Tool Post Grinder - Extreme DIY?

[royesses]

Takes 2 right? Sounds obvious but just to be sure.

Yes, sorry. It takes 2 of them. There is a nut on the shaft, remove it then pull out the bearings and shaft. Very simple. Tighten the nut to remove play but not tight enough to lock up the spindle. It made a large difference on mine.

 

[Uguessedit]

What you say is most asuredly true from your point of view. I'm thinking very few of us here are concerned with making big bucks machining. Yes, many of us here like to spend time keeping are machines in good condition, and yeah, some of us are sentimentally attached to them. There, I said it, I love my lathe & mill. My whole shop for that matter. Man, this is really embarrassing. There is more to life than money Weedhopper. Mike

There is “Absolutely” more to life than money. Family, wife, kids..., Fortunately my hobby funds itself. I started with a small hand crank mill and now I have a full dream shop that is growing, making my own tooling, and what not. It wasn’t even my intention initially. I enjoy every aspect in machining and the proud moments of success. That first time I saw my machines getting dirty I was actually quite sad. It took less than a week to look 2 months old. That is when I decided to keep it clean regularly using the dep citrus orange cleaner found at major lumbar yards. Then of course you have flood coolant which isn’t going to help the dirt and grease accumulation. I would think many get into hobby machining for much the same reason as myself. They not only enjoy making parts but perhaps they had a few things in their heads they wanted to make and realized having a machine would save them the money in doing it themselves. We all had to justify the initial purchase at some point. Now for myself I’m looking for that last inch of floor space to ad something else that’s really cool even if used twice a year, perhaps a tool post grinder ;-). If I never had to buy another product from a manufacturer I would be forever grateful. Obviously not realistic but a worthy goal. The pride when looking down at that precision part knowing I made it better. Let the grinding begin that 4140ph is going to be perfect to the thousandths. That tolerance point between press fit and barely sliding over. There is a need for versatility if you want to produce high quality products for yourself (pride in what we do), or whether you want to do both and retail them some place for that dream of inventing and sharing. I’ve not known too many hobby machinists offering up their services for free to others so I suspect either they won’t at all, or they want compensation for their equipments wear and tear, along with their personal learned expertise. Having a tool post grinder just for those occasional tasks or simply to dial in that new chuck down to .0001 is worth every bit of cleaning it up afterward. I certainly wouldn’t suggest leaving it there and building up the thickest proud pile of dirty grease. Of course we keep it clean but don’t leave a tool post grinder out of the equation of practicality because your worried about a little grinding dust. Machine some cast iron and you will see the worst grainy dust you can imagine. Sticks everywhere and not even fun to clean it up. Start with a shop vac, compressed air, and then blue towels with citrus cleaner. I promise your machine will look new again if you take the standard steps in caring for it despite what you use it for. My entire point is your machinery should be used and not a decorative piece to show off to family on the holidays. If that’s the more to life than money than I think individual perspective is towards ones self and the vanity of their personal belongings. I would sure hope that family life would come before the young child’s handle bar on their bike catching the powder coating or bending the engagement handle. Heck get that kiddo out and learning how to make some foot pegs for culdesac bicycle free style. Daddy’s pride and joy could turn that young child to a tool post grinding precision wizard some day who pursues an Engineering degree because he has full understanding of the versatility of machinery use and loves it as much as Dad. Don’t forget to teach him how to clean up after himself. Cheers... ;-)

 

[whitmore]

I have a couple of large sheets of silicone coated baking liners that get put over ways etc. (Wife got a nice roll of it from somewhere, ...Tried the shop towels but did not seem to work as well.

Instead of shop towels, to pick up dust consider tack cloths (basically, sticky coated cheesecloth) from the paint supplies aisle.
I haven't tried it, but seems like a good idea.

Off-the-wall, if you use the pink stones (corundum/Al2O3/ruby) you can check for abrasive dust with a UV lamp while cleaning up.