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General control line discussion => Open Forum => Topic started by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 07:16:27 AM

Title: New Milling Machine
Post by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 07:16:27 AM
Finally got my last shop tool.
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Gene O'Keefe on March 28, 2012, 07:42:56 AM
Very nice .... planning on reworking engines ? or ?
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 07:53:51 AM
Very nice .... planning on reworking engines ? or ?

For those times when I've said "If I only had... .

I owned a manufacturing company for 21 years and have spent most of my working life in the metalworking field.  I have always had machine tools at my disposal.  Now, I have a lathe, drill press, saws and a mill in my basement.
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Clancy Arnold on March 28, 2012, 08:26:55 AM
Dick
You did not plan ahead.  You should have retained 1 % of the business for a key to the shop and access to all of the machines!!
Clancy
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 08:41:09 AM
Dick
You did not plan ahead.  You should have retained 1 % of the business for a key to the shop and access to all of the machines!!
Clancy

Um...nope.  Complete dismemberment and sale in 2003.  The only thing I kept was my good name, such as it was! LOL
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Will Hinton on March 28, 2012, 09:21:07 AM
Oooooooookay, Dick, gimme your address, I'm green with envy but if I can "drop over" and use it I'll return to natural color! LL~ LL~ LL~
Seriously, I'm happy for ya, looks like a quality tool. y1
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Randy Powell on March 28, 2012, 09:31:57 AM
Taig type mills are very cool. I have one and use it all the time. Grizzly, Micromark, Harbor Freight and others sell this mill (under various names). The trick with them is the tooling and making sure you adequately brace the vertical column. In stock form, the column is not all that stable and tramming the the head can be a real pain. But there are aftermarket parts that allows the column to be reinforced and stabilized and it turns this into a very decent mill.

Check out http://www.littlemachineshop.com. They have a ton of tooling, parts and aftermarket goodies for this mill. They even have stuff to turn it into a CNC mill.

Randy
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 09:54:08 AM
Taig type mills are very cool. I have one and use it all the time. Grizzly, Micromark, Harbor Freight and others sell this mill (under various names). The trick with them is the tooling and making sure you adequately brace the vertical column. In stock form, the column is not all that stable and tramming the the head can be a real pain. But there are aftermarket parts that allows the column to be reinforced and stabilized and it turns this into a very decent mill.

Check out http://www.littlemachineshop.com. They have a ton of tooling, parts and aftermarket goodies for this mill. They even have stuff to turn it into a CNC mill.

Randy

Randy, that is where I bought this mill from.  It is a new model that has a solid column.  To my knowledge, LMS is the only supplier of this solid column mill, but it is made in the same Chinese factory as the other brands.  They are all similar.  I also bought the tooling package with a heavy vise, parallels, collets, end mills, edge finder and a clamp set. 
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Allan Perret on March 28, 2012, 10:40:27 AM
How much does something like that cost ?
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Bob Reeves on March 28, 2012, 10:48:21 AM
When I bought mine they were all the same and it was just a matter of finding the best price. I ended up tracking down a Homer truck sale and got it for $300.00, had to pay sales tax but no shipping.

Does it still have the big bolt that lets you angle the column? The Column on mine is hollow, what did they do, make it out of a solid piece?
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 04:01:37 PM
When I bought mine they were all the same and it was just a matter of finding the best price. I ended up tracking down a Homer truck sale and got it for $300.00, had to pay sales tax but no shipping.

Does it still have the big bolt that lets you angle the column? The Column on mine is hollow, what did they do, make it out of a solid piece?

The column is hollow but is not adjustable.  The big problem with mills that have a tilting head is that they are not as rigid.  Not necessarily a biggy as long as you take moderate cuts.  If you need an angular cut with a solid column mill, you can use a sine vise.
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 04:05:02 PM
How much does something like that cost ?

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=3960&category=1387807683

Figure another 250-300 for decent tooling and freight will run 150-200.
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Randy Powell on March 28, 2012, 10:45:13 PM
dick,

Glad to hear that. I bought a kit by them to stabilize the head. They are good guys.
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Dick Pacini on March 28, 2012, 11:15:17 PM
This is my lathe:
Title: Re: New Milling Machine
Post by: Bob Reeves on March 29, 2012, 04:38:14 AM
The column is hollow but is not adjustable.  The big problem with mills that have a tilting head is that they are not as rigid.  Not necessarily a biggy as long as you take moderate cuts.  If you need an angular cut with a solid column mill, you can use a sine vise.

Thanks, was wondering what the difference might be. Spent quite a bit of time on mine when I first got it making sure everything was square and tight. Never really found a need to tilt the head and have avoided even trying for fear it would be a PTA to get it back square with the table.

I sure use the heck out of it, among the normal usage hard to beat for drilling accurate holes.