One foot in the machine shop.

[Mal Paso]

I marked high and low spots on the spindle yesterday and started shimming with aluminum foil between the spindle and the collet taper. Got interrupted by work but I got what I wanted this morning. No deflection of the needle in a full rotation of the spindle. 2 small tapered pieces of foil, one smaller did the trick. On to adjusting the mast and torqueing it down.

When the storm lets up I'll go get the drill rod from the mail box. Gail warning right now, due to peak about noon. LOL

I squared the mast to the bed using a dial indicator chucked into the trued spindle and got it to .001" in a 6 inch swing. I installed and tweaked the 3/8 collet until the .375 pin ran true. Same shims as the 1/2 collet so the spindle will get replaced some time down the road likely with a belt drive if this mill proves itself. I chucked a 3/8 HSS end mill that will be my first cut and ordered a milling vise to raze the stock within reach of the mill. With what I hear about cutter chatter I have the cutter fully seated in the collet and will have the head as low on the mast as practical. The first project is a dovetail clamp in 6061 aluminum.

I find myself wanting a vertical bandsaw now and that was NEVER on the list.

[skeettx]

Watching !!

[country gent]

You might consider doing a couple little projects in hard wood just to get the "feel" for cutting with the machine. A [portable band saw might be as handy as the vertical saws and blades may be cheaper.

[Bloodman14]

Get the HF 4x6 bandsaw, good investment for the money. I hit my local recycling yard for scrap aluminum and brass/bronze stock to practice on. Wood dulls tool bits something fierce.

[Mal Paso]

Oh, for a good scrap yard. 40 years ago in Escondido, Ca. we had a scrap yard. Any interesting piece of metal that came in was stacked in rows and only the real junk got recycled. You could usually find the piece you needed with most of the machining already done. I didn't realize what a treasure I had. Today at the local yards if you start looking they quickly send someone to tell you that isn't permitted. They don't want anyone hurt and they don't want to slow the operation for a few retail sales.

I bought a lot of 5 1x2x4 aluminum blocks from Stoner Metals in Co. to get started. They did a nice job cutting them and they were $25 shipped.

[cold1]

I just discovered Protoboxes at online metals.com. They are available in stainless, aluminum, brass, copper and steel. 5, 10, 20 pound boxes. They are random drops. It's a great way to get lots of different metal pieces to learn wi machining with.

[sparky45]

Thanks for the heads up about onlinemetals.com. I live in the sticks and there aren't any metal fab shops to scrounge.

[pacomdiver]

hopefully they started making them better. i got one of those abt 5 years ago, it was a piece of junk, the cheezy plastic gears made noise the first time i fired it up and one broke the 3rd time i used it, took it back, they gave me another one, that lasted less than a month, took it back and got credit toward the bigger belt drive bench one . its lasted many milling projects since

[country gent]

When Dad and I were Planing the shop we wanted we decided the small hobby equipment wasnt for us for several reasons. 1) the basic sizes of the work we wanted to do. 2) both of s were are tool and die makers and we would be hard on it with the way we are used to running a machine. We both worked in industry for many years

The small light machines will do a lot of work but wont take the heavy passes. Im currently finishing up the shop in the new garage. I got lucky and the machines were "a one stop shopping for me. I made one offer on a friends shop that was being sold since he is in assisted living home now. Got 2 lathes 14 X 40 with read out and coolant, A 12 x 40 This is a much lighter machine. But still a good solid lathe. A 9 x 48 series 1 bridge port with readout an ice machine but belt drive head. It was a fresh refurbish when he bought it. And an old Delta rockwell surface grinder 6 x 12. Also got most of the tooling with them.

[oldred]

Those little machines are NOT junk! Certainly they must be used within their limitations and they do need a few mods to perform really well for useful machining on steel. As designed they are meant for hobby use machining soft materials and VERY light machining on mild steel and the harder alloys but this is before the common modifications that most people do to them, with the easy to do and inexpensive mods these little outfits will tackle jobs they were never designed for and will do so reliably. Out-of-the box trying to use something like a 1/2" end mill in a hard alloy at even a decent feed rate is surely going to end in frustration because this thing is not a BridgePort! This is not to say a person can't tackle bigger jobs with these outfits, they certainly can it just takes longer.


As I said earlier I now have a BP in my shop but that little mill, which has been subjected to all the common mods, still gets used a LOT because it's just a handy little outfit that works better for some things than the larger mill. When I got my BP the intention was to sell the little one but looking back at what I had been doing on it and realizing I was still going to it for some things I decided it wasn't going anywhere!

[country gent]

I agree that the little hobby machines will do a lot of work though much slower. When you are used to the big heavy solid cincinatti and miwallkee vetical
and horizontal mills ( the last shop I was in we roughed in parts on them then finished on the BPs) a small light mill just dosnt meet expectations. Even the beloved and very good BPs are that solid a machine they were a universal mill that could do anything. For roughing heavy cuts the above mentioned mills or a shaper is better suited

[pacomdiver]

oldred,
yes it was a piece of junk, it should've had a fisher price sticker on it. i got it to do 80 percent ar's and it broke with a 3/8 mill in it taking .010 passes, doing a trigger pocket in cast aluminum. like i said the 1st one made noise from the first time i turned it on. got the non fisher price version and it hasnt skipped a beat in the many projects ive done with it. neither of them ever had a piece of steel in them, just aluminum and never a bigger mill than 3/8 in them

[oldred]

oldred,
yes it was a piece of junk, it should've had a fisher price sticker on it. i got it to do 80 percent ar's and it broke with a 3/8 mill in it taking .010 passes, doing a trigger pocket in cast aluminum. like i said the 1st one made noise from the first time i turned it on. got the non fisher price version and it hasnt skipped a beat in the many projects ive done with it. neither of them ever had a piece of steel in them, just aluminum and never a bigger mill than 3/8 in them

You must be talking about a different and smaller/lighter machine than being discussed here, these little Seig mills are sold under a bunch of different brand names and are very popular and well known, the Harbor Freight mill is the same exact one from the same factory as the others it just has the HF name attached to it. The mill we are discussing here has a huge following with at least one web site devoted to it, mine came from HF and it's identical in every way to the older Grizzly machine my friend has (the one I mentioned earlier) except his is painted green and for whatever reason came with a Morse taper spindle. My little mill served me well before I got my BP and I did one heck of a lot more than try to finish a simple Aluminum 80% frame! For one thing I built from scratch a scaled down 1885 "baby" highwall style rifle that was totally machined from 4140 HT, Not aluminum, this was not any kind of "kit" of any percentage but 100% scratch built from raw bar stock including the internal parts. I have older posts here with pics of the rifle and mention of the mill I used,



70% scale Highwall in 22 WMR, machined from solid 4140HT bar stock using my HF mill and I did a lot of other projects with that little mill, none as involved as that rifle project but I acquired my BP shortly after completion of that one. Don't know what you had but my little mill has been used for several years in my shop and is still in use for some smaller milling jobs, it certainly has it's limitations however a lot can be accomplished within those limitations but I can assure you this model mill is NOT junk!

[Mal Paso]

Chips flew today. I got sidetracked with a 4" vise that was too big. The 3" vise arrived so I mounted it and aligned it with the mill using a dial indicator in the chuck. The HappyBuy vise checked out level and seems decent for $73. LOL I also picked up that HF 20 piece set of M2 end mills when I was in Salinas last week for $60 with a coupon. I chucked the 7/16 2 flute end mill and started some light .03 passes at 1200 rpm. The motor seemed lightly loaded so I switched to high range about 2300, made .05" passes and it seemed to run better. That speed is closer to ideal surface speed from what I read. I had cut the aluminum block with a carbide toothed 14" metal chop saw so I left a little extra for safety margin and practice before I get to important cuts.

[Bloodman14]

The HF 4x6 metal bandsaw may be a bit slower, but a whole lot safer. i would be leery of cutting aluminum with a chop saw.

[Mal Paso]

The HF 4x6 metal bandsaw may be a bit slower, but a whole lot safer. i would be leery of cutting aluminum with a chop saw.

Hmm, I share your concern, reread the manufacturers instructions and although the carbide toothed blade is designed for steel there was nothing excluding other metals. The glazing and construction industry has been using carbide wood blades with wax applied to cut aluminum extrusions for years now. This metal blade is less aggressive and the cut was very smooth. I made sure the work was rigidly clamped, the saw is all cast iron and the blade has a thick web. It still made me a little nervous. I will probably get a vertical band saw so I can do complex cuts in plate as well as cutoffs. The horizontal saw is a good idea but takes twice the floor space, that I don't have.

I used to love woodworking but the fire kind of soured that and I seem to be shifting to metal. LOL

[country gent]

beeswax kerosene even paraffin will work keeping saw blades from loading up in aluminum. Always remember the 2 tooth rule. Our saws at work had coolant on them A water soluble coolant. Down infront of the back wheel behind the cut mount a round wire brush against the saw blade so it rolls with the blade with tension against it. This will help push chips out of the blade and relieve the loading issues.

The 3 tooth rule is Always have 3 teeth in contact with the piece being cut. A to fine blade dos not have chip clearance and packs loads requiring slower cutting feeds

[Bloodman14]

Mal, I understand now that you are NOT using an abrasive chopsaw wheel? If using a toothed/carbide blade, you will be fine, just go slowly. WD-40 or CRC 336 will be fine as a lube.

[Mal Paso]

Mal, I understand now that you are NOT using an abrasive chopsaw wheel? If using a toothed/carbide blade, you will be fine, just go slowly. WD-40 or CRC 336 will be fine as a lube.

Fire got my abrasive 14" cut off so I stretched the budget and replaced it with a toothed saw. They run much slower (1400 RPM) and cost more at first but the blades last much longer and cut better. I used to buy 5 packs of 14" abrasive disks, I haven't touched the spare toothed blade and I've been using the saw almost 3 years. Aluminum can be sticky so I used bees wax on the blade and went slow. The chips were small but clean and the blocks although too warm to hold after cutting, were not really hot. That I was cutting small blocks was my biggest concern so I had them clamped tight.

I finished shaping the project block yesterday a couple thousandths larger for finishing. I laid out the first cuts and hope to start today. The 3/8" dovetail bit was too small so I have a 1/2" coming Saturday. They are 6 flute or more so I was trying to keep the bit size down.

[oldred]

Fun ain't it!