Jon Anderson wrote:
On 9/23/2010 10:22 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:

A gentle tightening and now its as good as it ever was. Its still an HF
dial, but now there is no mechanical slop in the case and it snaps back
to the same exact spot on the dial every time.

I'm sure more than a few here have been there. More than once.
I sure have... G

Years ago, working with my first CNC mill at a previous job, and
hardly being comfortable and familiar with it, I'd finished one job
and set up for the next, including moving the ram back to it's
original location.

Now, I'm milling one side wall out of the center of some 3/4 x 3/4 x
1/8 aluminum with a 3/8 roughing end mill. Right off the bat, the
damned thing starts losing Y location, and I have to rezero. This
happens repeatedly. Phone call to Wells Index resolve nothing,
everyone is scratching their head. Boss flies tech out, when he
arrives they are in the office talking while I get the machine ready
to demonstrate the problem. And then it hits me... I forgot to tighten
the ram clamp bolts.
I'm not sure I had ever moved a mill ram before, something or someone
distracted me in the middle of it, and I just forgot.

In feeble defense, I am a self taught machinist and this place was
where I learned a lot. Some of it the hard way...


Jon
Lifelong student
School of Hard Knocks
I can sympathise with that, my neighbour popped in the other day
while I was setting up a job and distracted me. I forgot to clamp the
quill on the BP and tighten the drawbar. 2.5" face mill slipped slightly
at one point and the cut didn't cut as deep as I expected when I reached
the indicated depth on the knee dial. I'll have to make a mental note to
check those if I'm interrupted again. I find the quill lock easy to
forget on occasions at the best of times.