OBJECTIVES:

1.   Designed for CNC & flood cooling from start. Self contained HMC. (Horizontal Machining Center)
2    Lathe, CNC electronics, computer, monitor, keyboard, flood cooling and tool storage all live in one stand.
3.   Stand must be movable.
4.   One 20 Amp cord will supply power to stand--power will then be distributed as needed.
5.   Cooling basin will have removable chip collection basket.
6.   Monitor and keyboard must rotate out of way as needed.
7    Lathe must be accessible from all sides--including bottom.
8.   Provisions will be provided for easy lathe leveling.
9.   Lathe will be hoisted up and stand rolled underneath for mounting.
10.  Stand with lathe will weigh about 700 LB. Wheels sized to support double that weight.
11. Stand must quick/disconnect attach to wall for extra rigidity.

Here's some rusty steel 3/16 x 1 1/2 inch angle iron that will be converted into the stand:
 

Here are all of the stand parts cut.
 

Now they will be cleaned of rust, primed, drilled for bolts and painted. This would have been easier using
NEW 1 1/2 inch angle iron--just have to degrease it, but the price was good since it was already here.
At Lowes' prices, this small pile of metal would have cost almost $400. Everything is 3/16" except for the
actual lathe mount pieces at very top--THEY are 1/4 inch.

I cut up all of that steel using my trusty HF chop saw:


 

To clean up the rust, I will use the Angle Brothers, AG and WB. (WB is twisted):

These tools are dangerous! Wear eye protection and breathing mask. The Chop saw dust is toxic. Its
blade turns pretty fast. If it were to shatter, don't be standing in the line of fire. Unsecured steel can 
injure you if thrown. Don't wear clothes (or dangling strings/straps) that can be caught in the rotating tools.
Wear heavy gloves. Cut metal is HOT! The Angle grinder is relatively safe unless you bang and shatter
the wheel--DON'T BREATH THE DUST!

The really wicked one of the bunch is the wire brush. It can shed tiny high-speed needles that can easily
put an eye out. If you bump your hand with the angle grinder it will burn you, but if you bump your hand
with the spinning wire brush, it's going to take some flesh at the least. BE CAREFUL! It's a dull task, and
you can get in trouble if you let your mind wander while cutting or cleaning metal.
 

The idea is to remove rust. You don't have to remove the paint if it is sound. First go is with the angle
grinder:
 

And the wire brush finishes it off--Good for cleaning pitted rust. FYI:
If you go this route, buy the $15 Dewalt or brand wire brush--NOT the $5 Harbor freight one. Because
it is made of really good steel--The Dewalt does more in 1/4 the time and outlasts about 15 of the HF
cheapies.
 
Once bare metal is exposed--you MUST prime it immediately, because the metal is already starting to rust.

Here are some of the base parts being primed:
 

All of the base parts undergoing Quality Control inspection:
 

And now primed:
 

The uprights:
 

And finally, the lathe mounts:


Now to the drill press for some bolt-hole drilling. You may want to weld it together instead, but I like the idea of disassembling
to the small stack of metal if I ever decide to move. 

The secret to drilling in steel, is to start small and work up to the final hole size. I've already drilled about
three smaller holes up to now:
 

I like to use paraffin wax as a lube and drill coolant:




 

Here's the wheel supports laid onto the truck rails for hole marking. Of course, if I had plans, I
would just measure, mark and drill.
 

The wheels rub the rails. I opted to grind a relief. It might have been easier to just cut 1/4" from each
rail's bottom end:
 


Say Villy dare dey go.
Tousand busses in a row.
Summit cows an summit ducks.

Dem aint busses,
Dem is TRUCKS!


Yes Willy, dem is WHEEL trucks



Base rails mounted to wheel trucks:


Tool box, with firring strips top & bottom, mounted to base rail. Tool box becomes integral part of frame
and provides stiffness and rigidity:


Top rails mounted to tool box:
 

Uprights installed to rails:
 

Lathe-mount brackets attached to uprights. Leveling hardware attached to brackets:


1/4 inch steel lathe mounts installed:


2x10 lathe-mount base:


Lathe drip pan used to locate lathe-mounting holes:
 

Complete frame with multi-length uprights:


Under-lathe coolant directors installed:


Lathe hoisted and waiting for roll-under of stand for installation:


Lathe installed to stand:


Monitor installed:
 

Monitor swivel mount:


Backsplash must be trimmed to allow passage of raisable
coolant enclosure. All seams will be caulked with clear
Silicon Sealant:


Keyboard mounts fabricated & installed:


Keyboard table installed:


Keyboard table swivels up out of the way:


Finished keyboard table with keyboard & mouse for reference:


These holes are for mounting raisable coolant enclosure arms:


Chuck & accessory storage will be built from 2x10 lumber
on each side bay-front. Level legs are for absolute rigidity:


I bought the very cheapest Sears toolbox because it was about 2 inches shorter than the more expensive
versions. It's a strong box, but has inferior drawer slides so they can upsell you for more money. The
drawers will never support the kink of weight I intend to load them with, so I added some BB drawer slides.

The box sides are polluted with Sears slide mounts. My standard slides required cutting off the top
half of the sears mount for each drawer:


Now the new slide can just lay on the bottom mounts and be marked, drilled and screwed to the box.
Next, the drawer is slid onto the old slide, squared up, marked, drilled and mounted to the drawer.
 

Progress of HMC stand so far. Computer & CNC electronics will mount into
left-side bay. Flood coolant tank, filter & pump will reside in right-side bay.
Open area under Lathe is for slide-in coolant catch basin. Removable chip
catch basket will fit into basin:


ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:

Power will come in by one cord and be distributed around the HMC frame.

The crossover conduit will be the open space just above the top drawer. Drill a series of holes here
which culminate at 3/4 inch diameter:


The conduit I used is a piece of 1/2 inch PVC water pipe turned to 3/4 inch on each end:

Here is the conduit installed into the first junction box. This box will be completely buried under the accessory rack, so no outled or switch will be installed here.

I turned a bunch of these PVC spacers to fit between each outlet box:

The Flood cooling control relay is mounted into its own outlet box:

Here is that outlet box mounted above the computer/CNC electronics area:

Left and right sides are now connected by conduit and ready for wiring:

Main power conductor between the two sides:

Wiring begins:
 

All computer-side wire installed:
 

Outlets added:
 

 

Note Master Switch on right:
 

Flood-side wiring:
 

This is relatively complicated. Far right outlet is powered whenever power cord is plugged in. All other
outlets are only on when Master Switch is on. Middle outlet is controlled by Mach3 by pump relay--And
Can also be powered manually with this switch:
 

This is what you want to see when testing each outlet. Two lights on right means it's tight!