This little project was an attempt to fix two shortcomings of the excellent new ER16 spindle that Taig offers. While the ER16 spindle allows a wide range of tooling to be used with the Taig Milling Machine there is no easy way to set the tool's depth when multiple tools are to be used in a CNC program. The other shortcoming is that the ER16 spindle requires the use of two wrenches to tighten, while holding the tool in the collet, so that when loosening or tightening there is a danger the tool will drop down, onto the part, possibly breaking the tool. With those two problems in mind I made the following depth stop.
The stop requires that you drill and tap the end of the pulley 7/16"-20, as shown. The magnet I used was a little long, and you may want to omit the magnet all together if you are milling steels enough to be irritated by the magnetism of the tool that may occur. The stop body is turned to a loose fit in the spindle bore. I found mine was .405, but I urge you to confirm that on your spindle, you can always use the spindle as a gage while you turn to the final diameter. Nothing is really critical, and tolerances can be loose.
I haven't used it much yet (just got it finished today) so I'll update this if I find that it has flaws or added benefits...
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Drilling the Pulley for the 7/16"-20 tap. Try and keep this concentric. |
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Tapping the pulley manually using the lathe to align the tap. |
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The tapped pulley. |
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Putting a 7/16"-20 thread on the bushing that screws into the pulley, manually using the Taig die holder. |
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Tapping the bushing 1/4"-20, manually using the lathe to align the tap. |
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Drilling the stop body. |
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Tapping the stop body, manually. |
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Turning the stop body to .405 |
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The stop body is turned around, a radius filed and a hole drilled for a press fit on the magnet - in my case it was some weird size that required a #14 drill... |
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The finished stop body. Use a magnet that has a flat end and enough holding power for a 3/8" endmill. |
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The threaded rod screwed into the body. |
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The unit assembled, with a nut loctited on the end of the threaded rod and a checknut for locking the depth adjustment. |
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Detail of the knurled end nut and the check nut. |
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Components... |
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