Re: Asian Import mills, EMCO, PRAZI, Myford, MOTORS

Hi Alan,

Well you know what my project is. I have taken appart the ENCO X and
Y tables to measure everything. I'm just about finished designing the
ball screw conversion for X and Y. I have not looked at Z yet.

Some notes about "Quality" on ENCO. The iron looks like good quality
cast iron. Can't find any pits or bubbles in the machined places.
The stock machine uses "Thrust bearing" for the X and Y screws. They
are a press fit on the shafts. This is the only thing that keeps the
screw from sliding back an forth. (Other than the pinned collar at the
end of the screws) The assembly procedure for these machines must have
fixtures to hold things. While measuring the threaded holes and
locating pins for the lead screw bearing blocks, I could see that
every hole was placed at a random location. The only thing that is
important is the location of the bearing hole. It must be on center
to the lead screw. They don't care about rotational alignment, this
is why the mounting holes and locating pins could be anywhere.
The 2HP import motor runs great! Lots of power. 110 or 220 your
choice. I liked the belt pulleys, they look like they were machined
out of solid aluminum. (Thats a 10" dia bar stock!)

The nuts are machined from one casting of copper or brass. The way
they try to handle nut wear is by bandsawing a slit through the
threads and placing a screw to "pinch" the thread if slop devlops.

I'm not too concerned with the stock bearing and nuts since I will be
replacing them with ball screws. What bothers me is the "Jib
adjustment" They only give one screw to tighten the ways. It is
located at the end of the jib (If you can believe that). I am not
sure if it does anything at all. The only real jib tightning is done
by the way clamps. You know the ones that you tighten to lock the way
from moving.

CADMAN