QUICK CHANGE TURRET + CUSTOM TOP SLIDE
(JAN 2007....)
I bought an ALGRA QCTP... time to make things more serious...
..CONTINUE SOON
the current lathe topslide is really crap. no one of us can say opposite about sieg top slide. the dovetail is too narrow and there is no way of achieve precision with this.
The only way for me to transform my lathe into a serious professional, stable, strong, massive lathe, is to make a new topslide and bin the old one.
The AGRA tool post (which cost about same as the sieg lathe its self,) cant be installed on the original topslide because the turret will not accept that!!! :)
job starts making the main axle that will hold the turrets...
starting from a 30 mm old bolt I am turning a true 18.00 axle with a 30 * 5 mm (bottom) flange and a M14 * 40 mm internal thread (top side)...
done it....!!! 30mm base, 18.00 body and 17.90 upper body. M14 thread i internal.
second step is to machine the screw that will hold the turret on the previous piece made.., starting this from a scrap 30mm steel rod...
after few quarters I am doing the thread (with the just born threading holder)...
and few minutes after that the machining of the conical body is done
time to start making the new top slide... .... the first step is the round piece that will link cross slide table to topslide base (which must be modified too)...
from a 80mm rusty steel block....a long 55 min cut....
and then one hour of hard turning.... (please give me a 3kw motor !! sieg original one is good to make watch screws only :) )
..and since I don't have yet a working parting off blade and holder... I need to cut the piece back again on the band saw...
and then make a finishing pass on the mill, with the seco octomill, getting high precision parallel and flat surface.....
top slide modification, step one: completed!
turret (QCTP) installed!!!
COOL COOL !!!!!!
now it is time of using the rotary table with indexers to make the 6 head (hexagon) bolt head, same as the algra bolts, so I can use a single wrench to rule the entire algra system!!
done!!!! how cool is the indexer!! ( do not forget how many turns you made with your hands"!!!!!! )
