Hello all,
I bought my Long Mill used so it was already put together. I am in the middle of changing the v wheels and I am finding it difficult to reinsert the bolts. I am sure there is a simple way to do this but since I did not build my machine, I am just not aware of all the little details. Is there a video that shows this? I was unsuccessful at finding one.
First off welcome to the community Greg! If you click the Resources button above on this forum it will bring you to a page that has resources for the LongMill Mk1 and Mk2 as well as gSender. Select your mill and there is an assembly section. Lots of good info there about your mill.
As far as the wheels I believe they are slid onto an axis from the end during original assembly but I have read on here that it can be done without taking everything apart. Just checking here, but I hope you know that some of the nuts are eccentric. Having the nut turned the wrong way would make it harder to get the bolts in. The eccentric nuts should all be on the top wheels for a Mk1 per the manual and the eccentric nuts are on the top on the Y axis and the bottom on the X axis for the Mk2.
Some people have been able to fiddle with them enough to force them on. I had no such luck on the Y gantries. The following is what I did on my MK1
What I ended up doing was moving it into its forwardmost position.
I put some scrap wood under everything to support it
Unbolted the Y rails from the front feet.
Then I was able to replace the wheels (one side at a time)
I put the wheels on and then rolled it back on the Y rail.
Make sure your eccentric nuts are in their widest position. The off-centered hole at the top
Lowest/narrowest
Upper/widest
The X gantry went on easier for me than the two Ys I was able to do it without breaking anything else down.
First I put the eccentric nut into the upper position
Then (I hope Iām remembering correctly here) started with the bottom two wheels by replacing them
Then I put some scrap wood to support the X gantry. I also used a wedge scrap to lift and support it.
Then took the top two wheels off and replaced them while keeping the eccentric nuts in the upper position
I hope I explained everything okay.
Thanks for the response!