Emco Compact 8 compound slide enhancements

Improving the rigidity of the notoriously weak Emco Compact 8 lathe's compound slide.
- intro 00:00
- machining the compound slide bottom 00:55
- adding bolts to stabilize the bottom disc 07:12
- machining the retaining plate 14:05
- checking the result: taking measurements 36:15

[@dieterlaes9838]

Magnificent work again Harald, thank you for sharing! Love to see your magnificent Thiel 158 in action.

[@bobvines00]

Harald, while watching this excellent video, when you got to the part where you were estimating the clearance you needed for your spanner to fit the screw heads, I recalled that my machinist's handbooks all have wrench (spanner) clearances, etc., in tables. If you need to determine spanner clearances again, try looking that information up in your machinist's handbook.

[@mftmachining]

Gute Arbeit Harald. Der 02er DCMT in deiner Bohrstange hatte wohl eine unheimliche Begegnung der 3ten Art.....that guy took quite a beating......lol

[@HaraldFinster]

Ja, der hat einen abbekommen. Für die Emco nutze ich oft PU-Rundriemen, weil ich den überteuerten Keilriemen schonen möchte. Der Rundriemen liefert allerdings nicht das volle Drehmoment. Wenn der Stahl dann einhakt, passiert es mir manchmal, daß ich den Stahl zurückziehe und die Schneidkante ausbricht. Genau das ist hier passiert.

[@ABKGRG]

Well done!

[@pirminkogleck4056]

nice job , i saw it in the Bude ! i tossed my Topslide and mounted a CG25 Soliud toolpost and since then i never ever run into rigidity issues. i went that road because i never need my topslide.

[@HaraldFinster]

Yes, you are 100% right: I use a solid toolpost whenever possible. If you look closely you will notice that I used it throughout the video. I will need the compound slide for an upcoming project. Thus I found this little project worth the effort.

[@pirminkogleck4056]

@@HaraldFinster i will keep your implemantation in mind in Case i have a good excuse to do that. Allthough,i am currently making a 1895 OTTO Deutz D2 ,and i need the topslide i think i get away with the Original. Topslide since the Jobs are Brass only.

[@bambukouk]

Hi Harald, interesting... I have Praezimat (DDR copy of Emco before Chinese did it as well 🤪) Same problem (although it has 4 clamping bolts unlike Emco) My experience is that if clamping plate is too stiff it distorts cross-slide table

[@HaraldFinster]

Good point about the cross-slide table distortion. I didn't notice any change in the behavior of the cross-slide, but will keep an eye on this.

[@johnsherborne3245]

I’m envious of your well endowed scrap bin. Secondly, is there a clever trick to getting absolutely flush countersunk screws? I appreciate what you did her is normal enough, I have noticed in a few instances on my machines that the fit is extremely accurate and I’d love to know how it was done.

[@HaraldFinster]

Honestly, no, I am not aware of a clever trick. You can certainly look up the correct depth in a machinist's handbook and go from there. And, yes, I went deeper than strictly necessary.

[@johnsherborne3245]

@@HaraldFinster my best guess is to use thicker head screws, head proud then machine after fitting. Seems a little of bother.

[@HaraldFinster]

@@johnsherborne3245 good approach if the head has to be perfectly flush - and you get rid of any markings

[@stephanuhu963]

Using a countersink that is closer to the diameter of your c/s screw head, and going slightly below the surface, makes for a very neat, flush c/s screw seat. The hole ends up to be countersunk, with a last bit of the hole being straight down just as deep as the rounded top edge of the c/s screw head. Hard to describe!

[@Andrew_Fernie]

@@stephanuhu963Yes, this saves you from needing an overly large countersink in the part to acommodate the non-tapered portion at the head of the screw.

[@M.M-M]

Schönes Video und gute Arbeit. Aber warum nicht in Deutsch? Liesse sich deutlich angenehmer zuhören.

[@HaraldFinster]

Danke! Die Videos sind auf Englisch (mit deutschen Untertiteln auf Wunsch), weil ich damit deutlich mehr Leute erreiche. Neuerdings sind die Videos sowohl in deutscher als auch englischer Sprache verfügbar.