It came out well enough. I saw the drawing on the yahoo site and was flummoxed as to how it fitted.

Very much admire your work on the anti-backlash nut Mark. Good idea and great execution!

Thanks for the drawings and photo, they made things much clearer.

(I have a Victoria H0 btw)

Regards,

IanT

Hallo Mark,

The H0 is a very solid bit of kit but even so (at 5ft) one of the smaller horizontal mills around (of the non-bench mounting kind that is). I do have the vertical head and the knee can be heavy but I just take it slow & easy. I find a bigger problem is making very fine adjustments to cutter height, as it's not exactly sensitive (undoubtedly mine also has some wear) and of course you can't drill as there is no quill. However, I have other (smaller) machines, so in the past I've usually been able to work around any problems in practice, even though it can involve more effort on secondary work setting. As this doesn't happen very often, it's not been a problem for me, whereas the large table and heavy build is often a very useful asset to have.

I have no DRO's fitted but I have just acquired a small 100mm Vertical Linear Digital Scale (guess from where & how?). I'm thinking of using it as a 'fitting' to help me finesse a bit more accuracy in setting up any finishing cuts. I haven't worked out the detail yet but I think it will be a helpful thing to have and I hope to make it easy/quick to fit (& remove). This will also make it portable and useable on my other machines.

The HO has a powered table (as standard) and I do use it, although it can sometimes seem a tad fast on some settings/cuts. I still use hand feed for work where I need more 'feel' for the cut. The powered table is very useful for long steady (multiple) cuts though. My Victoria is very similar to the one at the bottom of this page on "Lathes" ,and my 'Vikky' is probably also long overdue a good clean-up & repaint.

**LINK**

Regards,

IanT

No Bazyle, that's never occurred to me.

I did think about some form of counter-springing/weights briefly but it never even reached the "Tuit" list. It got bogged down at the "Pondering" stage. Any reference material on this idea you can point me at?

Regards,

IanT

Ian, I don't know if it has been done anywhere. It just occurred to me when reading about someone cutting big gears aned needing to wind up and down hundreds of times. I suppose professionals just get a machine with all powered like the bigger Elliots eg U2.

I think some smaller modern mills have been modified with a gas spring to lift the moveable head but that is lighter.

Know what you mean about the trip hazards. Just come in from cleaning a less pristine version of the handle in your first photo which must have been a common part. If you ever want to take it apart there really are hidden grub screws 3/4 in long holding in the arms – one hole not tapped in far enough, one not tightened enough anyway,, and the thrird one has raised burrs so I can't unscrew the rod.