New to me Ferro mill (Taiwanese Bridgeport clone)

Thanks very much for the links. You are right, the screw is 32 mm (1.259") and the thread is not metric trapezoidal, it is Acme 5 treads per inch. Weird combination. I guess the manufacturer wanted .200" per revolution but still used metric sized rod to make the screws. The nuts listed by Supra are quite close in dimension to the ones from my machine. Mine are 40 mm in diameter for the entire length of the small diameter, not stepped like the one Supra lists. I have already received the nuts I ordered from Roton Industries and machined them to fit. I'll post some pictures later. The Y axis screw was very worn so I will replace it with 1.25" Acme rod (easy to find locally) and the nuts from Roton will work perfectly for that. Since the X axis feed screw is OK I think I will order some nuts from Supra for the X axis. The customer service with Roton was first rate. They included the customs declaration form with the shipment identifying the parts as made in the USA so there was no duty charged by customs and they arrived one week after I ordered them. McMaster Carr just blew me off when I tried to order from them. I got an email saying my order had been cancelled because the export regulations were too complicated.
 
I machined the nuts I got from Roton Industries to fit the machine. They are a very precise fit on the thread shaft I bought locally (1.25" acme left hand thread). The OD of the new nuts was a little smaller then the originals but has no effect on how the nuts fit or adjust. The pic show the original nut and the before and after state of the new nut.

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Here are some pics of the machine work on the cross slide screw to fit the machine.

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I made the threaded part 1/4" longer in case I ever decide to install a power feed for the Y axis.

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Polishing the threads.

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New bearings

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It fits!

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The handle turns super smoothly and I have adjusted the nuts to provide .004" backlash. I'm now waiting for the new nuts from Supra for the X axis screw.

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I have been working on this mill to get it set up with all the options I want. I still have to decide if I'm going to sell my PM932 so I'm going to use the Ferro mill for a while before I make up my mind. Anyway, here are some pics of the repairs made and options installed.

The X axis feed rod nuts I got from Supra machine (thanks again chevydyl) were almost a perfect fit with only minor mods needed to installe them. Now the X axis has only .006" backlash and is smooth as can be.

The screw was broken off in the power down feed handle so I carefully drilled a hole in the center of it. Since I didn't have a small enough easy out I just tapped a very small Robertson screwdriver bit into the screw and it backed out easily. I cleaned up the threads with a 4mm tap and made a new handle.

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I bought a 4" cast aluminum hand wheel locally and bored the center hole to 1/2" to fit the manual downfeed shaft. I drilled a holed and installed a 1/8" roll pin to fit the drive hole in the hub on the shaft.

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The original drawbar was in bad shape so I made a new one from 7/16" CRS and welded a 1/2" deep nut onto it. I made up and new extension hub with a centering bushing machined on the end of it. The new draw bar is 2 piece and I happy with it.

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I removed the face plate from the VFD and mounted it in the door of my electrical box and also mounted all the switches there for easy access. I had already ordered a FC10P cable off ebay to allow the display to be mounted remotely.

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I ordered a Sinpo 3 axis DRO on ebay and installed it. Quite a bit of finicky work to get all the scales aligned perfectly, it took me 2 days to get the install done and scales aligned to my satisfaction.

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I installed a rubber sheet way cover system for the horizontal way behind the table and the vertical knee way. Then an accordion style for the way in front of the table.

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After all those upgrades I used the machine today for the first time for a couple of jobs and so far I'm impressed. Having the extra mass compared to my PM932 makes quite a difference in the feel of the work when making deep milling cuts in steel. Cuts that would make the PM932 shake and protest don't bother the bigger mill one bit, it plows through with no vibration or shuddering.

It's not pretty but it seems to work great.
 
I checked the tram on my Ferro mill today. I have been using it for about 4 months now and wanted to check and see if anything has moved. I told a buddy of mine that when I assembled the machine and checked the tram in June it was out less than .001" in a 9.5 inch 360 degree circle. He said bull-s**t, no 30 year old machine as neglected as that one would be that straight. Today I took a video of the tram check. No adjustments have been made since June and the only thing I did to prepare was to set knee height correct for the indicator I used and tighten the knee gib lock handles. The indicator is mounted to an arbor in the spindle and the machine was put in neutral to allow the spindle to turn easily.
Sorry for the crappy camera work but the result is pretty clear in the video. My buddy now owes me a case of cold ones!


John
 
Nice, I'm glad to see all the upgrades and fixes, I recently converted to cnc, there's a build thread on the cnc In the home shop subforum
 
Looks good John, nice job on the process you used to rebuild the mill..
 
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