When concentrating on spraying cutting fluid on drill when drilling deep holes it's very easy to wind the ram out too far and off the grub screw key. So!
By measuring down to the top surface of the ram and adding half ram diameter gets the certre line of the ram. I marked and centre punched the spot for the stop pin.
I have set the drill depth stop so 3/16" drill will just drill into the ram. I did this at both extremities of ram travel. The ram out extremity is a few millimetres before the ram comes off the original grub screw pin.
So far so good. When the job was finished the ram comes to a stop at 42 and a half mm.
Setting up true in all aspects and making sure the spotted holes are on centre line AND that the original keyway is square to it. The G clamp is on a piece of copper rod in the threaded end of the ram.
I cut the groove about the same depth as the original groove.
I didn't have a metric slot drill so I planned the job around the 3/16" one I had. I can see a new project, dowel a piece of aluminium on to my angle fixture and cut a V groove, make the dowels tight in the aluminium v block and a neat fit in the fixture, I'd have an instant on centre V block that would be easy to attach and remove.
An M8 X 1.25 hex head set screw, I undercut the thread near the head and machined the end to a few thou less than the slot width and made sure the length was just right so I can tighten it up hard against the head. Of course the 3/16" hole I previously put in the tailstock had to be drilled out to suit tapping size for M8 X 1.25
I also machined the head to a low dome shape with enough hex left to use a ring spanner to tighten it, a single hex ring spanner or socket gives less chance of damaging the hex, which would make it not pretty. The Ram won't come out now unless I want it too. Another thing is that the ram doesn't slop (rotationally) as it did when it only had the original grub screw "pin key". I could actually delete the original and plug the hole but it's still there for now.
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