We calibrate our really precise levels @ work on a AAA surface plate, in temp controlled room. We fixture them onto the granite and a camera monitors and records the exact position of the bubble. We then flip the level exactly 180 degrees, and the camera tells us how far we are off so that we can adjust it to perfection. "Stiction" is the enemy and usually takes 15-30 minutes to actually overcome any residual motion. An hour of prep saves days of lost wok when leveling machines 150' long.
Nice lathe - have owned a couple of smaller Emcos (8.6 and V10P), you've done well finding a lathe with so many accessories, I sold mine due to frustration at finding extras. Absolutely beautiful bits of kit.......you will enjoy many happy hours with that lathe for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Very nice! I shared a Unimat with my brother ages ago, it was a nice toy, drooled over its bigger brothers. A DRO on a lathe is real handy and I think well worth the trouble buying and installing.
Clean rooms are strictly temp/humidity controlled but that's more of the composite side. the metal side they attempt at keeping a 68F-70F, but during the summer it reaches 90+. The controllers and machines, have temp compensation built into them which work quite well. the long lengths of granite are for quality assurance checking parts on mylar prints. None of the machines sit on granite, except for some of the CMM machines.
you found a very nice one, do not worry about the color, I even seen some emco in yellow. make sure you not only level what you are doing now but also between all 4 corners and then you will have a very nice acurate lathe for many many years to come.
Hi - I am in the UK. I believe most V10Ps were sold to North America - they are fairly rare in Europe now (nice ones at least). I do keep an eye on eBay.com and drool over the Emcos that come up for sale. Glad you're enjoying it.
Just wanted to say thanks for all these great videos. You do a great job explaining your process and thoughts which is invaluable to a beginner like myself.
By the way, the RIGHT way to move a bridgeport. Lower the knee, tilt the head 90 ccw and nod it down. lock everything. put a green rigging strap {10,600lbs in basket config} around the ram between the head and column. Lift! It wont tilt, flop, roll. Notta. Just lift straight up. Anyone that puts forks under anything is just begging for a rollover.
What you didn't do is check your level. Setup your level, let it sit for 30 minutes, record final bubble location VIA a picture from your cell phone, flip the level exactly 180 degrees in the same position and wait 30 minutes. compare photos, if they are exactly the same, level is accurate. If no where close, than level is not fine tuned, and needs adjusting which takes a whole day. Like adjusting for run out, you have to adjust the bubble 1/2 the distance over and over again, until true.
yes, no delay on gravity. you want to use something like a starret master precision. at least .0005" graduations over 12". you can find old starrets or new imports in the 50-100 range. commonly 10 and 12". get one long enough to span your ways.
Yup im not worried. First project for the lathe perhaps? :) Haven't seen the table yet. I am slam wore out from moving these things around. All by myself!. I can set the machines just inside my garage with the forklift, but moving them around is all me. and a pry bar! In a stroke of genius i placed the x49 facing the garage door and the x52 facing the far wall. A thinking man would have done it the other way around! That x49 is ALOT easier to move around.
I had a starret that had a cast iron base, and a vial w/roll cover atop two posts. That i believe is the standard machinst level. iirc its .005" per grad over 12" but the base is only 8 or 10" long. {some math required} Then there were the master precision levels that were like machined and ground square stock with the vial embedded into them. those i believe are the ones gradutated in .0005" they are usually 10 or 12" long. I think of them as the calipers and micrometers of the level world
There are some very good videos here on you tube showing the lathe leveling process, The other thing you will need to do is align your tail stock to the head, also many good vids on the subject. Good luck with your new toy Mate..
I hate UA-cams 500 character limit. so much to say, so little space to say it! :( The calibration and certification of the levels are done in clean room on granite. We than use those levels out in the factory, until the cal/cert date rolls back around. they get checked and adjusted quarterly. sorry for the delay John
my english isnt that great but I will trie to explain, you have two bars were the slide goes over that you now are leveling, now you are only measuring between the bars but you also need to measure along the lenght of those bars (and diagonal if possible)
John, There is a very handy tool for setting the tool height from Edge Technology. It requires that the bed be leveled across the ways. This seems to be a good idea anyway. I bought one of the gadgets simple to use and get the tool height set quickly. look for: edge technology products pro lathe gage
they slide easy :) i can use the forks to push it close, but have to resort to the pry bar for final positioning. At work we have a machine moving lever used by riggers. its like a 7 foot oak plank with steel casters and a steel tongue. you just lever under the machine and roll it wherever you want. When i want them out i just put a strap around the base and slide it out into the driveway where i can pick it up from above. The worst part is no parking brake on the lift!!! its always a challenge
Yes ive seen both 5 thousandths and 5 ten thousandths {per graduation} Use what ya got! Im sure if you leveled it with what you have it would be close enough to serve you well. But it could always be better! remember to zero the level before use. just set it down and turn it 180 noting bubble in each direction.
Hello NYC, I also have a V13, I know this is a rather old posting but if you still have the lathe I could use your help. I don't have a threading dial , so it would be nice if you will give me the specs on the threading dial , gear dia. number of teeth . I went with a rotary phase converter but jut ordered a VFD . Good luck with your project . Thanks , Tom
so with all of those change gears do you have the option to do both metric and standard threading? if so that's very nice and a good looking follow rest to boot! well congratulations! and good luck with your new purchase hope to see videos of it soon haven't seen a lathe video from you for a couple of years it seams.
I spotted one in Australia in 2016, already sold on Ebay, it was an Emco v10p, it was missing a chuck and compound slide, was sitting in a backyard junkyard, seller had very fuzzy photos and didn't know a thing about lathes, it looked good, probably covered up, sold for $175 Aus
So i ended up with a 9x49 and a 10x52 Webb the webb is kind of a piece of crap. its missing a few parts, and will need a little love to get it back in service. the littler one is real clean. there is a cover over the table, im anxious to remove it and see how clean the table is {or isn't} Need to find a draw bar for the webb few other little things. Looks like a got a winter project! {its 104 degrees today..winter is a relative term out here}
heeeyyy, you just googled that didnt you! {ive NEVER heard anyone say it that way...lol} but ive heard it butchered so many ways! i always went with "kosh". Went to Bourget Bike Works auction today, bought me 2 Bridgeports. No idea what im gonna do with em! lol
i personally refuse to believe a bubble level can achieve that accuracy!! But it must be so, because here we are today. Able to achieve aerospace tolerance in the avg home garage. And we got there buy using "less accurate" manual methods and machines to build higher accuracy machines than the equipment used to make them...wwaaaiiittt. hows that even possible!? lol. anyhow. is your level a 10"? you have to be careful at what distance the given accuracy is rated at, and how long the level base is
When in doubt, call the manufacture and listen carefully to the lady that answers the phone. I have settled this debate over speaker phone about Ferrea about a hundred times...lol. im sure the ladies are gettin tired of me hanging up on them!
haha nope! I can drive it in the garage, the mast just barely clears the door. But to get the forks above the mill, the headache rack hits the ceiling. I REFUSE to pick a mill up by the table or underneath the base. I like both my mill and my life! Id rather not ruin either :) The mills are so top heavy and scary i didnt want to put them on pipes and roll em egyptian style. So i just muscle **cked it around the garage till i got it how i wanted it. No sympthahy eh. How about a muscle relaxer?
First you should make yourself some of those wedge and screw type leveling feet (google wedge jack, look at pictures). None of that rubber cup rubbish :)
A bubble level is instant. Why would you turn it, then wait a half hour? thats 29 minutes and 50 seconds of wasted life. the fluid inside IS NOT very viscous as all. If it takes you an entire day to tune in a level, well. Lets just say I'm hoping you do this for a hobby, and not for a living.
We calibrate our really precise levels @ work on a AAA surface plate, in temp controlled room. We fixture them onto the granite and a camera monitors and records the exact position of the bubble. We then flip the level exactly 180 degrees, and the camera tells us how far we are off so that we can adjust it to perfection. "Stiction" is the enemy and usually takes 15-30 minutes to actually overcome any residual motion. An hour of prep saves days of lost wok when leveling machines 150' long.
Nice lathe - have owned a couple of smaller Emcos (8.6 and V10P), you've done well finding a lathe with so many accessories, I sold mine due to frustration at finding extras. Absolutely beautiful bits of kit.......you will enjoy many happy hours with that lathe for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Congrats! There are few things more exciting than new tools/tooling in the shop!
I have a V10 and love it so Im sure you will love the rigidity of the V13
Very nice! I shared a Unimat with my brother ages ago, it was a nice toy, drooled over its bigger brothers. A DRO on a lathe is real handy and I think well worth the trouble buying and installing.
Clean rooms are strictly temp/humidity controlled but that's more of the composite side. the metal side they attempt at keeping a 68F-70F, but during the summer it reaches 90+. The controllers and machines, have temp compensation built into them which work quite well. the long lengths of granite are for quality assurance checking parts on mylar prints. None of the machines sit on granite, except for some of the CMM machines.
you found a very nice one, do not worry about the color, I even seen some emco in yellow.
make sure you not only level what you are doing now but also between all 4 corners and then you will have a very nice acurate lathe for many many years to come.
Hi - I am in the UK. I believe most V10Ps were sold to North America - they are fairly rare in Europe now (nice ones at least). I do keep an eye on eBay.com and drool over the Emcos that come up for sale. Glad you're enjoying it.
Just wanted to say thanks for all these great videos. You do a great job explaining your process and thoughts which is invaluable to a beginner like myself.
By the way, the RIGHT way to move a bridgeport. Lower the knee, tilt the head 90 ccw and nod it down. lock everything. put a green rigging strap {10,600lbs in basket config} around the ram between the head and column. Lift! It wont tilt, flop, roll. Notta. Just lift straight up. Anyone that puts forks under anything is just begging for a rollover.
What you didn't do is check your level. Setup your level, let it sit for 30 minutes, record final bubble location VIA a picture from your cell phone, flip the level exactly 180 degrees in the same position and wait 30 minutes. compare photos, if they are exactly the same, level is accurate. If no where close, than level is not fine tuned, and needs adjusting which takes a whole day. Like adjusting for run out, you have to adjust the bubble 1/2 the distance over and over again, until true.
yes, no delay on gravity. you want to use something like a starret master precision. at least .0005" graduations over 12". you can find old starrets or new imports in the 50-100 range. commonly 10 and 12". get one long enough to span your ways.
Yup im not worried. First project for the lathe perhaps? :) Haven't seen the table yet. I am slam wore out from moving these things around. All by myself!. I can set the machines just inside my garage with the forklift, but moving them around is all me. and a pry bar! In a stroke of genius i placed the x49 facing the garage door and the x52 facing the far wall. A thinking man would have done it the other way around! That x49 is ALOT easier to move around.
I had a starret that had a cast iron base, and a vial w/roll cover atop two posts. That i believe is the standard machinst level. iirc its .005" per grad over 12" but the base is only 8 or 10" long. {some math required} Then there were the master precision levels that were like machined and ground square stock with the vial embedded into them. those i believe are the ones gradutated in .0005" they are usually 10 or 12" long. I think of them as the calipers and micrometers of the level world
There are some very good videos here on you tube showing the lathe leveling process, The other thing you will need to do is align your tail stock to the head, also many good vids on the subject. Good luck with your new toy Mate..
I hate UA-cams 500 character limit. so much to say, so little space to say it! :( The calibration and certification of the levels are done in clean room on granite. We than use those levels out in the factory, until the cal/cert date rolls back around. they get checked and adjusted quarterly. sorry for the delay John
my english isnt that great but I will trie to explain, you have two bars were the slide goes over that you now are leveling, now you are only measuring between the bars but you also need to measure along the lenght of those bars (and diagonal if possible)
John, There is a very handy tool for setting the tool height from Edge Technology. It requires that the bed be leveled across the ways. This seems to be a good idea anyway. I bought one of the gadgets simple to use and get the tool height set quickly.
look for: edge technology products pro lathe gage
they slide easy :) i can use the forks to push it close, but have to resort to the pry bar for final positioning. At work we have a machine moving lever used by riggers. its like a 7 foot oak plank with steel casters and a steel tongue. you just lever under the machine and roll it wherever you want. When i want them out i just put a strap around the base and slide it out into the driveway where i can pick it up from above. The worst part is no parking brake on the lift!!! its always a challenge
Yes ive seen both 5 thousandths and 5 ten thousandths {per graduation} Use what ya got! Im sure if you leveled it with what you have it would be close enough to serve you well. But it could always be better! remember to zero the level before use. just set it down and turn it 180 noting bubble in each direction.
Hello NYC, I also have a V13, I know this is a rather old posting but if you still have the lathe I could use your help. I don't have a threading dial , so it would be nice if you will give me the specs on the threading dial , gear dia. number of teeth . I went with a rotary phase converter but jut ordered a VFD . Good luck with your project . Thanks , Tom
so with all of those change gears do you have the option to do both metric and standard threading? if so that's very nice and a good looking follow rest to boot!
well congratulations! and good luck with your new purchase hope to see videos of it soon haven't seen a lathe video from you for a couple of years it seams.
I spotted one in Australia in 2016, already sold on Ebay, it was an Emco v10p, it was missing a chuck and compound slide, was sitting in a backyard junkyard, seller had very fuzzy photos and didn't know a thing about lathes, it looked good, probably covered up, sold for $175 Aus
So i ended up with a 9x49 and a 10x52 Webb the webb is kind of a piece of crap. its missing a few parts, and will need a little love to get it back in service. the littler one is real clean. there is a cover over the table, im anxious to remove it and see how clean the table is {or isn't} Need to find a draw bar for the webb few other little things. Looks like a got a winter project! {its 104 degrees today..winter is a relative term out here}
Nice addition to your shop. I'm still using my micromark 7x16. I'm jealous :)
You should add a coolant system,( If you want to be cheap go to Home Depot buy a bucket, lid, fountain pump and hose)
Another nice video. Thanks for showing us what you have going on. BTW, Hardinge rhymes with hinge, not ding.
Love the videos keep them coming!!
It should. I can take some pictures of the leveling feet we made and send them to you.
This looks like a real gem. 7 chuks! Trade some of them for a faceplate.
heeeyyy, you just googled that didnt you! {ive NEVER heard anyone say it that way...lol} but ive heard it butchered so many ways! i always went with "kosh". Went to Bourget Bike Works auction today, bought me 2 Bridgeports. No idea what im gonna do with em! lol
V13 on Ebay right now for $2699, NICE!!
i personally refuse to believe a bubble level can achieve that accuracy!! But it must be so, because here we are today. Able to achieve aerospace tolerance in the avg home garage. And we got there buy using "less accurate" manual methods and machines to build higher accuracy machines than the equipment used to make them...wwaaaiiittt. hows that even possible!? lol. anyhow. is your level a 10"? you have to be careful at what distance the given accuracy is rated at, and how long the level base is
Level the machine. You should make some small jack screws that you can adjust to level it. You will get more even wear on the machine if its level.
nice little lathe...should do some fine work.. what did you end up paying this matters!
When in doubt, call the manufacture and listen carefully to the lady that answers the phone. I have settled this debate over speaker phone about Ferrea about a hundred times...lol. im sure the ladies are gettin tired of me hanging up on them!
Yes
like a grand a piece. Now i have 3 mills in my garage! lol. 2 of them will be sold off and i will end up with a free "upgrade" :)
haha nope! I can drive it in the garage, the mast just barely clears the door. But to get the forks above the mill, the headache rack hits the ceiling. I REFUSE to pick a mill up by the table or underneath the base. I like both my mill and my life! Id rather not ruin either :) The mills are so top heavy and scary i didnt want to put them on pipes and roll em egyptian style. So i just muscle **cked it around the garage till i got it how i wanted it. No sympthahy eh. How about a muscle relaxer?
nicee
First you should make yourself some of those wedge and screw type leveling feet (google wedge jack, look at pictures). None of that rubber cup rubbish :)
thats not runout, clean the shit out the spindle i bet it goes away!
lol ok now Pronounce Heckler & Koch!
A bubble level is instant. Why would you turn it, then wait a half hour? thats 29 minutes and 50 seconds of wasted life. the fluid inside IS NOT very viscous as all. If it takes you an entire day to tune in a level, well. Lets just say I'm hoping you do this for a hobby, and not for a living.