Non tilting; tilting head…..tilt

[ShentParticipant @shent]

That's a grim thought but hopefully not the case, weiss have just emailed me back telling me to make sure all 4 bolts are loosened to rotate the head.

[Stuart Smith 5Participant @stuartsmith5]

I think it will have jammed, but shouldn't have caused any damage. I don't think you need to rotate the head to remove it, but you will need to support the weight before removing the nuts/bolts. Probably just need to make some wooden vee blocks as you said, lower it onto them and when the weight is taken on them, it will probably be free then. You will then be able to remove the nuts/bolt and wing the table forward with the head supported on the blocks.

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Success, it came off easily, not sure if it moves freely when attached but will reinstall when the column is lying flat to see if there are any problems. Managed to dismantle the rest to get it in the shed so i'm very happy. The column was the heaviest thing and the gas strut was a pain to get off. Couldn't get the y axis off the machine, gib is jammed so will have a look at that later on or tomorrow. Couple of pictures below and have uploaded a few more of my dismantling process to an album in case anyone wants to have a look at the guts of the machine. If anyone wants any detailed pics let me know and i'll do my best.

Thanks for all the help everyone

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Interesting bit of 'Chinese' engineering in your 1st image above, where the bolts and washers bear on the cast in raided letters rather than a flat surface. Might be worth fettling that whilst it's apart. could make the clamping / rotating / re-fitting a bit smoother.

John

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Good point John, will have a look to see how they fit back on and file down the high spots, nice tip thanks.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Shent on 18/12/2019 09:19:48:

weiss have just emailed me back telling me to make sure all 4 bolts are loosened to rotate the head.

If it were me, I would loosen the pivot bolt then run it back by hand until it just contacts. Then loosen the other 3 nuts 1/4 – 1/2 turn.

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

Looks like Grey got it right. The top right tee bolt looks like it is pulled up into the hole for fitting and removing the tee bolts. This will prevent the head rotating until it is pushed back into the slot.

Martin C

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Nice spot martin, i completely missed that but the angle that the head rotated to would line up perfectly with the tee bolt entry gap and explains why it would only move a few degrees each way. I have just got to make sure that doesn't happen again when i re-assemble. I'll tighten all the bolts up tight whilst its supported then just loosen the 3 perimeter bolts by 1/4 – 1/2 turn like Bandersnatch said and take it from there. I'll leave the alignment pin on the side of the head out until i'm back upto vertical.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Looks like you're winning at last, at least the bits are not so heavy to get into place.

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Yes they aren't too bad weight wise Mart, heavier than I would like and the column took me by suprise when i undid all the bolts and a the gas ram nearly knocked me over but getting there. I can only see 2 issues that are going to cause me some real trouble. Re- attaching the gas ram as the thing is really strong, I couldn't move it when I tried earlier and getting the y axis off as the gib is really stuck in there.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

It's a taper gib so only comes out one way.

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Thanks Jason, There's not a general standard for which way it comes out is there?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Look closely at the ends, one will be larger than the other. Big end pulls out though you should be able to slide the whole thing off with key in place. leadscrew nut probably needs removing from underneath.

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Thanks Jason, Y axis lead nut has been removed, could see that it was probably going to hit. will have a look at the 2 ends though. I bet i've tried to get it out the wrong way, place your bets guys and gals. lol

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Well it's took 5 days to get to this point. Dismantling, making a bench, bit of wiring, cleaning, oiling, and reassembling but I got there in the end so thank you all for the guidance along the way. Tramming starts tomorrow.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Great news, congratulations, you've got your Christmas present early.

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Thanks Mart, yeah really glad I got the bulk work done before the chaos of xmas.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

HI, Shent.

I've been worried about tram on my VM32L for a little while (I have other posts on this, though not expressed as such).

The first inkling was when I used a coax indicator to find a centre, but the drill (or in one case a boring head) was clearly off-centre. I spent quite some time trying to think of a mechanism for this, before I realised that this could happen if the tram was (well) out and the coax indicator and cutter stick out from the spindle were significantly different.

I had a look at this last night and my use of a micron indicator turned out to be entirely optimistic with the error being of the order of 1.5mm over 200mm!

I took at the head at that point and the indicated angle is around 1 degree.

This surprised me because I was reasonably sure that I'd checked tram early on and ti seemed OK. Mind you see the recent posts on Cognitive Ability/Dysfunction…

Here's the thing. I've loosened the 3 bolts which lock the head and pulled out the lock and the thing will NOT shift. Makes me wonder how it moved after the hypothetical correct tram in the early days.

I think that the next thing to do is to loosen the central bolt but it looks pretty solid at the moment so more like a spanner and a tap with a dead hammer to move it.

Before I do that I wanted to ask if there is anything else I should look to on this, other than making sure that the head doesn't fall over in the process.

Also, thanks to Jason (I think) for posting links to useful manuals for this and related machines. The UK ones are pretty poor.

Not going to happen tonight by the way as I've started on the red wine and have a rule about powered or heavy machinery and alcohol…

Thanks

Iain

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Hi Iain, unfortunately when the head is rotated the bolt will always fall into the top access point. This happened to me each time I rotated. The last time I put the head on though I tightened all of the other bolts up so I could just about move the thing, left the bolt that would normally slip into the channel loose and just guided it away from the slot as I rotated. I would suggest doing exactly this so tighten all the other bolts up tightish, slack pre the bolt closest to 12 o clock and see if you can bring it back into the rotation channel…..horrible explanation. Also make sure the pin on the side is pulled out otherwise you're not moving it anywhere.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

HI, Shent.

I'm actually not looking to rotate the head (by more than 1 degree, anyway).

Not sure what you mean by the various bolts. There's a centre bolt and 3 at 120 degrees with one at the bottom. I've loosened the (3) outside bolts and can't move anything. I'm wondering if I need to unlock the centre bolt though Jason's manual doesn't say so.

Iain

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Sorry Iain, read it wrong, short answer is yes, you need to undo the centre bolt, loosen a little then try rotating, loosen a little more if no movement and so on. Don't loosen it too much though as you'll put too much strain on the bolts.

[ShentParticipant @shent]

Also make you pull the pin out on the side of the headstock as it wont move anywhere

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

My LUX mill has three bolts to rotate the head but no locating pin, just a scale.

[ShentParticipant @shent]

I did look at the lux mill when I was shopping around, looked good but not sure if they are made by the same company as when I spoke with Weiss; they only mentioned Amadeal as their UK distributor.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Thanks, all.

I loosened things up and have got a reasonable tram. I had some challenges to start with with wandering values, but found that this was just the mount wasn't tight enough.

I can't quite believe it but I appear to have got the spindle square to with 0.01mm over a span of 220mm.

Some of the problems I raised about alignment in a previous post appear to be resolved. When I centre with my coaxial centre and then switch to a chuck, the drill is spot on the centre.

Iain

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