I've acquired some cast iron bits of a medium size bed mill. The base,
column, and table. Since they are heavy and cast iron I was thinking of
lopping off the dovetails and mounting linear rails on the remaining flats.
The head, and saddle are not present so just throwing it back together is
not an option.

All the pieces are a little big to throw on my Hurco mill table. It can be
done, but its a chore requiring the removal of my vises and my enclosure I
suspect. Probably also have to use my cherry picker to place them on the
table. I could do it, but its not really necessary if I can figure out a
simple way to just whack those dovetails off. The flats that would remain
aren't perfect, but with the use of my granite square and some shim stock I
bet I could mount linear rails pretty darned straight and flat.

I considered laying a piece of metal sheet on the flats and using a Sawzall.
A portable bandsaw a buddy has doesn't have enough throat to do the job. If
I had a big vertical metal cutting bandsaw I might mount the pieces on a
large right angle plate and use that, but such a saw is very far in my
future. Of course there is the hammer method, but cast iron doesn't always
break the way you want. LOL. I don't think I want to use an OA torch for a
couple reasons. Fear of explosions is one since these are used pieces, and
of course warping is another. Also I never cut cast iron with a torch. Not
sure how it would go.

Of course somebody might suggest trying to find a match head and saddle, but
I really want to go with linear rails. In fact I already have them.
Accumulated as new overstock from various sources. Several sets of NSK, a
couple THK and even some HiWin. Bearings and rails. I've got three small
CNC mills that do a pretty good job for high speed milling aluminum, but I
really need a bigger machine, and I don't want to mount a companion or worse
completely convert the Hurco to high speed. Its fine the way it is for
heavy milling. Two of my small machines have all linear rail axis. The
third is dovetail constructed, and its ok, but the other two are better.

I figured by using these cast iron pieces I already have an easily trammable
column and base. And it should be heavy enough for the light high speed
milling I want to do with it. It will be heavier than my smaller machines
for certain. I just need to remove those pesky dovetails so the bearings
have room to go on. Then figure out how to build my saddle. The head will
be pretty much dead easy... after I get those stupid dovetails out of the
way.

I am hoping for some ideas I hadn't thought of, and I just can't wait for
the tangents some folks will go off on. LOL.

On Tue, 13 Jun 2017 13:23:19 -0700
"Bob La Londe" wrote:

snip
I am hoping for some ideas I hadn't thought of, and I just can't wait for
the tangents some folks will go off on. LOL.

And he steps up to the plate with a whacky idea

I'm not picturing the dimensions well... so a couple ideas. You can get
guides for 4.5 inch angle grinders, like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-18DC-5E...dp/B001GMAQ8C/

Use a thin cut-off wheel. Or an old Skil saw your not fond of with
an abrasive blade. Might be able to use the rip guide for it too?

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message news
On Tue, 13 Jun 2017 13:23:19 -0700
"Bob La Londe" wrote:

snip
I am hoping for some ideas I hadn't thought of, and I just can't wait for
the tangents some folks will go off on. LOL.

And he steps up to the plate with a whacky idea

I'm not picturing the dimensions well... so a couple ideas. You can get
guides for 4.5 inch angle grinders, like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-18DC-5E...dp/B001GMAQ8C/

Use a thin cut-off wheel. Or an old Skil saw your not fond of with
an abrasive blade. Might be able to use the rip guide for it too?

**************

Used to have an old Black & Decker circular saw I used for that stuff for
years. I made more roof top satellite dish mounts out of scrap metal with
that thing than I can count. I don't think it ever did die. I think it
just walked off on a jobsite one day. I'm pretty sure even a 7-1/4 abrasive
blade won't work on the base, but it might reach on the column and table.
If only I had an old *14 inch* Skil saw I'm not fond of with an abrasive
blade. LOL.

I'm down to just two circular saws now. A Ryobi that's mounted on a panel
cutting guide, and a Skil worm drive. Sadly I don't want to blow grit and
sparks through either one. Might have to go see if I can find one of those
29.95 dollar Black & Decker saws we used get at K-Mart. LOL. It might do
part of the job.

On 06/13/2017 04:36 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
Snip
I'm down to just two circular saws now. A Ryobi that's mounted on a
panel cutting guide, and a Skil worm drive. Sadly I don't want to blow
grit and sparks through either one. Might have to go see if I can find
one of those 29.95 dollar Black & Decker saws we used get at K-Mart.
LOL. It might do part of the job.

This One Job use sounds like a trip to Horrible Freight. If the saw
survives, cool, if not, Oh Well...

On Tue, 13 Jun 2017 16:36:18 -0700
"Bob La Londe" wrote:

snip
Used to have an old Black & Decker circular saw I used for that stuff for
years. I made more roof top satellite dish mounts out of scrap metal with
that thing than I can count. I don't think it ever did die. I think it
just walked off on a jobsite one day. I'm pretty sure even a 7-1/4 abrasive
blade won't work on the base, but it might reach on the column and table.
If only I had an old *14 inch* Skil saw I'm not fond of with an abrasive
blade. LOL.

My beater is a middle of the line old Craftsman I pulled from the
neighbors garbage. Needed a new cord and some rust cleanup. Put a
scrounged ~20ft cord on and probably have gotten more use out of it than
the good saw

Harbor Freight has a deep throat portaband now. You can get it for $100
with a coupon:

https://www.harborfreight.com/10-Amp...Kit-63444.html

They have several cheapo Skil saws too. I didn't spot any coupons
for them just now but it always pays to check. At least use a 20%
off if it isn't disqualified in the fine print:

http://www.hfqpdb.com/harborfreightcoupons

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

On Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 7:36:22 PM UTC-4, Bob La Londe wrote:

Used to have an old Black & Decker circular saw I used for that stuff for
years. I made more roof top satellite dish mounts out of scrap metal with
that thing than I can count. I don't think it ever did die. I think it
just walked off on a jobsite one day. I'm pretty sure even a 7-1/4 abrasive
blade won't work on the base, but it might reach on the column and table.
If only I had an old *14 inch* Skil saw I'm not fond of with an abrasive
blade. LOL.

I'm down to just two circular saws now. A Ryobi that's mounted on a panel
cutting guide, and a Skil worm drive. Sadly I don't want to blow grit and
sparks through either one. Might have to go see if I can find one of those
29.95 dollar Black & Decker saws we used get at K-Mart. LOL. It might do
part of the job.

There are some circular saw blades made for cutting metal. They have carbide teeth, but with somewhat different angles on the teeth. There was some posts about the blades back quite a while ago. May have been in SEJW. As I remember worm drive saws were recommended. Harbor Freight has a metal cutting blade for $20. I have not used one.

Dan

On Thu, 15 Jun 2017 17:53:57 -0700 (PDT)
" wrote:

snip
There are some circular saw blades made for cutting metal.
They have carbide teeth, but with somewhat different angles
on the teeth. There was some posts about the blades back
quite a while ago. May have been in SEJW. As I remember
worm drive saws were recommended. Harbor Freight has a
metal cutting blade for $20. I have not used one.

I wasn't sure if or how well those work on cast iron. So I didn't
mention them. Harbor Freight was selling a Skil type saw made for metal
that even came with a blade. I looked for it the other day but it seems
they don't carry it anymore. It was better shielded around the motor.

Cast iron is funny stuff. I've used grinders and cut-off blades on it
okay...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message news Harbor Freight was selling a Skil type saw made for metal
that even came with a blade.

*** I looked for it the other day but it seems
they don't carry it anymore. ***

Yeah, that's a recurring refrain these days. As much as we complained about
Harbor Freight back in the day it was a much better resources when the old
man was running the company. I remember the thick catalogs we used to get
in the mail with super thin paper. THEY HAD STUFF. Now they are just
having sale after sale on the same old sh*t. I used to look forward to the
sale fliers in the mail, but now I just pitch them without even looking.

On Friday, June 16, 2017 at 12:22:36 PM UTC-4, Bob La Londe wrote:
"Leon Fisk" wrote in message news Harbor Freight was selling a Skil type saw made for metal
that even came with a blade.

*** I looked for it the other day but it seems
they don't carry it anymore. ***

Yeah, that's a recurring refrain these days. As much as we complained about
Harbor Freight back in the day it was a much better resources when the old
man was running the company. I remember the thick catalogs we used to get
in the mail with super thin paper. THEY HAD STUFF. Now they are just
having sale after sale on the same old sh*t. I used to look forward to the
sale fliers in the mail, but now I just pitch them without even looking.

Two things:
1) Home Depot has a wide variety of diamond metal-cutting circular blades - a wide range of sizes and prices, too.

2) A LONG time ago, it was called Harbor Freight Salvage - they bought abandoned containers and sold the contents. Interesting mix of stuff.

3) OK, a baker's couple: Of the discontinued things, I'm most ****ed about the little carbide tool grinder they used to have. It wasn't great, but it didn't totally suck, either. By the time I was ready to buy it, it was gone.

On Wed, 14 Jun 2017 09:28:59 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:



"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
Is this close enough to what you need? http://bigfootsaws.com/

****** That’s a pretty cool adapter. ******

The timberframers love them, I hear.





--
Newman's First Law:
It is useless to put on your brakes when you're upside down.
--Paul Newman