One foot in the machine shop.

[Mal Paso]

Fun ain't it!

Yep! LOL

[pacomdiver]

old red
its the same mill that mal paso has a pic of in post 54, all i know is both of the ones i had were obviously bad from the factory because they made noise as soon as i turned them on

[Mal Paso]

Yes it is noisy. There is a YouTube video comparing mine to the belt drive upgrade model. Fortunately I already had hearing protection. The last few passes I made in aluminum at 2400 RPM in high range. Seems to be working OK.

pacomdiver the mill you wound up with is far more capable than mine but is over 600 lbs heavier. An excellent choice but more than I could handle right now.

[oldred]

Yes those things are noisy as they come from the factory, it's just the nature of the beast as the old saying goes. However the milling head is just a box with a simple jack-shaft held in a couple of bearings driven by those plastic gears so there is very little that can go wrong with them, it's not at all like the head is some sort of gear box because there is nothing in there except that jack-shaft. Short of worn out bearings which is certainly not going to be the case with a new machine or broken drive gears which would be obvious there is nothing else much to go wrong in there that any noise would be indicative of.

[danomano]

Not sure if it helps but a book that I was shown is "Technology of Machine Tools" by Krar, Smid, and Gill. I think I found a used copy on evilbay for like 12 bucks shipped. Lots of good feeds and speeds info in there for lots of things. Its basically a school text book. Might be worth a peak.

[Bloodman14]

Did this thread die from apathy? I was hoping to learn something.

[Jeff Michel]

Threads usually die out because the original question or topic has been beat to death. If you have a specific question or even a more general one, ask. There are plenty of people ready to weigh in on machines/machine work. Don't be bashful.

[country gent]

Blood man 14

PM me with your questions and or ideas, Im more than willing to help. Tool and die maker for 35 years and just now putting my own hobby shop in now hat Im medically retired

[Bloodman14]

No real need for a PM, just looking to learn what I can in general, because I am putting together my own machine shop hoping to put all of my tools to work. It's a skill set that I want to use to make a living on, hopefully.

[country gent]

One thing that most overlook when setting up a shop is to allow room to work around the machines. Sometimes a lathe is easier to load indicate in from the back side. ( gets the hand wheels tool post out of the way) same with a mill. Allow room to sweep up. Also a die cart can then be used to move heavy tooling around saving lifting and carrying. Storage should be as easy as possible. I bought 96" tall shelves and assembled in 1/2 units so only 42" tall saves lifting chucks, vises, and other heavy tooling as high or from between shelves. Keep tooling near the machines where its used at. Have plenty of outlets and air drops around the shop.

[Moleman-]

Bloodman14, machine tools can be very expensive to buy repair parts for. Learn to fix the broken ones you can or make new ones yourself. These were all repairs to used machines that were broken when I bought them. Bull and back gears simple braze and recut, been in use for 12 years or so now. 1301 shift lever was broken so the lathe would only run in one speed range. Cost me a bushing, the rest was out of the scrap bucket. 16T gears were damaged (as shown by the dirty gear with the oilite bearing in it) by some idiot changing gears without stoppling the lathe. Still worked, just noisy. Used 4140 barrel drops out of the scrap bucket to make the 16T gears and bought new oilite bearings to replace the old ones. Did have to buy a $15 cutter though to cut them.

[country gent]

The lathe mill and machines are the cheaper part. of the shop. All the tooling required, chucks, collets, vises, rotary tables, dividing head, Boring heads, cutters reamers taps and drills ect ect add up fast

[Jeff Michel]

Bloodman14,
I think increasing one's skill is just about a must when you are discussing the use of any machine tool. Without any knowledge of your background with metalworking, advise or guidance is very difficult. Are you interested in general machine work and if so what machines? There are so many facets to metalworking, you won't live long enough to learn it all so getting your sights closer to the horizon will help you on your quest. It's a process that requires incredible patience and attention to detail and living with your mistakes and you will have plenty starting out. Starting out as an auto-didactic myself, you will reach a plateau with your ability to understand certain aspects on your own. This is when a night class coming in to play you help you understand say, blueprints or G-codes. Equipment acquisition is easy part. Spending two days making a setup so you can make a 30 second cut is the trick classes can help teach you. It's one of the most fascinating vocation or in my case, avocation you can become involved in. I get just as much satisfaction out of making a spur gear for a donkey engine I'm currently building as I do putting a new barrel on my neighbor's Mauser. Nothing magical about it, jump in and make something, a bolt or a sub plate for you mill. Neither is difficult and both will teach you skills that can be applied on other projects. Keep asking and keep it challenging, that's the secret.