A couple of months ago, I had a mistake that resulted in broken plastic; I had a oops clamp towards the front of my workpiece, and the right dust boot arm caught the metal bolt and cracked the arm, and the boot came loose and got chewed by the router. I cursed under my breath and superglued my boot arm back together and kept working, though with reduced dust collection because part of the boot was gone. I finished that project and quite a few more without incident.
I finally got around to putting new arms and boot on the machine tonight for a new project, and I realize now that I broke more than the plastic pieces. The rail that the dust boot spacer rides on is bowed/bent out, which causes deflection on the boot outward. To fix this, I’m thinking that entire plate has to be replaced. Could I try tapping that piece straight with a hammer with the power off as an alternative, or would I cause more harm? Is that plate purchasable without having to buy a whole new Z axis assembly? How expensive was hitting that oops clamp now?
in no case I would tap with a hammer while the part is in place. You may damage the linear bearings of the machine. If the part is deformed and you think you could bend it into shape again, it would need to be removed from the machine first.
Aiph5u,
While I agree with you in principal on this it reminds me of the Bridgeport mills in my shop over the last 30 years, all have R8 collet spindles and all of them have a hammer used on them to unseat the collet when changing tools, the top of the drawbar is hammered down to unseat.
Again, I agree to not hammer on any bearings but…
My machine came from the factory with a bend in the Z gantry plate similar to what you’re describing. It was bent inwards meaning that I wouldn’t be able to mount any of the off the shelf solutions onto the machine as the opening was too tight. As I have a 3D printer I just quickly designed my own mounting hardware and have been using that ever since.
It’s not a FIX for your problem, but if you have access to something similar it could be a way to get yourself up and running while you find a more permanent solution.
Luckily, what I have still works, I just don’t like stuff being off that could be fixed. It looks like that plate/rail assembly is all one piece and not really removable from the rest of the z gantry, so my best option short of replacing the gantry is to maybe try to tap or bend the rail back into place with it removed from the unit…do you agree with that assessment, or am I missing a way to get that plate off and separated from everything else?
I would say that you need to remove the Z assembly, put it into a vise with the bent part (by using aluminum protective jaws on the vise), and carefully bend the region back.
Wow, brought back SO many memories! Ran various Bridgeport mills for the better part of my 20+ year career as a toolroom machinist before getting into tool design. It usually only required a light tap to unseat the R8, but I’ve probably done that tens of thousands of times. I used to grind a small chamfer around the top perimiter of the drawbar hex so it didn’t create a burr and injur my fingers as I powered in & out the loosened collets with a shot of fwd or rev depending on inserting or removing the collet. I would never recommend that method, but it had become second-nature to me after running them for so many years.
So, this pic is kind of funny. I stuck a magnet in an empty raisin box and stuck it to the overhead beam above my work area. I went back to visit nearly 30 years later. I talked to one of my old work buddies. After we said our greetings, he said “It’s still there”. I asked what was still there, and he pointed to the raisin box.
taking a hammer to a milling machine really sends a shiver down my spine But there’s also a big difference here (with the emphasis on “big”): Here the motor is fixed in a solid cast iron housing (and it’s the table that moves). The Z assembly of the Onefinity, however, is a moving part made of aluminum, and sits on top of all the linear bearings.
Also I would never hammer aluminum straight, only bend it straight.
Thanks for all the replies—here’s what I ended up doing:
As I looked closer at how it was bent, it was mostly bent backwards (i.e., the Y direction). I couldn’t come up with a good way in my mind to get a vise on it that way, to effectively pull the rail back straight. So, I got a long bolt, nut, and some washers, and tightened them on the rail, then gently tilted the bolt in the direction I wanted the rail to bend, and it pulled it back in nicely. All good to go!
But there’s also a big difference here (with the emphasis on “big”): Here the motor is fixed in a solid cast iron housing (and it’s the table that moves). The Z assembly of the Onefinity, however, is a moving part made of aluminum, and sits on top of all the linear bearings.