# More Mini Mill Mods



## bmac2 (Sep 7, 2017)

I finally got around to doing some long overdue work on the mill this past weekend. Ive had iGaging DORs on the X and Y axis for a couple of years now and had picked one up for the Z a while ago when Busy Bee had them on sale. 
Id also picked up a gas spring to replace the damnable torsion spring and once I got it installed I wish Id done it years ago. Nice and smooth with no head drop.


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## bmac2 (Sep 7, 2017)

With the torsion spring out of the way mounting the scale was just a matter of tapping a couple of holes in the column and making a simple bracket to attach the scale to the stud that held the pointer.


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## bmac2 (Sep 7, 2017)

The tachometer uses a hall effect with 3 magnets for better sampling at low RPM. It was never reading correctly and I realized it was the belt drive. Id looked at the dimensions from my original drawings but had forgotten that when I made the big pulley Id just worked with what I had at hand and it was NOT the same size as the drawing. Once I got that worked out and the sketch loaded it looks to be about right. All I have left to do is clean up some cabling and make a mount for the sensor to fit it under the pulley.


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## minh-thanh (Sep 7, 2017)

Your machine is my dream !! I will make a machine for myself (not the same your machine)


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## sdju (Sep 7, 2017)

I like this idea of a gas spring. Going to replace mine as well.


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## bazmak (Sep 7, 2017)

Works really well is now concidered a std mod.I fitted mine to the RH side
which leaves more room for the DRO scale.Also did a few mods and did a thread.Made a pair of riser plates for the column,increases the Z height
x nom 40mm and helps with tarmming (fixed column only) if anyboby is interested i will ressurect the thread


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## XD351 (Sep 8, 2017)

I ran my gas strut down the inside of the column and it is fixed to the head via a steel post that is bolted to the top of the head  between the column and the motor .
I need to fit one with less pressure now that i have found a supplier that has what i want .

Nice neat install , any chance you can give us some kore info on the tacho ?


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## bmac2 (Sep 8, 2017)

sdju said:


> I like this idea of a gas spring. Going to replace mine as well.



Saun you will never regret it. I&#8217;d been putting it off because I couldn&#8217;t find one that would be the &#8220;perfect&#8221; fit but then found this vid on YouTube I liked the adjustment in the top mount and that it wouldn&#8217;t involve a lot of drilling into the mills head. 

Last week a local store had them on sale and for $8.99 with all the hardware I couldn&#8217;t pass it up. The top bracket I made has about 2 1/2&#8221; of adjustment and that allows me to get down to within ¾&#8221; of the table and I can run it off the rack at the top.  Reminds me I have to put that little plastic stop back in.scratch.gif

These are the specs on the one I used:
Extended Length	17-1/4 in.
Compressed Length	11 in.
Pressure Rating		30 lb
Stroke Length		6-1/4 in.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAkoiJH0SK0"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAkoiJH0SK0[/ame]


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## bmac2 (Sep 8, 2017)

minh-thanh said:


> Your machine is my dream !! I will make a machine for myself (not the same your machine)



Minh thank you. From what I have seen of you lathe and engines I believe you can build anything you set your mind to. To start if you wanted you could make a vertical slide to fit your lathe like this one. 
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=90922&d=1503972240

B&#7841;n là m&#7897;t th&#7907; th&#7911; công tôn tr&#7885;ng Thm:


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## bmac2 (Sep 9, 2017)

Barry I agree, that and a belt drive . It just took me a _LONG_ time to get around to doing it.  

XD no problem Ill find up my drawings and the program this weekend. I found the sketch for the tach on the internet and liked it because it had a numeric and graphic display.



That little box has 4 Arduino Mini-Pros squeezed into it, one for each function so for the tach you only need one. 
I really should have used a bigger box.:wall:


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## XD351 (Sep 9, 2017)

Wow ! You must have had a hell of a time shoehorning all that into the box !


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## bmac2 (Sep 9, 2017)

I&#8217;d sized the box based on the 3D models of the components. In the CAD file it looked close but not crammed in. Unfortunately the file didn&#8217;t include all the wire. I was close to ordering a larger box but thought &#8220;what the hell I&#8217;ve worked on smaller stuff&#8221;. I went with 4 Arduinos because they were cheap ($1.35 ea. Alliexpress) and I had to tweak the sketch a bit for each of the scales to get them to work. Trying to run everything off one controller the lag time was terrible. Nice little family photo. The corner on the one LED display isn&#8217;t broken I had to cut it off to fit around a mounting post. 








  As it sits the sketch is for an I2C but I found my schematics for both I2C and parallel displays. I&#8217;d switched to the I2c because I just didn&#8217;t have room for the extra wire. I used a 3144 hall sensor but any non-latching sensor should work.
  There are a couple of edits needed that are listed at the top of the sketch and l[FONT=&quot]ibraries and setup instructions for the display start at post #12 in my &#8220;[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Arduino Rotary Table for Dummies&#8221; [FONT=&quot]thread[/FONT].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=26744&page=2[/FONT]



View attachment SSR_Mini_Mill_Tachometer_June_2017.zip












  Any Arduino will work but if you use a Mini-Pro or Nano it will easily fit into a pretty small package.


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## XD351 (Sep 9, 2017)

Many thanks bmac2 !
I have two small lathes that i want to fit digital readouts to and i was sort of scratching my head thinking how i could do it but  you have pointed me in the right direction !

You are correct in saying Arduino is addictive ! 

Ian.


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## minh-thanh (Sep 9, 2017)

Hi Bmac2 ! 
Thanks for the information, I'm thinking of how,..and maybe later can adjust something the same you did.


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## canadianhorsepower (Sep 10, 2017)

Hi Bob
nice project :thumbup:
maybe you should consider this

https://www.banggood.com/Red-LED-Ta...tch-Sensor-NPN-p-928692.html?rmmds=mywishlist

it does also work with a hall effect sensor , very good price very reliable. 
Enjoy


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## bmac2 (Sep 11, 2017)

Hi Luc looks like a nice unit. Youre lucky that you live in the East the prices at Banggood and Alliexpress are hard to beat.
Unfortunately living in western Canada anything I order from China goes to the _All New Bigger And Better $200-million dollar,700,000 square foot _facility in Richmond B.C, the black hole of the on line shopping world. 

I have 3 orders sent e-Packet that have been sitting with CBSA in Richmond for over 4 months. They had a story on the News a while back saying that CBSA in Richmond has 74 trailers of small packets from Asia waiting to be sorted. Oh and CBSA doesnt track backlogs.

The only work-a-round Ive found is to contact the seller before placing the order and see it they can send it via Turkey Post. Apparently all mail coming to Canada from Turkey goes through Quebec. Ive placed a couple of Test orders (under $5.00) and so far they have all shown up in less than 3 weeks. 

What can ya do its the government . . . . and no one at Canada Post is going to stand up and say _Hey you know that $200 million we spent on a new plant? It doesnt work_:toilet:


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## canadianhorsepower (Sep 11, 2017)

bmac2 said:


> I have 3 orders sent e-Packet that have been sitting with CBSA in Richmond for over 4 months.
> Test orders (under $5.00) and so far they have all shown up in less than 3 weeks.
> [/I]:toilet:



Wow silly isn't it.
but when I get stuff from Them I make sure it is sent from USA and not China
usually one week. nice project you are doing :thumbup::thumbup:


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