Mounting a Sherline 4400 Lathe on 80/20

You might want to move or cover your power strip.
In my inexperience regarding metal swarf + power strip, I enjoyed a couple instances of fireworks.
 
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Well I think I am “done” with my lathe stand. Took way longer than I expected but I learned a lot. The mill stand needs steel plate and then it should be about “done”.

If I had to do another I might do a few small things differently but generally I am happy with it. Thanks to Karl for his idea and support
It's interesting for me to see what you did. Thanks for the photos.

I see that your steel plates are deeper on your lathe base, perhaps 4 inches instead of the 2 inches on mine. I do find that I like to keep toolholders on the rear plate. Perhaps I will replace my rear plate with a deeper one

I have used the front plate for an indicator arm with magetic base, but not a lot. Mostly, it's been a little table during tool changes.

I recently realized a new another use of the steel plates: flexible work lights that have a magetic base.

It appears that you went with four feet, instead of three feet that I changed my lathe base to. I like three feet conceptually and practically, for leveling. I might make a three-feet base for a digital weight scale that I use in my kitchen; the scale has four wobbly feet. I also might make a three-feet base for a surface plate.
 
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Finished the Mill, time to start to actually learn these tools now
My first uses of my Sherline mill was to drill and countersink the holes in the steel plates. Later, I used the mill to bore 9/16-inch diameter holes at the ends of rails when I changed to anchor fasteners, and to mill the ends of rails after I roughly cut them to length using a hacksaw. 8020.net supplies rails in whole-inch lengths, but I needed some rails that were not whole-inch lengths, for the mill base.
 
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It's interesting for me to see what you did. Thanks for the photos.

I see that your steel plates are deeper on your lathe base, perhaps 4 inches instead of the 2 inches on mine. I do find that I like to keep toolholders on the rear plate. Perhaps I will replace my rear plate with a deeper one

I have used the front plate for an indicator arm with magetic base, but not a lot. Mostly, it's been a little table during tool changes.

I recently realized a new another use of the steel plates: flexible work lights that have a magetic base.

It appears that you went with four feet, instead of three feet that I changed my lathe base to. I like three feet conceptually and practically, for leveling. I might make a three-feet base for a digital weight scale that I use in my kitchen; the scale has four wobbly feet. I also might make a three-feet base for a surface plate.

I did go deeper on the plate and I agree, I like both keeping tools on there and the front apron as a small table.

You are correct I went with four feet but I started with three; unfortunately I am not sure I had them in the right place so it was a bit unstable. I went back to four and think for the time being I will try this out. I will need to pull them both apart for one more (famous last words) time to add corner gussets in and may try another shot at three feet.
 
My first uses of my Sherline mill was to drill and countersink the holes in the steel plates. Later, I used the mill to bore 5/8-inch diameter holes at the ends of rails when I changed to anchor fasteners, and to mill the ends of rails after I roughly cut them to length using a hacksaw. 8020.net supplies rails in whole-inch lengths, but I needed some rails that were not whole-inch lengths, for the mill base.

I did use the mill to straighten out the steel plate and have made a few scribblers with the lathe although that was before I had the stand so it was quite wobbly.

I do want to say Thank You again for the idea, I am quite happy with how they came out and find them both visually appealing and they appear to be useful stands. I am going to design a stand for a small table sized bandsaw that I can store on a shelf but still have a stable platform next.

Generally these were really great stands to begin the machining journey with and I wouldn’t have thought to do it without your inspiration. Appreciate it.

Kevin
 
Here is a description of mounting a Sherline lathe and a mill together on 80/20, to extend the length capacity of the lathe.
I needed to turn down the OD of a short section near one end of three spiral-wound membrane modules, to a precise diameter. The modules are 42 inches long and approximately 2.5-inches in diameter. My employer does not have a lathe.
I used my Sherline 4400 lathe with Sherline 12950 Headstock Riser Block in combination with my Sherline 5400 mill, with the lathe and mill mounted on the same two four-feet-long 80/20 rails. I removed the tailstock from the lathe, and mounted the Sherline 3702 Adjustable Right-Hand Tailstock on the mill. To get the spindle of the lathe and the mill tailstock to be at approximately the same height, I included two 1/4-inch bars between the lathe and the 80/20 rails. Here is a photograph of the result:
DSCF6423 Sherline lathe and mill mounted together.jpg
I set the height of the adjustable tailstock using a tube mounted in a vise on the headstock and on a bullnose center on tailstock, and a level. I set the horizontal alignment of the tailstock by turning the y-axis handwheel on the mill until there was no more taper when I turned down the section on one of the membrane modules.
The material of the section that I turned down was epoxy. I used an HSS cutting tool with zero rake angles and 0.016-inch radius. I set the headstock spindle speed to 750 RPM. I turned the z-axis handhwheel on the lathe at 1 revolution per second, to give 0.004-inch/spindle revolution feed rate. The membrane modules weighed 5.7 lbs each. The lathe did OK.
 
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I estimate that for my temporary combination base for lathe and mill, the maximum length workpiece that be turned is 51 inches.
To change the distance between the lathe and the mill, it's easier to slide the lathe on the rails than it is to move the mill. One need only loosen the four mounting screws of the lathe.
I centered the depth of the mill over the two rails. The OD of the 2.5-inch membrane modules was close to the column. To allow the large diameter work pieces to be turned, it would have been better to mount the mill more toward the rear.
 
I estimate that for my temporary combination base for lathe and mill, the maximum length workpiece that be turned is 51 inches.
To change the distance between the lathe and the mill, it's easier to slide the lathe on the rails than it is to move the mill. One need only loosen the four mounting screws of the lathe.
I centered the depth of the mill over the two rails. The OD of the 2.5-inch membrane modules was close to the column. To allow the large diameter work pieces to be turned, it would have been better to mount the mill more toward the rear.

I've seen a lot of unconventional mods made to Sherline and Taig lathes, but other than some resemblance to the pool cue lathe attachment Sherline sells this is definitely one of the odder adaptions that I've seen.

What are you turning, and what kind of accuracy are you requiring of this set up?

Are you using a steady rest with it, or other means to support such long pieces?
 
I've seen a lot of unconventional mods made to Sherline and Taig lathes, but other than some resemblance to the pool cue lathe attachment Sherline sells this is definitely one of the odder adaptions that I've seen.

What are you turning, and what kind of accuracy are you requiring of this set up?

Are you using a steady rest with it, or other means to support such long pieces?
I am amused by "definitely one of the odder adaptions that I've seen." It's a point of pride for me.

Here is a photo showing one of the three spiral-wound membrane modules that I turned:
DSCF6424 2.5-inch module on lathe.jpg
I turned down the epoxy that I cast between the two orange o-rings (forward of the blue tape). I turned the epoxy down to 2.204-inch diameter. In the meantime, I had the stainless-steel seal carrier in my oven at 400°F. The barrel of the seal carrier has 2.200 inch ID, but at 400°F the ID is 2.206 inches. I slipped the hot seal carrier over the epoxy. The seal carrier shrank onto the epoxy as it cooled.
Generally, seal carriers are potted onto membrane modules, using epoxy. In this case, the diametrical clearance between the seal carrier and the module OD was only 0.040 inch -- making potting difficult.
Turning down the epoxy did not require a steady rest. The steel core tube of the module was sufficiently stiff.
 
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