Import BXA toolpost experience

Wes,

I have an Armstrong piston-type BXA that I'm not attached to if you don't have your heart set on a wedge type post. It seems to be a cut above the imports. I compared it to an Aloris on my 10EE before I sold it and didn't notice any real difference. The guy who bought the lathe wanted the Aloris BXA, so that's gone.

Glad that helped. I'd be curious to see your evaluation once it arrives.

--Glenn Lyford

I have my heart set on a wedge. The design of a wedge looks more secure to me.

A screw driving a wedge. I like the looks of that.

My next buy is going to be a new computer in the near future since I'm sure the next upgrade to Alibre isn't going to run on my w2k box. I upgraded my license so I have motion now. Kinda slow on my current machine.

I am figuring the tool post to be a end of year purchase unless I work a lot of OT which I try not to.

You had a 10EE and sold it? What did you replace it with? The guy I bought my Clausing from was really into Monarch lathes. Seriously nice lathes.

Wes

until I get

Hmm ... I've got the BXA sized Phase-II which I retired in favor of the Dorian. There was really nothing wrong with it, so if you are interested, we could perhaps work out something.

Where are you located? I'm in Northern VA just a bit outside the Washington DC Beltway.

for something

That hurts.

I'm retired (as is my wife), with the effective value of our retirements decreasing every year (of course).

Good luck, DoN.

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Hmm ... this is perhaps a chance to see whether other of this brand of Wedge style toolpost also have the screw on the bottom of the turning position wedge. Re-post the links to the photo which shows the screw, so he can check that and compare with his toolpost.

Good Luck, DoN.

564

Oops. You're right. It was Discount Machine.

RWL

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I downloaded the photo and saved it to my computer. It needed to be lightened in order to see what I think you're talking about. It looks like there's a screw head on the underside of the wedge. Is that what you're talking about? If so, I'll check mine when it arrives. It shipped today from wherever Discount Machine is located.

RWL

Yes. that's the screw. I assume it is there for a reason. It is definitely not loose.

Also I have no problem putting on any of the included toolholders. When I do, the range of the approximate 180 degree swing of the locking bar becomes a 90 degree swing between locked and unlocked when a toolholder is attached.

But the genuine Aloris AXA12N toolholder I have will only fit on one of the two sides. I thought it was because the locking bar was in the way, which it is. But even when I open the wedge completely and then unscrew the locking bar the Aloris toolholder still will not fit down on that side. ?!?

And when on the side it does fit on the swing distance of the locking bar between locked and unlocked is only about 10 to 15 degrees.(Though I don't know how important that is).

Milling the Aloris holder would increase that swing range and allow the toolholder to fit on *both* sides *if* I unscrew the locking bar. (Sigh).

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

I'm in the same boat. The switch from Inventor to Solidworks has put a strain on this box.

OT which I

A Taiwanese Feeler HLVH clone.

Not long after I finished fixing up the 10EE the Feeler fell into my lap. They were too close in capability to give up the space for both. I'd love to have a big Monarch, American Pacemaker, or Okuma, but there's just no room.

FWIW, I found that the Aloris BX and BXA are not compatible

Just to make it clear, I wasn't making an evaluation of HHip, only that the generic QCTP components from different suppliers may not match well. It's an observation that's been commented on by many buyers of the cheap stuff.

The term Compatible is often used loosely to refer to generic crap, when Looky-like is a much more accurate description.

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. Download it and use whatever tools your computer offers to lighten the image. All of his images are too dark to clearly see details. I boost the gamma to 1.5 or 2.0 to get a good view of the screw.

Good Luck, DoN.

The picture was hard to interpret, but it does appear that things are gummed up with cosmoline or the like. Paint thinner on a rag will take the cosmoline off. Be sure to get down into the V-corners of the dovetails on both holders and toolpost. Dry with paper towels.

Joe Gwinn

You must be doing large assemblies. At work we have Solidworks 2007 and it seems to work okay on limited platforms. I don't do much with it other than look at models of machines I work on. The company runs some software called smart team which seems to limit how quick we upgrade our solidworks software.

of OT which I

Definitely looks Hardinge like. Is that electric feed? Can you thread with it?

I'd love to have a lot of things. Like a big house and a Cessna 172 in the back yard hanger facing my private air strip. A BXA wedge type tool post is far more likely, maybe even an Aloris. :)

Wes

O.K. That is reasonable. But based on what you say later in this article, I find myself wondering whether you have checked the locking angle with the same holder in *both* stations.

This is why I ask about the locking angle for one of the supplied holders tried in both stations. Normally, you should have the same fit in both stations.

Given the starting angle, I consider it quite important, as the lever will be over the tailstock -- and perhaps hitting a drill chuck or live center mounted in it.

Ideally, the unlocked position should be something like 3:00 o'clock (parallel to the bed, pointing towards the tailstock end of the bed), and the locked position should be with the lever pointing out at the operator.

And -- this would have to be repeated for every genuine Aloris holder which you subsequently get -- and all of the better clones as well.

Now -- if you get different locking angles for a supplied holder depending on what station it is on, I believe that one of the wedges is too far down.

If you have two lengths of round rod of the same diameter (e.g. drill rod), set the lever in the fully locked position and try measuring the width of the two dovetails. Do this using the rods as follows (view with a fixed pitch font like Courier to avoid distortion):

______________ ( ) \ / ( ) ________\ /_______

(the rods should be bigger, but that is the biggest that I can show using ASCII graphics.

Anyway -- place the rods into the Vs of the dovetails, and measure the width across the outside of the rods (using a caliper or a larger micrometer).

The measurement across the rods should be close to the same on the two dovetails. If it is not so, then one of them is improperly set on the threads.

Now -- just for the fun of it, do the same kind of measurement

*inside* the dovetails on both the supplied holders and the genuine Aloris. I suspect that you will find a somewhat wider measurement on the supplied holders based on your fit experiments.

None of the photos show your post from the needed angle. Look at the toolpost diagonally from the corner between the two dovetails, so you can see both wedges at the same time -- ideally with the viewpoint at a level about half-way up the toolpost.

If you can easily see that one wedge is higher than the other, you have one started on the wrong thread -- an assembly problem at the factory. You *can* go back to the vendor and see if he can supply you with a replacement one.

But what *I* personally would do is to disassemble the toolpost to the point of removing the wedges (I described how to do this in an earlier article today) and re-installing them so you get both starting at the same time, and so the lever angle winds up more reasonable.

Note that if you do this, you will probably void the warranty, so if this is important to you, try the vendor route first.

And if it turns out that the screw is not present in others, it might be that the screw caused the wedges to be put in with this offset.

It might help to know how these work internally:

1) The lever turns a cylinder inside the body of the toolpost which has a multi-start thread on its outside diameter. 2) The wedges have partial mating threads on the inside, so when the lever turns the cylinder, the wedges move up and down. 3) The wedges move in contact with an angled surface which causes them to increase or decrease the width of the dovetail as they move down or up.

Since the thread is multi-start, it is possible to get the two wedges started out of step, so one remains higher than the other. And

-- it is also possible to remove the wedges and re-start them so both move at the same height.

If the wedges are not at different heights, but the dovetails measure significantly different widths, the cure would be to use a proper dovetail mill to narrow the one which is giving the problems. This problem would *certainly* call for a vendor replacement as the first approach.

And if it comes to a choice between a proper fit for the supplied holders or a proper fit for the Genuine Aloris holders, I would go for the latter as this would increase the number of holders available through surplus and eBay channels.

Good Luck, DoN.

machines I

It's the delays in loading commands, opening dialogs, etc., more than the time it takes to update big assy's that's annoying me. Inventor was very snappy on this machine. I get the feeling that SW has lot more going on in the background.

of OT which I

my Clausing

It's a very faithful copy. The only apparent difference is that the fasteners are metric. Threading is the same auto-reverse arrangement as an HLVH.

But the frustrating thing is there are nice big lathes available for less than what I got for the 10EE, if only I had the space. If there were similar bargains around on saltwater farms I'd have one of them instead.

.>>

The toolpost arrived today (Friday) here in central PA. There is no screw on the bottom of either of my wedges.

It has Shars imprinted on the block. I'll take photos of it in the next couple of days and post them so you can compare to an Aloris.

RWL

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Which leads me to suspect that it does not belong in the one which he got.

*I* can't -- because I don't have an Aloris ready to hand. But I can (and will) compare it to my BXA-sized Phase-II which I just disassembled as I described above to make sure that what I suggested will work.

Enjoy, DoN.