mill: fish scale pattern on ways
tom walter
I've read as much as I can about prepping of this machine and I was
trying to figure out for myself today whether I should lap the ways.
On close inspection the ways have a sort of ground fish scale
pattern. From a distance the ways look almost like mother of pearl.
It looks like the pattern was applied manually because the marks are
not uniform in spacing. Can anyone tell be what the marks are
called, what they are for, and how they are applied? Just curious.
BTW I'm probably NOT going to try to lap the ways because 1) A well
respected guy at IH said that most chinese mills no longer need
lapping, and 2) at least to my eye, they seem much better than
pictures of others earlier machines, both before and after they
lapped. I basically understand the big debate as to whether lapping
should ever be done. --But I would still like that question above
answered.
--zeb
sta...@prolynx.com
Does it look like the bottom pic on the right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_scraper
I've never seen an import mill with scraped ways, doesn't mean they
didn't sell one. If that's what you have, the article should give you
an idea of what you have. If done right, you shouldn't need to lap.
Stan
Snag
The ways on mine look like the pic in the middle , what they call "frosted"
, for oil retention .
--
Snag
"90 FLHTCU "Strider"
'39 WLDD "PopCycle"
BS 132/SENS/DOF
Ed Huntress
"tom walter" <t2m...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:28c2cc06-2b45-4a98...@d2g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
That's called "frosting" or "flaking." Ostensibly, it's for oil retention.
In truth, it's usually just decorative. It does provide a good way to judge
wear of the bed.
It was traditionally done with a hand tool called a scraper. It looks like a
toothless flat file with a sharpened end. You push it into the iron. There
are some roughing scrapers that have a pad for pushing them with your thigh,
rather than your hands.
The basic purpose of a scraper is to refine the surface for flatness or
other accuracy, depending on what's being scraped. The scrapers at Moore
Special Tool used to scrape the ways and the table surface of their jig
grinders to +/- 40 millionths of an inch, from end to end. When they were
feeling frisky they worked it down to +/-20 millionths, just for fun. The
frosting is a final touch.
However, in commercial lathe building today, it's generally done with a
power scraper, which contains a solenoid or a motor and crank that stroke
the scraper in and out. Manual scraping can be a workout.
I can't help with the lapping question.
--
Ed Huntress
Wes
>That's called "frosting" or "flaking." Ostensibly, it's for oil retention.
>In truth, it's usually just decorative. It does provide a good way to judge
>wear of the bed.
And on modern cnc machines with box ways there isn't any flaking at all. At least not on
the Mori's and Okuma's I've worked on. Ways look machine ground to me.
Wes
Ed Huntress
"Wes" <clu...@lycos.com> wrote in message
news:MuYjn.27609$Up1....@en-nntp-08.dc1.easynews.com...
Wasinos had ground box ways with no flaking, but the head was hand-scraped
into the bed. If a machine has pressure-fed way lubrication, there is no
mechanical reason for flaking or frosting.
Most machines have ground ways today; some have frosting applied as a mostly
decorative touch.
--
Ed Huntress
Ed Huntress
"Ed Huntress" <hunt...@optonline.net> wrote in message news:...
>
<snip>
>
> The basic purpose of a scraper is to refine the surface for flatness or
> other accuracy, depending on what's being scraped. The scrapers at Moore
> Special Tool used to scrape the ways and the table surface of their jig
> grinders to +/- 40 millionths of an inch, from end to end. When they were
> feeling frisky they worked it down to +/-20 millionths, just for fun. The
> frosting is a final touch.
>
> However, in commercial lathe building today, it's generally done with a
> power scraper, which contains a solenoid or a motor and crank that stroke
> the scraper in and out. Manual scraping can be a workout.
Misleading wording here: Most machine tools have ground ways today. Power
scrapers are used for applying the *decorative frosting*, not for scraping
for improved accuracy.
I don't know if the ways on *any* machines are hand-scraped for accuracy in
production today. It is used in rebuilding machine tools, however.
--
Ed Huntress
tom walter
> On Mar 4, 12:52 pm, tom walter <t2m...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hi, I'm very new to machining and I just got an RF45 clone mill.
> > I've read as much as I can about prepping of this machine and I was
> > trying to figure out for myself today whether I should lap the ways.
> > On close inspection the ways have a sort of ground fish scale
> > pattern. From a distance the ways look almost like mother of pearl.
> > It looks like the pattern was applied manually because the marks are
> > not uniform in spacing. Can anyone tell be what the marks are
> > called, what they are for, and how they are applied? Just curious.
>
> > BTW I'm probably NOT going to try to lap the ways because 1) A well
> > respected guy at IH said that most chinese mills no longer need
> > lapping, and 2) at least to my eye, they seem much better than
> > pictures of others earlier machines, both before and after they
> > lapped. I basically understand the big debate as to whether lapping
> > should ever be done. --But I would still like that question above
> > answered.
>
> > --zeb
>
>
> I've never seen an import mill with scraped ways, doesn't mean they
> didn't sell one. If that's what you have, the article should give you
> an idea of what you have. If done right, you shouldn't need to lap.
>
> Stan
Yes, Stan, it's like the middle picture with the intersecting circles,
only mine are small arcs spaced futher apart and not intersecting so
much. Thanks. Geez Wiki has everything.
Robert Swinney
". . . .|Ways look machine ground to me. . . ."
Same on my large Comet mill which is a '92 manual model.
Bob Swinney
"Wes" <clu...@lycos.com> wrote in message news:MuYjn.27609$Up1....@en-nntp-08.dc1.easynews.com...
"Ed Huntress" <hunt...@optonline.net> wrote:
>That's called "frosting" or "flaking." Ostensibly, it's for oil retention.
>In truth, it's usually just decorative. It does provide a good way to judge
>wear of the bthe Mori's and Okuma's I've worked on. And on modern cnc machines with box ways there
>isn't any flaking at all. At least not on
ed.
Wes
Robert Swinney
are frosted. My guess it is because of higher oil-wiping stress on the vertical areas. That knee
is heavy under a 9 x 54 table..
Bob Swinney
"Snag" <snag...@comcast.net> wrote in message news:QGXjn.5002$QL4...@newsfe24.iad...
Robert Swinney
Bob Swinney
"Robert Swinney" <jud...@tx.rr.com> wrote in message
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