what material for steam engine round columns ?

[Lopez Mike]

I've been looking at an adjustable table for my heavy stuff like the vise, rotary table and even the dividing head. I think it might be quicker to move the table up and down to match the mill height rather than move the mill to match the equipment table. I don't have a power knee.

What I haven't figured out is how to make it easier to slide the accessories back on forth on this table. All of them have slugs on the bottom to drop into the mill slots and they dig into any sort of common surface except sheet metal.

Maybe some sort of Teflon block under them. The slugs protrude maybe a half an inch. Maybe a lazy susan on the table? This is starting to sound like a solution in search of a problem. Hmm.

[barts]

I'm pretty tight on space; no room for a lifting table.

Why not take a block of wood (oak or dense fir), cut a groove into it for the slugs, and then have a edge on your table so you can leave the block behind easily. Put some way oil on that wood block and you're set.

No slugs on my vice or rotary table except in the vertical position.

Just finished painting the table; phew. I had some moisture cured aluminum filled polyurethane primer left over from a job on the Airstream; that stuff uses xylene as thinner. Should kick pretty well - lots of moisture in the air.
If it's not too ugly tomorrow I'l post a pic.

- Bart

[Lopez Mike]

My old friends fatigue and inertia will likely prevail and I'll just lift the tools from one place to the other. Just getting them nearby and at about the same level will be a victory. Anything is better than lifting them from a bent over position.

[RGSP]

Mike, as a sheep breeder as well as a steam-engine builder, several of my friends have seriously damaged backs from shearing and generally looking after the wooly brutes. Several of them have adapted hydraulic lifts intended for working on motor cycles as a way of bringing 100kg of sheep up to a suitable level to look at its feet. The lifts are cheap, not well finished, and I suspect must be Chinese made, but good enough for that job.

Having got the lifts, they then get hijacked for use in workshops as adjustable height tables, exactly as you envisage, which are a godsend when you have a decidedly untrustworthy spine.

My milling accessories don't have downward pointing pins (for reasons I can only guess at). I suppose you could use substantial hardwood rails so that the pins don't catch.

[Lopez Mike]

My bike lift is one of the beasts I'm looking at. But there are ready made ones available with a more stable base.

I have guide blocks on my vise and on my dividing head so that they will be aligned properly when installed on the mill table. I have other things to do other than getting out my dial indicator every time I change setups. My blocks are a tight enough fit in the table slots that they come in within .001" runout over the 6" length the vise jaws.

[Mike Rometer]

The vices I can manage - it's the rotary table that beats me. Made like the proverbial outhouse! Lifting it between two doesn't get much better, you just get in each other's way.

[Lopez Mike]

So far I am able to deal with these lumps of mass without maiming or crippling myself but there will come a time . . . .

I had a machinist friend who, at about 75, decided that in view of his slight frame he would exercise some ingenuity and built a crane and winch to deal with his large lathe chucks and face plates. It worked well, even his home made two cylinder air powered winch.

I occasionally consider a traveling overhead crane for the shop that would not only allow me to move lumps like my rotary table about freely but might have the capacity to handle larger masses. Like my 600+ pound locomotive!

In large shops these beasts can reach almost every area but I have light fixtures that hang down a few inches and am not sure that I want to give up any more of my head room. But if such a contraption could be frightened into a corner when not needed, I might plan further.

[DetroiTug]

One of the slickest things I've ever seen for that is pretty easy to make up.

It's just a pivoting arm of 2x2 square tube that mounts on the side of the mill column. On the end of that arm is a flat plate. Swing the arm out and align the flat plate in to the vise jaws which are then tightened, then just lower the table and swing the vise out of the way. One could be made up for a rotary table or super spacer with a piece of round stock instead of the flat plate. One on each side of the machine. Still requires cranking the table up and down, but it's better than kneeboning that equipment around. Every year that stuff gets heavier.

On the flat plate bend a small tab out 90 degrees that hooks under the vise jaw so it can't slip out.

-Ron

[Lopez Mike]

I like the idea. I would have the swing arm have the vertical movement as well. My knee is slow and tedious.

The index head isn't that heavy. The rotary table, however, is a clunk. Maybe another swing arm with some sort of T-bolt things to engage the table slots.

[barts]

Here's that quicky table for mill accessories.... so much nice not having to do deep knee bends with the rotary table clutched in my oily fingers. Pretty quick and dirty, but strong enough to last a while. Still need to tie it down in case of earthquake....

With the vice and table on the shelf, I'm drilling and tapping & cleaning up the base of the Sea Lion engine prior to final assembly by welding. It's about 100 lbs all up, so doing what I can prior to making it one giant heavy lump. Column supports and bearing locations have to wait, of course, but threaded leveling holes, pump & alternator brackets, etc. can go in now. The less flipping around I have do once it's together the better.

- Bart