Electron microscope in the garage. Turning workshop

    For those who are not yet aware of the project - you can read here .

    From vacuum workers to turners

    For the restoration and modernization of such devices (SEM, TEM and other vacuum devices) it is simply vital to manufacture all kinds of non-standard adapters, plugs, holders, drives and manipulators. Of course, if you buy a new microscope from a dealer, then they will start everything, and they will conduct an annual turnkey service. But firstly, the price of this pleasure leaves the budget of any garage, and secondly, it is quite boring.

    For example, in the case of our microscope, there is not a single standard vacuum compound at all: KF or CF. Therefore, any vacuum device from the store to connect just so will not succeed. And the only right decision would be to manufacture adapters for standard KF flanges.

    With how the booster pump works, we sorted out in the last article. Now you need to connect it all. But even if you make a tee, then you will need more fitting on the foreline pump to put on the vacuum hose. And most importantly: in the column there are several holes that must be closed before experiencing the pleasure of the vacuum in it.

    Let us estimate the list of what needs to be done:

    1. Tee to connect two forevacuum inputs to one pump
    2. Adapter to vacuum pump
    3. Cap for the secondary electron sensor (sensor someone removed for parts)
    4. Two adapters with a proprietary vacuum connector JEOL on a standard KF16 for connecting two vacuum sensors at regular locations (one original is broken, the second just peeled off)
    5. One adapter to the KF25 for a combined vacuum sensor near the electron gun
    6. A pair of compressor nipples
    7. Every little thing

    Buy it can not, all individual. You can draw the drawings and order from the turner (even looking for a good turner, because there in places it is necessary to ensure good accuracy). But to customize the place will not work, but it is impossible to foresee everything in advance. I want to try, how best, how it will work, how it will not. In addition, I still have a lot of plans, what can I do interesting and what can I tell you about.

    So which way to choose?

    Of course, learn the turning case! As quoted in the comments to the last article: roll up the sleeves of an expensive jacket and go ahead, sharpen. Absolutely from scratch, I have never even seen a lathe (in Baumansky, many do practical work at the department of metalworking, but they made an exception for software developers, and in our curriculum there was neither chemistry nor metalworking). Armed with the scientific method, and begin to study the subject area.

    In general, there are two big directions.

    The first is CNC machines .
    The second is universal:



    If in a very simple way, the CNC machine itself from the workpiece, with the help of a set of tools and a program, creates the necessary part. In other words, the creation of a detail is the development of a program that can be obtained from a 3D model; for this, there is a corresponding software. And a man works on universal machines, and the detail that he can do depends on his skill and skill.

    CNC machine has an undeniable advantage in two cases:

    • serial production
    • complex product configuration (for example, the propeller of the vessel, or the body of a fashionable gadget)

    Small lathe


    In order to somehow get into the subject, I decided to start small and on occasion purchased a very rare and unusual turning lathe Pilot L400 , made in Eskilstuna, Sweden . Rare so that this article will be the second in the well-known Internet, which tells about it. To this machine in the kit was a heap of everything different - a dividing head, a coordinate table, a sine table, a part of a drilling machine, Sandvik cutters, Japanese cutters, blanks, and even fixtures, the purpose of which I still haven't figured out.



    To facilitate the transport of many parts removed, including the cartridge, cross feed, reztsederzhku. But the essence on this photo is visible: this machine is installed on a wooden bedside table. He made a long time, but very carefully, and the condition is just perfect (no rust at all). From the unusual, immediately caught the eye: his grandmother is adjustable in height! A bunch of pictures of this machine in a similar configuration can be seen on the link above.

    A wooden table for a lathe is somehow undignified. Therefore, a new table was made for it from the corner. The engine is replaced by a much more powerful Soviet-made, with a frequency converter Hyundai (in common called chastotnik). Generally, chastotnik makes work on the machines so convenient that I will return to it later in the text. The obvious drawback - good (at high power) chastotniki are quite expensive.
    To increase the maximum diameter of the machined parts, the working position of the headstock was higher, and corresponding spacers were made under the cutting tool and tailstock.

    The spindle bearings were replaced, a new pulley for the engine was machined (on it, the spare part sharpens the machine tool for it).

    After all the alterations it looks like this:



    Toch is quite good, and rescued many times, even the restoration of a large machine (as described below) was done with the help of it. But of course it could be tougher. It is impossible to cut a steel billet with a large cutting cutter, it bends everything.



    On this machine, I began to delve into the turning business. Looking ahead I will say that due to the commissioning of a large lathe, this one remained in reserve and is now used very rarely.

    Resources for learning the basics of work on a lathe is now very much. There is a popular Chipmaker forum dedicated to this topic (the moderator of which silently cleared my topic from the links to the articles themselves ). I will note two video channels that turned out to be most useful to me:


    NGF milling machine


    What to do if you need to make a part that is not a body of revolution? Or just make a plane on the part / workpiece? In the project "Electron Microscope" we definitely need this. A milling machine comes to the rescue. We also start with a small one, and experts know it by the three letters of the NGF: Desktop Horizontal Milling machine . Milling are vertical and horizontal, according to the location of the spindle axis. I must say, the horizontal ones are quite specific, and in most cases a vertical mill is required. NHF is universal - it turns from horizontal into vertical by installing a special head. Now you will see everything.

    This training machine, they are full in the classes of labor of Soviet schools. Therefore, we managed to buy a brand new machine that stood for many years. Unfortunately, the photo immediately after the purchase did not, so I found something similar from the Internet. The fact that it is new means that there are no worn parts in it. But badly gabbed details missing. Painted dull green paint, age-old dust, and petrified grease inside. We disassemble everything into parts, skins, paint, lubricate again.



    But the machine is educational, which means it is intended for training, and not for real affairs. Need to modify!

    • We change bearings in VFG ( Vertical Milling Head ) for more modern ones, we lubricate everything with good lubrication.
    • We disassemble the longitudinal and transverse feeds, install rolling bearings there, so that everything rotates easily and naturally (before that, everything was based on friction, and due to the lack of auto feed, the milling process became too tedious).
    • We make a new running shaft, which is responsible for moving along the Z axis. This allows us to expand the boundaries of the table movement down (oh, how it is necessary in this machine)
    • We are shabby WFG to the bed so that there is no backlash.
    • We buy and install a modern collet chuck with a set of collets from 2mm to 20mm

    Today the machine is in this condition.


    This frezer rescued and continues to help out in difficult situations. It made a lot of interesting things.

    Large lathe


    On a Swedish lathe, I gained invaluable hands-on experience. But this machine has a limit of possibilities. The cone (which is so necessary for KF flanges) cannot be sharpened without an additional tool, the stainless steel cannot be machined, it is too hard for it, the titanium is also not ground.

    Everything is convenient, small size, accurately and clearly, but ... In general, I began to slowly look closely at the machines more, read about IL and others. I didn’t search for anything purposefully, I just followed the offers. And I read on the forum that the guys brought C1E61VM lathes from vocational schools and sell for the price of scrap plus a small reward for shipping to Moscow and work.

    The machines turned out to be 10 or even more, and they were really bought up like hot cakes. Came, looked. Yes, the machines are in a row, the state - yes, scrap. Beaten, bent when loading, sometimes incomplete. I walked here and there for a long time, twisted the knobs, naturally everything was stuck due to the fact that it experienced a severe deformation.

    And here the attention was drawn by the most inconspicuous of all. Rusty, with peeling paint, but completely complete, including the cartridge. Guides are not hackneyed, although touched by corrosion. And most importantly - he is not beaten anywhere. The caliper is in place, the tailstock is in place, a thick layer of oil over decades of work has protected important parts from corrosion. And they decided to take it.

    This is what it was at that moment when it was just brought (it replaced the background, and that green machine did not look very much against the background of green grass).



    And so, in what he turned into a garage:



    It also went over everything. Oil tank, feed box, gearbox. In the headstock replaced all the bearings. The main bearing of the spindle was touched by rust, but even so, the accuracy did not suffer, and there was a problem in excessive noise. In any case, all this is replaced by bearings of the same class. The same thing touched the apron of the machine. A number of minor problems were corrected, due to which, apparently, this machine was little used for its intended purpose. For example, brute force did not work, longitudinal feed was not included, etc.

    Our main project is a microscope, so I can tell in more detail about the restoration of machine tools in the presence of interest from readers.

    But I'll show you something. For example, here’s how the old three-jawed cartridge of increased accuracy (on the indicator the right-most significant digit - microns) can:


    (Yes, this is a special case, and on other diameters the beating is greater, but anyway the turner will be appreciated).

    Budget


    • 20 thousand rubles - a large lathe
    • (I forgot how much) - a Swedish lathe with a bunch of everything else
    • 20 thousand rubles - milling NGF-110SH4
    • Free - some incisors from different people. But there are always few incisors, records for them too (even with experience, they still sometimes break down). I plan to find more elbor.
    • Free - Soviet hour indicators

    You must have guessed that all this was not done in one week or even in one month. Restoration of a large lathe from the ruins took a lot of time, and it was easier to find a working machine such as 16K20 (but the accuracy would be lower) or IL. But the knowledge gained was worth it.

    Further development


    If you dream about future development, then two desktop machines become candidates for the replacement: small lathe, because it is not functionally used, and milling NGF.

    As a replacement for the NGF, there may be a large milling one, for example, 6P12 , or even better, a coordinate boring 2A450 . It is interesting because the discreteness of positioning the table in it is 0.001mm, due to the use of a special optical scale.

    If only there is not much interest in turning the recovery process of the machine into a separate video project, then I would not consider more options from scrap. The same applies to the grinding, if you suddenly need it.

    However, we now have everything (and tools and skills) to make parts of arbitrary complexity for the microscope and related projects.

    From this and start in the next series !

    PS Having learned about my interest, one university offered to pick up machines that they no longer need, in connection with the acquisition of new CNC machines. For example, one of them is such a milling cutter:


    But it turned out that during the time they were standing there, they managed to rebuild the room so that it was impossible to pull them out without destroying the walls of the building (or, more precisely, pulling them piece by piece through a long corridor would be too expensive). Therefore, it did not work out.

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