Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.13. You should try to protect exposed slideways with a rubber cover to prevent
swarf getting in.
FITTING A DIGITAL READOUT
A digital readout on any milling machine is essential. It will make life so much
easier and will help to eliminate machining errors as well as saving on that
most useful workshop resource - time. It is quite easy to fit a digital readout to
a milling machine; you just need to be accurate and logical in your approach.
I fitted the X axis scale to the outside of the table on the Tom Senior Light
vertical milling machine used to illustrate this topic. If I had put it on the in-
side edge of the table, I would have reduced the Y axis travel by about 30mm,
clearly not a good idea. (Modern magnetic digital scales are thin enough so
that you can mount them on the back of the milling machine's table with a
minimum loss of table travel.)
X axis scale
The first job was to fit the scale to the front of the table, close to the top edge
but not above. I clamped the scale's back plate to the front of the table with
a
1
⁄
8
in packing piece between the back plate and the table. You may need to
use a different thickness of packing depending on your milling machine. The
back plate was set parallel to the table using a height gauge and an old slip
