The following information and pictures may be of some help to those wanting to stiffen the compound slide assembly.  After Bob posted his nice improvement I got interested in trying to improve my G0602, the performance when parting or doing heavy cuts never was what it should have been.  I decided to start with Bob's very nice 4-bolt collar, I used 1/2" plate since that is all I had.  I measured the compound slide base and found that the mating surface was 0.004 out of parallel with the ways.  I put it on the rotary table and trued it up, when finished it was within 5 tenths all the way around.

Next I fabricated the new collar, again following Bob's design.  The finished product is certainly heavier than the original.

Next I added three more socket head screws to the graduated collar assembly to stiffen what I felt was a significant weak link in the unit.

Using the rotary table to index to the proper location I drilled, counter drilled and tapped the three new holes.  As a point of information the radius of the hole pattern is 25mm or 0.984".  The screws are 6x1mm.  The final assembly ready for installation.

I had originally planned to do some stress measurements.  Despite my best efforts the results were ambiguous due to the number of moving parts.  There is no question that this new assembly is much more rigid, my final test was to part of a piece of 1.250" 1018 at 350 RPM.  It cut as though it were the proverbial hot butter.

I would like add one additional point for those who either do not wish to under take making a new collar or for those that would like an easier solution.  Based on the measuring that I did complete I believe that if you added a third cap screw to the existing collar at a position of between 30 and 45 toward the operator from the right hand screw you would see a noticeable improvement.  I did not test this fix but I did measure the flexing of the collar at this point which if you vector the force on the tool point this is, on the average, where the maximum lifting force is applied.

This drawing will show the dimensions that I used for the collar.  I suspect that not all G0602's are the same so confirm your units sizes prior to proceeding.

Jim

Jim, Great job!! Much more professional than mine. Thanks a lot for taking my idea and running with it. I think that persons working together multiplies the amount of knowledge and results in great improvements. My present project is a flood coolant system on the cheap. I've developed mine and it works well I only have $8.00 in it in addition to what I had on hand. I will post some pix and description soon.

Bob

I use Sketchup for all my drawings.  It takes awhile to learn the basics but once you learn them it is by far the easiest and most useful program I have come across.  All of the CAD programs have looked at became much too difficult as they moved into 3D.

Good thread and a nice work guys.  I'm going to remember this one.

With respect to the swarf getting into the compound, I would think with a little bit of contemplation, one could come up with a felt ring that would cover the gap and keep most of the debris out.  That or a waxed string like they used for seals in the olden days :)   A piece of solder ( heavier gauge ) would alos push in fairly easy and form to the gap, yet slide well give that it's lead.