Good mill?

[wjr]

I went to Northern Tool yesterday, and I saw this milling machine: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...6970_7171_7171

The mill was used, so I could probably get it for a good price

I know next to nothing about mills or lathes, would I be happy with it you think? It'll be used for hobby use, so not really any major fabrication.

[p8ntbal4me]

I went to Northern Tool yesterday, and I saw this milling machine: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...6970_7171_7171

The mill was used, so I could probably get it for a good price

I know next to nothing about mills or lathes, would I be happy with it you think? It'll be used for hobby use, so not really any major fabrication.

That will do you,.. but basically its a drill press that has the milling table built into it with the lathe. Not a bad deal,... it will do what u need if you want t make some small work done.

Im going to the next step and getting a CNC,... http://www.tabletopmachineshop.com/s...=232460&cat=1&

[Jaan]

Do you have any used machinery places around you? With the popularity of CNC machines, old lathes and milling machines are cheap. If you have the space you might be able to get more professional used stuff. It doesn't hurt to look.

[havocx]

Do you have any used machinery places around you? With the popularity of CNC machines, old lathes and milling machines are cheap. If you have the space you might be able to get more professional used stuff. It doesn't hurt to look.

Just make sure you get something you can run with the existing electrical set up in the given location. Nothing would be worse the getting something that is 220V when you only have 120V.

Check amp loads also. Most residences are only wired for 120V @ 15A (in Canada at least)

[p8ntbal4me]

Do you have any used machinery places around you? With the popularity of CNC machines, old lathes and milling machines are cheap. If you have the space you might be able to get more professional used stuff. It doesn't hurt to look.

There are,.. the place I went to get my current setup offers Sheline and Jet as well as Bridgeport.

A Sherline full size CNC with a 52" by 4 foot table,.. 240v power,... clearange on the head is about 2 feet off the table. Cleaning and injection system,.. the works,.. $15k. He was only the salesman and not the owner,... he said because I was a vet, I would get a price break. Here Im thinking,.... "Umm,... thats a HUGE price break already!"

Oh yeah,.. it comes fully tooled!

If I had the money,.. it would be in my kitchen!

[Jaan]

Just make sure you get something you can run with the existing electrical set up in the given location. Nothing would be worse the getting something that is 220V when you only have 120V.

Check amp loads also. Most residences are only wired for 120V @ 15A (in Canada at least)

That's an easy fix. It's easy and reasonably priced to wire up a residence for 3 phase.

That's a good point though, I've seen it done so many times that I forget that it needs to be done. It's like forgetting to tell a newbie buying a paintball gun that he needs a tank too.

[wjr]

I'm sure that if I looked I could find a used machine place. Thanks for the suggestion. And amps shouldn't be a problem. I'm going to be keeping it in the shop at my dads office which used to be home to lots of big machinery.

And do any of you know of any websites that goes over basic milling technique? And what sort of bits should I get? I would try and find them myself, but I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for.

[havocx]

There are two types of milling with a fluted mill, climb and ??? I've forgotten (been since high school)

Climb milling is harder though as it pulls your work into the bit. Only problem with that is if there is any slop in your table it can go for a ..... poop.

CNC/General machinest forums

[omegaredghost]

here this could help http://www.americanmachinetools.com/...ng_machine.htm

[Pneumagger]

There are two types of milling with a fluted mill, climb and ??? I've forgotten (been since high school)

Climb milling is harder though as it pulls your work into the bit. Only problem with that is if there is any slop in your table it can go for a ..... poop.

CNC/General machinest forums

Climb milling and Conventional milling.

They produce different sufrace finishes because in one case the chip load increases (gets thicker through the cut, and in the other the chip load decreases throught the cut.

[CoolHand]

Climb milling and Conventional milling.

They produce different sufrace finishes because in one case the chip load increases (gets thicker through the cut, and in the other the chip load decreases throught the cut.

/Sniff

Our little man's all growed up now.

I do so love to see folks developing an in-depth understanding of what they are doing.

[Railgun]

I've done a fair amount of hobby machine shop work in my time. These little 3in1's are not really all that they promise to be. I've seen a couple of the larger ones that I'd have but generally the smaller ones lack a lot of features. Thread cutting being one of them. If it doesn't come with a gear set then you've just hamstrung yourself.

But worst of all is the limitations in the milling side of things. Again on the smaller ones the table working surface is small and that does not leave much room for the clamping equipment or some other setups like a rotary table or an indexing head. Also the table to spindle distance on the smaller units is severley limited and you can run out of room quickly when you start adding up the room needed for the vise, the endmill holder and the workpiece.

Also while you may want to never do anything but make paintball stuff you'll find that you will need to make up the tooling and jigs to make that paintball stuff. And often making up jigs or other fixtures or tooling is as big or bigger a job than the parts you want to end up making.

I've looked at a lot of the sub $1000 3in1's and found most of them to not do what they promise. But once you get over the $G mark they become a lot better.

But even the good ones are a pain in that you need to change setups radically to switch from one set of tooling and holders to the other set of tooling and holders. If you're really and truly stuck for room then it offers some advantages. But if you can spare the room you're far better off with a more capable mill drill machine and a separate lathe. A 9 x 18 or a 12 x 20 is not a super large machine. And if you have room for a benchtop drill press then you likely have room for a mill/drill.

[FARMER00]

so did you get it yet? do you like it?

[wjr]

Nope, nor will I anytime soon.