# cross slide t slots.



## trev1 (Jun 20, 2013)

My lathe (AL320g) doesn't have t slots on the cross slide so I was thinking of other job mounting methods. One thought I had was to mount a piece of steel on the cross slide and have a grid of tapped holes (m12) to suit my job holding kit in this piece of steel. 

Are there any other methods I could explore?


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## Mainer (Jun 20, 2013)

Make a new cross slide with T-slots? Andy Lofquist (Metal Lathe Accessories) sells castings for South Bend and Logan T-slot cross slides. I'm not familiar with the lathe you have, but those castings might be adaptable. Or, just start with a slab of cast iron.


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## goldstar31 (Jun 20, 2013)

When I had a 918- well it was a 9180 with a Myford type spindle etc, it had these silly tee slots which -ran the wrong way. I had a heap of other way around tooling from earlier lathes such as the Myford and put a piece of plain steel(about 28mm thick) on top. I then bolted all my goodies onto this.

However, if you want an easier answer there are two items which might be of use. The first is nothing more than a simple block on which you 'pepper' all sorts of holes, tapped and otherwise and when it literally is useless, replace it. Again, you can get fancy and fabricate one with tee slots screwed on top to accept other bits and then do another with a built up set of slots -along the boring table itself.

Plenty of references of those who use and used it. If push comes to shove, there are plenty of tee slotted face plates made up similarly.


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## trev1 (Jun 20, 2013)

It's  a relief to find out others have bolted all sorts of things to their cross slide to mount work pieces on.
 Making another isn't really an option at the moment as i don't have, or have access to  a mill , or dovetail cutters.
Aside from that, i have spent quite a few hours lapping this one in in an attempt to stop chatter and it has a fairly good fit at the moment.

Thanks for the input.


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## goldstar31 (Jun 20, 2013)

Actually I was referring to 'Martin Cleeve' who was the guy who wrote Screwcutting in the Lathe but certainly didn't have a mill and he only had half a Myford- at first.  He even went so far as to make his own nuts and bolts- and described how it was done in ME. Actually there is a reference of how he made a fabricated vertical slide on the lathe and extended his first boring table and a heap of things like gears- and all on a half of a lathe.

Sadly, I put all this on the net- and I ran into copyright issues. End of story. 

Regards

Norman


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## rodw (Jun 20, 2013)

Trev, I have got the same lathe and had thought of doing something similar to mount a vertical slide but I ended up buying a mill as well so may never need to do it. I think If I did this, I think I would get a hunk of steel, preferably cast iron I think. I would mill a step in it at the compound end, remove the compound and use the two bolts that secure the compound on and drill and tap two more mounting holes at the back of the crosslide. I think you would have to mill some relief in the middle to get clearance over oilers etc so the back mounting bolts would end up on a support leg. The down side is that doing this would mean you would not be able to mount the compound back on the new top as tool height would be a problem. However, I don't think it would be hard to include a T slot to hold my BXA QCTP holder using the mount that came with it.

I have recently found a Brisbane based cast iron supplier. He does not have any flats big enough but I think you could get him to cut  a slice of 350mm round cast iron which would span the AL320G crossslide for under $100 as a 25mm slice of 165mm dia was only $25.

See : http://www.georgeweston.com.au/

Then you just have to find a mill to borrow...


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## trev1 (Jun 21, 2013)

Might be easier just finding the money and just going and buying a mill. (Like someone else did).


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## rodw (Jun 21, 2013)

trev1 said:


> Might be easier just finding the money and just going and buying a mill. (Like someone else did).



I am not so sure. It took about 3 months before I was able to work out where to put it in my tiny shed! 

I had to move my drill press out to make room and I must say I don't miss it! I  am very happy with my Seig SX3 I bought with the lathe which was the biggest I could fit in. 

My problem was that I had a 3 in 1 machine before so I already had a mill of sorts so I wanted to keep the functionality.


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## trev1 (Jun 22, 2013)

I have plenty of room, I just need to clear out a few projects first. 
Rodw , how have you found your 320 in relation to cuts, rigidity, and general operation?

Mine has had a fair share of issues that only really bug me, but not bad enough to rattle anyone's cage over. The main one for me is the fine feed lever on the apron, that sloppy it's tight to disengage and often flicks straight through from cross feed to saddle feed (and vice versa) with commonly disastrous results. If you manage to bottom out the feed in either direction or motion, it will break a pin in the leadscrew drive assy as well. This is not too bad but the shaft in mine isn't drilled on center and when you buy the spline that pins to the shaft, it's not drilled out. You think it's hard drilling on center , try drilling one deliberately off center.


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## rodw (Jun 22, 2013)

I am very happy with the 320 which is heaps better than what I had. The 4 jaw chuck needed a far bit of work to get one jaw to slide freely and the plastic oil bung broke twice. It just let go when I was not near it. The coolant drain bung on the mill table was the same thread so I had a handy spare. I have since bought a metal threaded sight glass for $12 from www.bolt.com.au. H&F were good about it first time round and air bagged me a new one and gave me 4 litres of oil as I had not even installed the lathe the first time, the second time, I did not bother going back to them. The carriage lock needed milling down and was my first milling job. Yes there is one there. Look for a M10 bolt if you have not found it.

I had a couple of crashes with the lever you refer to initially but seem to have mastered its use now! I have not broken a leadscrew shear pin yet though!  

I seem to remember seeing someone who had added a stop on the lever somehow so it could not travel too far


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## trev1 (Jun 23, 2013)

Lapping the compound and cross slide helped a lot with cut quality on my 320 , I just used some metal polish similar to brasso and cross quite a bit of elbow grease. 
 I have found the carriage lock  screw, I use it regularly anytime I have to do heavy facing cuts. 

I have been tossing up about hafco's  .HM 32 or the 36,  or the SX3. How have you found the Seig  machine?


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## rodw (Jun 23, 2013)

trev1 said:


> Lapping the compound and cross slide helped a lot with cut quality on my 320 , I just used some metal polish similar to brasso and cross quite a bit of elbow grease.
> I have found the carriage lock  screw, I use it regularly anytime I have to do heavy facing cuts.
> 
> I have been tossing up about hafco's  .HM 32 or the 36,  or the SX3. How have you found the Seig  machine?



I like my SX3. It was an easy choice for me as I could not fit a bigger machine in. I would recommend a mill with a dovetail, eg mine or the  HM46 as it means you keep registration if you have to move the head up. I think it is a step above in quality compared with my lathe. No question about that! I have just ordered a DRO kit for it off eBay that includes all of the mounting hardware for my mill. It cost a it more this way but I don't have a lot of spare time so having all the fabrication done for me is an advantage. I will be keen to fit it when it arrives. There is a thread about this kit on the forum here but the pics have gone.

I recently purchased an M6 ratchet lever bolt for the carriage lock and have another one on order for the compound. They cost all of $6 or so from www.bolt.com.au. I got a 30 mm thread for the carriage lock (the longest you can get, just long enough) and a 16mm thread for the compound lock. I use the carriage lock more now! The same thing is used on the Seig gib locks.


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## pete (Jul 2, 2013)

goldstar31 said:


> Actually I was referring to 'Martin Cleeve' who was the guy who wrote Screwcutting in the Lathe but certainly didn't have a mill and he only had half a Myford- at first.  He even went so far as to make his own nuts and bolts- and described how it was done in ME. Actually there is a reference of how he made a fabricated vertical slide on the lathe and extended his first boring table and a heap of things like gears- and all on a half of a lathe.
> 
> Sadly, I put all this on the net- and I ran into copyright issues. End of story.
> 
> ...



Norman of course is mentioning the classic? or at least older British authors who were and still should be on most HSM's bookshelves. "Milling in the Lathe" in the excellent workshop practice series of books would or should be another almost mandatory title to own just for the various setup pictures shown. There seems to be a great deal of that so called "classic" material that's seldom mentioned today. Martin Cleeve, George H. Thomas, etc. AFAIC that info is just as useful today as the day it was first written. Those books are from a time period when cheap or at least cheaper milling machines just weren't avalible to the average hobbiest. Try Tee Publishing in the U.K. for a great range of very informative books.

Even though I'm lucky enough to own more than one vertical mill with my largest being a 3/4 sized Bridgeport clone, I still made a point of adding a tee slotted cross slide to the must have list when I was looking for a new and larger lathe. I guess too many years of reading Model Engineer magazine along with all those classic British Model Engineer type books have seriously swayed my thoughts about just how useful those tee slotted cross slide tables really are. If? and I repeat if your cross slide is flat and true to both directions of it's travel, then there's a great deal of work that ends up either faster, easier, or both instead of rotating a vertical mills milling head over 90 degrees and then re-aligning everything in that horizontal position. And on items like through holes such as steam cylinders, then a between centers boring bar used in a lathe with that tee slotted table will always produce straight un-tapered bores far easier and better than single point boring with a mill and boring head or a lathe swinging the cylinder and single point boring it will. I didn't say faster, I said easier and better.

You could drill and tap your current cross slide table and then add a shop built tee slotted sub table to what you already own. Obviously it would require the removal of the top slide. But for the most part, if you already own or are planning on buying a proper mill, then using that cross slide table or even a proper shop built tee slotted cross slide shouldn't come up all that often. Most definately accessories like this along with lathe milling attachments do have a place no matter how many proper milling machines you happen to own. Personally I don't consider any lathe well accessorized without that tee slotted cross slide and a good add on milling attachment. As I said, for some work it's just easier to work in a horizontal mode.

Pete


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## mikbul (Jan 9, 2014)

SB 8K T- slotted cross slide for reference. It's just a rectangular piece of CI milled out. A dovetail mill and a t-slot mill along with standard milling tools would be needed. BTW, the compound base has two runners that slide in the slots, not just the t-bolts.


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## Swifty (Jan 9, 2014)

Mikbul, I just love that cross slide with the t slots, every lathe should have those.

Paul.


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## robcas631 (Jan 12, 2014)

trev1 said:


> It's a relief to find out others have bolted all sorts of things to their cross slide to mount work pieces on.
> Making another isn't really an option at the moment as i don't have, or have access to a mill , or dovetail cutters.
> Aside from that, i have spent quite a few hours lapping this one in in an attempt to stop chatter and it has a fairly good fit at the moment.
> 
> Thanks for the input.


 
Why not get a mill attachment?


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## robcas631 (Jan 12, 2014)

trev1 said:


> My lathe (AL320g) doesn't have t slots on the cross slide so I was thinking of other job mounting methods. One thought I had was to mount a piece of steel on the cross slide and have a grid of tapped holes (m12) to suit my job holding kit in this piece of steel.
> 
> Are there any other methods I could explore?


 
Having a mount on the cross slide that allowed height adjustments would be stellar!


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## mikbul (Jan 12, 2014)

Swifty said:


> Mikbul, I just love that cross slide with the t slots, every lathe should have those.
> 
> Paul.


 
Hi Swifty,
Love that feature too. I can park my compound on the back side when I'm drilling and tapping, which I'll be doing today, My homemade follow/steady rest mounts to it, and you could mount a rocker style tool post to it for a heavy thick cutoff tool and not stress your QCTP. Here's a photo with the compound parked


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## Swifty (Jan 12, 2014)

The cross slide on my lathe is not wide enough to allow machining of some t slots, I could put in some tapped holes if I want to. The t slots would be a big advantage when mounting things like a ball turner. 

Paul.


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## goldstar31 (Jan 12, 2014)

Swifty said:


> The cross slide on my lathe is not wide enough to allow machining of some t slots, I could put in some tapped holes if I want to. The t slots would be a big advantage when mounting things like a ball turner.
> 
> Paul.


 
 There is nothing intrinsically wrong but I do my 'arithmetic' differently.
 If you make up a small boring head- say to do 2", you can work from the spindle but get a lot of bonuses in addition to merely boring a hole. Instantly( well, merely changing the tool bit), it becomes a ball turning attachment. By changing the tool, yet again, you can make a tool to cut slots or by changing the tool once again, the tool will cut tee slots but another change of tool bit, it does slideways-male and female.

 An old Kiwi, sadly missed, moved a oversize boring head to do other things like sweep facing because he introduced a star wheel to move the cut. At a pinch, you could use the top slide on most lathes to go on the faceplate- with an appropriate tool bit.

 Just a bit off the record( not too far, I hope) I made up No 2 Morse taper blank to take a 3" round and put 3 square holes in it to take a single square tool at various distances from the centre so that I could sweep face stuff of various sizes mounted on the saddle.  At that time, I had no money to lavish on model engineering and I found this tool quietly rusting away( like me)

 Hopefully, you have another clue or two from all this.

 Norman


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