Re: dovetails for cnc

> Why on earth would you make a new one? Or, is this a turret lathe
> with no carriage?

Heh, yes, it has a compound carriage with a cross slide. Have you
seen the carriage on a dv-59 though? It really only has one
dovetail, the rear has a very short gib thing on a lever cam that
locks it to a certain position on the dovetail bed. It would
require large modification to have it travel back and forth
accurately while being driven by a leadscrew (which would also
require modifying it to somehow attach the leadscrew nut). Besides,
I have been wanting to make something with dovetails for a long
time. :-)

> You probably want to hand-scrape the new carriage to match the bed.
> Use Canode dye (available from Dapra, as well as scraping handles,
> blades and etc.) You might consider the book and/or the video by
> Michael Morgan http://www.machinerepair.com/home.html but pay
> with a credit card, as he sometimes takes forever to deliver.

I am hoping the made-in-usa carbide insert dovetail cutter and my
bedmill will hold 0.001" over the 5 inches or so of dovetail I
need. I would think I would mess it up trying to improve things
better than that by scrapping, heh heh. Still, it is an art that
might be fun to learn.

> Without extensive gear, I think I'd go with a flat gib and a row of
> adjusting screws. Making all the tricky angles for a tapered gib
> could be complicated.
>
> Jon

So flat gibs are considered O.K. then? That makes me feel better.

Thanks,

Rick