The original feet that I installed slid too easily on my table.

I have found that I need to include 0.007-0.008 inch of shims at the right, front corner of the lathe mount to eliminate twist in the bed.
 
I also made the same kind of base for my Sherline 5400 mill.
DSCF5741.JPG
With the mill base, I included three feet instead of four. One foot is at the front, two feet are at the rear.
 
I also made the same kind of base for my Sherline 5400 mill.

At this moment I'm designing a 80/20 shelf for a new bag sealer .
 
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