The next project on my winter agenda..is to fix the combination mill I dragged home a year ago..
Its badged Hales..your typical 2/3 sized vertical kinda sorta BP clone miller with a horizontal spindle under the ram. Pretty sweet footprint and a machine Im going to keep for myself. R8 in both spindles..power feeds..the works. The machine was set up with an air actuated slide bolted to the t-slots. Load the part..press a button. the sub slide would traverse across a milling cutter. So the table was seldom every used, and according to the previous owner..the horizontal spindle was never used..
But..someone nailed the end of the slide with a forklift..and drove the lead screw through the bronze acme nut, which is a double or split nut. Didnt harm the machine or the lead screw..but scrubbed out the threads on the flange type adjustable acme nut.
Lead screw diameter is almost 7/8s (.870), with a lead of .200 (. 200 per rev, english dials..yay!...and the screw has a root of .70 as best as I can measure with a dial caliper. Id have thougth the screw was metric..but it comes out to 22.22mm..which is a bastard size..so Id have to guess its 7/8"
Ive got the machinery..but have never cut an acme thread in my life, nor do I have a piece of bronze big enough to make both halves, including the adjustable side with the flange. Unless a new one is prohibitively expensive..Id rather collect pop bottles and buy a new nut assembly.
Anyone got a good CHEAP source for this sort of thing? Most of the places I buy BP parts from..dont have any 7/8" stuff
Thanks
Gunner
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In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence, and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years . It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints, and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.
Theodore Dalrymple,