Jeweler's Lathe Part 6: The Z carriage 

Definitely look up the ones with two dovetails (it's basically a tapered parallelogram). They work really well!

hlaps1990 I can imagine!

Thanks! Me too!

It's still totally on my radar! I'm still trying to figure out a good way of presenting the info, but I have a few things in mind. My "belts and pulleys" video is so lonely in its playlist :(

You obviously owe me or any other viewer nothing. But yeah, you probably owe it to the belts and pulleys video, poor thing.

Thanks! Yeah now that it's all put together I'm like... "well that was a lot of work to do something simple..." Definitely just a screw from the side to push one of the dovetail halves or something. Even a setscrew or something. Oh well :P

Sooner or later we just have to put our cards on the table :P

I thought I was referencing AvE but he actually says "empire of dirt", so I guess mine is a kingdom :P

Now theres a thought! I dont have any cast iron but maybe a just bronze thrust bushings would do it...

Finally it gets some recognition!

Hmm that's a really good question. I was pretty concerned about the Z locking system but that actually turned out better than expected, although now I'm questioning if it was worth it:P . I think the base of the machine could be better. As it stands now I'm basically going to have to bolt the base to another base which will then clamp to a table. I suppose if I was really clever I could have integrated a clamp somehow. There are also lots of unknowns with the electronics and coolant system. I've left myself lots of room to fill that in, but I really need to start totally finishing designs before I start making them :P. I have tons of rescued fasteners, but I think my big one is motors. Just can't say no to them. Lots of them are rescued from discarded appliances and things. I'm looking forward to filming!

Yeah, I definitely sympathize with the whole designing the thing to death vs just getting started on the build problem. Either the project will live in Solidworks for eternity, waiting to be finished in the design, or I'll end up with some problem during the build that could have been solved during design. What are your plans thus far for electronics?

It sounds like you know exactly what i'm talking about :P I'm hoping to keep electronics fairly simple: An off-the-shelf speed controller and power supply. My main worry is wiring and placement. It may sound like no big deal, but I've been bitten by wiring and electronics placement so many times before!

I'm glad someone appreciated it! I hope I didn't actually trigger anyone haha

Good tip! I never even thought of that. The aluminum will be anodized but maybe I'll use a thick grease or something to further protect it.

Yep both floating with tapers would have worked I think, though then there would have been no solid screwed connection between the dovetail bronze and the carriage itself

I have no idea about garnet thus far. I know its quite hard and i believe the particles are fairly jagged. It just happened to be what i have, so ill give it a try. Perhaps ill compare with sand later

I only believe it's not very strong because it breaks down quickly in comparison to other abrasives. If you're ready to put up the epoxy by all means experiment, it's only going to help us all learn

I shall! Lets all learn!

There will be some slop but this axis is more for positioning than for feeding. Ive just been tuning it and its actually not too bad anyways. The idea with locking the axis by rotating the pusher bar is mainly to keep your hands out of the machine (for safety, but also because its so small its hard to adjust things in there!)

I'm a test engineer. People give me things and ask how accurate they are or how fast they can move and I get them answers.

Can confirm!

git outta here kivin!

D: