Mill: Screwless Vise Clamps

One of the downside to a screwless vise is having to make clamps to hold it to the table. However, if you have a table clamping kit (which everyone should have), then you can use the smallest clamp with a low profile bolt to clamp the vise in place. This saves some work, but it also distributes the weight well on the table, which keeps any dents or divots from forming.

Clamp in place and tightened down.

Mill: Table Stops

The X2 large table has a slot cut in the front for table stops. To make them I took M6 coupling nuts and milled 5mm on the end down to 6mm wide, then I cut 11mm of the couple nut. This gave me an easy little T-nut to use. I then used M6 Allen bolts with a spacer to mount them on the table.

M6 coupling nut, T-nut, and M6 Allen bolt with spacer.

The table's base has two M4 holes to mount the stop. I milled one from 2.5mm aluminum plate and mounted it up.

I now move the table where I want it, move the stop until it touches, and then I can repeat to about 0.001".

Stop mounted to table base and movable stop mounted on table.

Mill: Head Alignment

My first post about my mill regarded aligning the head to the column. Back then I remove the column from the base so the table wouldn't interfere.

Recently I had to realign the head again, and used a much easier technique to do it. First I remove the support spring from the head so I could extend it above the top of the column. Then I chucked a straight and polish rod using my ER25 chuck. You can use pretty much anything to hold it, but it helps if it's low profile. With the rod extended a little over 4" from the chuck face, and the head could move a total of about 6" from the rod touching the table to the head reaching the top of the column.

I clamped my vise vertically to the table and used it to hold a DTI which indicated the rod. I then used Rolle's Dad's Method (RDM) to check the alignment of the rod. In my case the head was 0.0015" over 4" out of alignment.

In the middle of checking the head alignment.

I then moved the head up past the top of the column until the top two bolts holding the head together were exposed, and loosened them both. I then tightly tapped my motor mount with a rubber mallet to adjust the head. Weirdly, I found tapping it on the right side would rotate the head clockwise. After each adjustment with the hammer I'd check the alignment using RDM. From experience I knew tightening the bolts would rotate the head counter-clockwise about 0.0015" as measured with this setup, so I accounted for that.

Once the alignment was where I wanted it, I again raised the head above the column and in small increments I tightened the two bolts down. You want to get them nice and tight. I think checked the alignment again using RDM. Finally, I carefully lifted up the head until the lower head were just exposed and checked to make sure they were still tight as well, and then checked my alignment once more.

Ultimately, this way was much faster and easier than dismounting the column.

Mill: Bearing Seal

A surprising amount of shavings make it up to the bottom of the mill head. When I was using open bearings, even with a shield in place they became contaminated. Even though I'm using sealed bearings now, I wanted additional protection. So like on the lathe, I made a new bearing cover for the mill which accepted a standard size oil seal.

For a MT3 spindle you want a 40x55x5 oil seal.Since the bearings are sealed, I didn't need the oil seal's inner lip, so I cut it off to reduce friction. The seal could actually have been pressed into the stock plastic bearing cover, but I figured aluminum would be more durable and prevent potential problems in the future.

If you want to run open bearings on the mill you'd pretty much need to do something like this to retain the grease and exclude contaminants. If you have a R8 spindle and upgrade the bearings, this is almost a mandatory upgrade since I've only seen open 7007 AC bearings.

Bearing cover with oil seal installed on the mill.