Sherline 2000 Mill Accessory Plate for Tooling

[jjr2001]

Well the little Sherline needed a place to keep all the accessories so I made the DRO
mounting bar longer and added a mounting pillar for a polycarbonate plate. The plate
has a three thickness block on the upper right side. This is to keep bits like center drills
from falling through the plate. Extra holes for new accessories are in place. Many are
just .125" and can be enlarged for whatever. Should improve workflow.

Cheers, JR

[Paul Jones]

JR,

Nice design and setup. I bought some poly-carbonate plate a few years ago I have been wanting to make a chip guard around my old Unimat SL 1000 lathe/mill improvement ( http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/m...00-lathe-10111 ). I even installed thread inserts in the cabinet for holding the shields around the lathe but never got around to installing the chip shields. It is not needed for the lathe work but would be great addition for the containing the sharp chips coming from the micro-milling operations.

Paul

[jjr2001]

Thanks Paul. The link gives me even more stuff to make! Looks like most of your work on
the Unimat would apply to a Sherline or even the mini lathe. Seems like I still have a lot of tooling to make.
One of these days I must build another little steamer.

Cheers, JR

[Frank S]

JR you will never have all of the tooling made but that is the best part of it. I like you tooling storage everything is at finger tip reach but out of the way and neatly arranged.

[Paul Jones]

JR,

Did you publish how you added the DRO to the Sherline 2000 Mill?

Adding DROs to small machine tools from Sherline on Emco (maker of Unimat) is a challenge because of the limited space and I would like to see how you did this. I would prefer removing my dial indicators on the Unimat and putting in DROs.

Thanks,

Paul Jones

[jjr2001]

Thanks Frank, I find making my own tooling is at least half the fun. My little storage plate
is something I have seen in other shops or on the net. Kinda like the ones on the drill press etc.

Paul, In my case the Sherline 2000 was purchased with the DROs already installed. I am not sure how
they would adapt to the Unimat or other small machines. I like them since they do not get in the way of anything.
No bar and transducer to install. It is all in the encoder and knob assembly that replaces the original knobs.
May not be as accurate as the bar and transducer however the Sherline kit (available separately) has an electronic
adjustment to compensate for backlash. Looks like it should work well.

https://sherline.com/digital-readout-faqs/

https://sherline.com/product/8100-24...ill-dro-240-v/
Package for DRO is quite expensive when bought by itself.

If you are familiar with Arduino programming I would think it possible to build one that would work using something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Wheel-Encoder.../dp/B00NPWGEIM
However the number of steps would have to match the lead screws.

Better price for Sherline kit from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Sherline-Mill...ncoder+readout

Cheers, JR

[Paul Jones]

JR,

Thank you for all the information. I can see why the Sherline DRO installation does not get in the way of anything. It is all hidden near the handwheels. I am pretty sure the Sherline products use Imperial-based lead screws and the encoder programming is based on the Imperial lead screws vs. the Unimat SL 1000 using 8MX1 lead screws. Your Amazon link has provided alternative DRO worthwhile for further investigation.

Most of my machining with the Unimat SL is typically less than 2" so the dial indicators work well. I have a digital dial indicator on the vertical direction for the milling head that can be easily reset to zero or into mm and wish I had the same on the other two axes now that some of my projects are using metric dimensions. See photo below for the 3" swing Unimat lathe with the milling head addition and indexing plates added to the horizontal and vertical axes.



Great info,

Paul Jones

[jjr2001]

My mill is 20 tpi for the lead screws. Sherline does have metric versions of most of their equipment. They do have a metric version of the DRO.
I also use a 0-2" dial indicator on my lathe as well as a converted 6" digital caliper. (not at the same time). The 2" dials are great especially if you are not working with parts longer. Mine is an inexpensive import like this one on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aero-Space-...-/282827348102

Cheers, JR

[Hemi]

GREAT idea!!!!! I plan to add something small in size for my Unimat SL1000 Mill (I have 2 machines!) So the mill column I plan to make something that will sit at the very bottom of the column, and be swing-able and on a slight angle from bottom to top, like yours..... Probably not as big tho..... AS I have a cabinet made to hold everything when not in use, so.. just a short temporary place to put things off the bench and at my fingertips.....

[jjr2001]

Thanks Hemi, these little organizers make our work a bit faster and more organized. The most used tools and accessories will have a place on the plate.
I need to come up with something for my lathe bench. Too many "in use" tools get tossed on the bench for a given project. Be nice to have a nice little organizer for temporary storage when they are in use.

Cheers, JR