Part III: Leadscrew (incomplete)

	2004/02/11. I cast a few more parts. The one on the right is a modified cross side. The left has the tool holder and one lead screw bearing (I cast another using the same pattern later). I used a small piece of stainless steel tube as a core for the bearings (you can see one in the image). It worked well and came off nicely with a small tap with a hammer.
	2004/02/11. There is a bunch of pitting and rough spots. I was a little impatient in making both the patterns and the mold. I didn't smooth the wood with a layer of wood glue like I've done in the past. I also ended up with a pretty bad mold for the cross slide. I should have chucked it and started over, but it just seems to take time... Also I should have put the cross slide sprue near the raised part because I ended up with a little shrinkage. I think it should still work fine though. I still think I'll probably redo everything later on anyway.
	2004/02/15. I cut the parts off the sprues and started filing them down to look nice. I also drilled some holes and tapped the ones in the larger pieces. They still need a bit of work though. You'll notice that these bearings are a bit different from Gingery's design. My bed is shaped a little different so the bearings needed a little modification.
	2004/02/20. I made the holes in the leadscrew bearings a little bit more round and consistent by drilling them through with a 9mm drill bit. I cut off a couple of small pieces of 9mm brass tube (inner diameter 8mm) and pushed them into the bearing holes. Not really a snug fit, but I'm not really worried about a little lateral movement of the leadscrew. My leadscrew is a long piece of M8 rod so it should fit nicely through the brass tubes. Finaly, I attached the bearings to the bed with a couple of screws.
	2004/02/20. In the interest of time, I cheated and made the leadscrew set collars out of a few M8 bolts. I drilled and tapped a hole in each one for an M3 set screw.
	2004/02/20. Here are the set collars in place on the leadscrew. It doesn't look very pretty, but it seems to work well. There is very little longitudinal play in the leadscrew and it turns very smoothly. I had to use some set screws in the collars that are a little shorter than in the image above. There were just a couple of spots where they stuck out too much.
	2004/02/20. It's starting to look good! I need to start making some handles for the leadscrew and cross slide...

Questions? Comments?