Call the lowest spot zero, and everything above that has to go. I would put the table on a surface plate and lay out and mark the entire table as to required stock removal. If I was going to try to cut a table before scraping, here are some things I would do: When those machines were new you could dial off thousandths and 'be there.' In the Eightys I was in their factory and saw the thread grinding machine they used. One of the best features of the Index Mill is the ground acme screws.

Squareness of the axes may be a more important feature than the over all flatness. However, how many machines are ever perfect from the factory? It's always nice to have a perfect machine. After all, it's not how square the spindle is to the table that's important but how square the spindle is to the table travel.Īll that said the Fadals did a kind of swooping fly cut on their tables to finish them. If you use a vise, you may true up some soft jaws and be just fine. I think it really depends on the work you do. What could you work on which would be compromized by a non perfect table? I guess the question is: What is the 'damage' of having a table not completely true? Has anyone tried this? What was the result? The top would be scraped after it is cut. So, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to fly-cut the top of a mill table on the machine itself? If it's do-able, I know I would have to re-scrape the ways as I expect it will warp some. The couple of smaller local shops don't have machinery big enough to do the job. We have a couple of big machine shops, but they are pretty dedicated to the mining industry, and don't really do 'small stuff' like a 9 x46 table. I live in an area where 'services' are not so available. 007' low, (.005' lower than the others) I think that this table was 'freshened up' at some point with little regard to alignment, and it also has a couple of booboo in it that could be machine off. 002' on each end, which was not too big a deal to straighten, but the top is much worse. I have scraped the table slides and last night turned the table over to get a good measurement on the table top. I am getting close to finishing up the scraping on my 'new' wells Index 847 mill.

Flycut rusty surface