Slowly getting back into the workshop.

Well, no progress on the CNC but It was finally warm enough to go out and get some stuff done. I finally installed the cam lock for my lathe tail stock. I have had the box sitting here for a month but it was just too cold out in the garage. People that live up in the land of ice and snow will laugh at the temperature but when you live in what is basically the tropics, a freezing temperature just makes it miserable when you are accustomed to lows in range of 75F.

Not mine. Get yours here

It was a pain to get it turned the right way so it would lock on the ways. The alignment is different with the lock rings on so it was a matter of take it off, test, take it off, test. I finally got smart and punched a mark on the body so I could tell one side from the other. I still may need to shim it a bit with another washer. This was one of the most aggravating things about  my lathe. Having to stop and get in with a wrench to adjust the tail stock was a pain. There was really not much room so it meant turning 1/6 a revolution at a time to turn the nut.

I will go out in a bit to work on putting the other things on. I also picked up a lock for the saddle and a stop for they way. Those are quick and easy and just bolt into holes that are already tapped.  The main reason for all this is that I have also got a milling attachment for the lathe and I need to be able to lock down the saddle while milling.

This is really not related to the CNC project because I am forcing myself to use all off the shelf hardware for my CNC router. The whole process is like the chicken and the egg. It would be really easy to build myself a CNC machine using the machine shop I have access to at work. I could also just order one of the kits and bolt it together. The parts are readily available. CNC-Router Parts  and Fine Line Automation have some nice components that I could just buy and bolt together. I have actually bought some stuff from them for another project I am playing with. That is something different. With this project, I am just working on testing out my own ideas for building something different. A big part of it is that I don't want to use things that are not commonly available. The only things that I am using that are not regular hardware store fare are the electronics and the #25 chain. The same thing could be done with bicycle chain but I got such a cheap price on the chain that I cannot pass it up. I picked it up from Surplus Center. 60 cents a foot was quite an incentive.

There are some projects that are cool but totally unreasonable for people to reproduce. I look at projects that go like: Well, just take the leftover parts that are from 4 or 5 old CNC machines and then say, "Wow, I made a CNC machine!"

One the other end of the spectrum, you have projects like the Global Village Construction Set. The components they make are cool but completely unrealistic. Yes, if you have a fully equipped machine shop and welding equipment, you can make just about anything. What a surprise.

The OpenSourceMachine is a much more reasonable project. It is geared to making a machine shop from scrap that is really available. They are making a lathe, milling machine, and several other machines using things like engine blocks. This kind of bootstrap operation will do much more to help people make things starting from scratch.