Got my new milling machine. Dialup beware!

[Buckshot]

...........I bought the Enco 9x42" beltdrive machine and had it fitted with a 3 axis Anilam DRO, and a powerfeed. In the meantime I also bought a VFD for it. Enco had a free shipping sale which I'd been waiting for. It was delivered to a towing company here in town and they held it from Tuesday when it arrived until Friday.

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The guys loading back up after dropping it off.

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So there it is. They set'er down right inside the garage. My reloading bench is along the wall, but my 10' workbench runs right along the inside of the garage door. I had to unload it, disconnect the electricity from it's plugs and then swing it out into the driveway. What a rat bastard THAT was!

http://www.fototime.com/66CFBDBAC317297/standard.jpg

Meatco1 (board member here) and his son Josh showed up to help me out and I sure couldn't have done it without them. This is what the backside of Meatco1 looks like (he's on the phone and not praying :-))

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Meatco1 and Josh and me taking a breather. We're slowly breaking down the pallet to get the mill sitting on the concrete floor.

http://www.fototime.com/29C57D08BDEAD9D/standard.jpg

Here she is almost on the floor. I took off the back door to the garage and then laid a 6x6 timber across the opening and chained a 2 ton comealong to it. It was wanting to drag the pallet too, so Meatco1 parked his pickup in the drive, wove a rope through a front tow hook then bent on a bowline to the pallet and took a strain. The machine then began it's run off the pallet.

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On the floor and sailing along. Josh is watching that we don't hook anything on the way.

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And here it is in place. The rest of the garage pretty much looks like the wreak of the Hesperus. Stuff is scattered all over just to get it out of the way. And it's not really out of the way, so you get to move it 2 or 3 more times in the process. Since the lathe was moved, it has to be re-wired, and worse I have to go through the whole re-leveling scene again. I have to also get power to the VFD for the mill and then get IT wired up.

The one good thing about the re-wiring is that I'd also bought a TiG welder and since it's 220v also, I can run a couple outlets for it simply enough while doing the lathe and mill.

...............Buckshot

[NoDakJak]

Congratulations Buckshot: That is a fine looking piece of machinery and I am sure that you will appreciate its accuracy and versatility. Sure wish that I had something similar to replace my seriously worn out Jet Mill. My mills original owner used it to build a full size Gatling gun in 45-70 before it went on to some serious duty in a commercial machine shop for a number of years. Have fun! Neil

[Bret4207]

You get HELP to unload and move extremely expensive and heavy items?!?!! What a great idea!

Congratulations! Nice rig, but you need an addition on the garage now......

[Southern Son]

Sweet looking bit of gear, colour me green.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Nice machine! You slid it across the floor without putting pipes or steel bars under it to roll it?
Morgan

[Junior1942]

Buckshot, you need about a 50' x 75' workshop.

[Scrounger]

Junior's right, of course, but still, that is a fine looking garage. Can't stand these neat, organized garages with a big empty space in the middle, big enough to park a car in...

[corvette8n]

wow great looking machine, have fun.

[bruce drake]

Nice Rig Buckshot.

I'm jealous, but would you believe I'm jealous of the green grass and trees you've got outside your garage! Been here in Iraq for nearly 11 months now. Miss seeing real trees and not dried up Palm Trees and dust.

Now if you just let us know when you are up and running again and I'll send you a request for some custom sizing dies and molds.

Bruce

[quasi]

Buckshot, who put the crescent wrench on your brand new mills table?

Now you will need to buy a few inexpensive accessories, Kurt vise or two, collets, collet chuck, rotary table, dividing head, spindex, hold down set, .....

[Meatco1]

Hi Rick:

Great photo essay, just about tells it all.

And, you managed to stay up until 1.07am?? Don't you ever sleep??

Richard

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/F0246CBFA1294E0/standard.jpg

I got the DRO put on (the scales were installed by Enco) and figured out which plugs were X, Y ,and Z via trial and error. I read the destructions, of which I didn't understand much but they DID give me a headache. I don't think I was in the right frame of mind to comprehend or absorb. It was Saturday so Donna was off, and when she came home from work last night she inspected the mill and pronounced it 'Big, shiny and heavy looking', then went into the house. She wasn't as excited as I was for some reason?

Later Friday evening she poked her head in and wanted to know if I'd be coming in to bed later or planned on sleeping with the mill? Women!!

Since the DRO and the powerfeed were both 110v I plugged them in Saturday and played with them a bit. Watching the table go back and forth at various speeds grew boring after awile. Plus reading the various "Help" stuff on the DRO screen gave me another headache, so I sat down to draw up a list of wire, conduit, recepticles, plugs, boxes and connectors I'll need to get to run the power.

The mill has a one shot oiler that does the ways on the table, saddle and knee, plus the knee ways on the column and the 2 lead screws. I've mentioned before I'm an oiler and I have a dresser drawer full of 'T' shirts with oil speckles all up and down the front. Some have racing stripes up the left side after I'd oiled a chuck :-). So anyway I'm playing with the mill and every so often giving the oiler a couple pumps. I figured this is the first time it's been played with and the ways probably could use it.

Wasn't too long and I noticed I had oil running out of everywhere:drinks: It bothered me some that you couldn't see anything happening (oil-wise) there at first so I thought maybe they just put that oiler dealie on there as kind of a mental 'feel good' deal. Now I know oil DOES go through those tubes, and I can only hope it goes where it's supposed to. Otherwise I won't sleep well.:roll: Any of you guys have these oilers? How much or how often do you use them? The oiler reservoir looks like it holds about a pint, and it's down about half now[smilie=w:

Bret4207............ "You get HELP to unload and move extremely expensive and heavy items?!?!! What a great idea! Congratulations! Nice rig, but you need an addition on the garage now......"

Richard (Meatco1) asked me how I thought I was going to do this by myself? I figured I'd do it the way I do most anything like this. Slowly. A little at a time, copiously interspersed with smoke and beer breaks. Need a bigger garage now? Heck, I needed a bigger garage before. One of the guys at the range offered me a 10x16" Boyer & Schultz surface grinder that needed a new motor for free. But nowhere to put it.

Morgan Astorbilt..........." Nice machine! You slid it across the floor without putting pipes or steel bars under it to roll it?"

Sure!8-). I wasn't sure what the tow truck company would do. Although talking with them a couple times on the phone they'd said they could bring a pallet jack and probably wheel it right were it was supposed to go. I decided that wasn't going to work probably, as there wasn't a whole lot of room, and they'd probably have to take the pallet jack apart to get it out!

The day before I went to Lowes and bought a sheet of 1/2" plywood to make a 1" 4x4 bed, two 4' lengths of 2" x .250" steel straps to screw on the underside and two 10' sticks of 1-1/2" black steel pipe to cut up for rollers. It's all still in the back of the pickup. I may just keep it as it's all going to be usefull eventually. The concrete floor in the garage is VERY smooth, and sealed. The mill didn't leave a mark.

bruce drake.............." Nice Rig Buckshot. I'm jealous, but would you believe I'm jealous of the green grass and trees you've got outside your garage! Been here in Iraq for nearly 11 months now. Miss seeing real trees and not dried up Palm Trees and dust."

Thank you for your service Bruce! Wish I could send you a potted genetic dwarf peach tree and a pound of grass seed! Just remember, if you DID have a bittty little patch of grass you'd have the mow the damned stuff!

quasi................." Buckshot, who put the crescent wrench on your brand new mills table? Now you will need to buy a few inexpensive accessories, Kurt vise or two, collets, collet chuck, rotary table, dividing head, spindex, hold down set, ..... "

Er, I laid the wrench there. I was using it to turn the table feed handles around [smilie=1: I already bought all that stuff a year ago:

http://www.fototime.com/3DE0E2544B752F9/standard.jpg

Several years ago I was high bidder on a good used Kurt, but the new vise is a 9" Parlec. It's in the box sitting on top of a Phase II 10" rotary table with tailstock. In the box on top of the Parlec box is a 7x10" tilting table. Then there is a Bison 2 piece vise so you can clamp loooong stuff. In the USPS box is a 5" 3 jaw chuck for the indexing head (with a set of plates) which is behind the little rollaway box.

Then there is a set of R8 collets by 32nds. Not in the photo is a tapping head, boring head, and 2 R8 collet chucks for ER32 and ER40 collets I already had for the lathe. Then there is a Suburban spin indexer, and I already have the 5C's for the lathe, and a set of clamp and step blocks. I think that's all. As I said, I started to accumilate this stuff a couple years back as I knew I was going to get a mill, but some of it I haven't seen in a year.

Heck, the guy with the surface grinder had a Yuasa 14" tilting rotary table he said he'd sell me for $300 back a year or so. I went to look at it, and while it was nice and a steal at the price I couldn't use it. You'd have to have a gantry crane to pick it up and move it around. I don't know how much it weighed but it was impossible for me to budge. Must have been a couple hundred pounds at least.

Thanks for all the positive thoughts guys! This is gonna be SOME fun!

...............Buckshot

[Bret4207]

Hey Buck, just to tickle a distant memory- The old guy with the Index mill and Frejoth 13x40 lathe I talked about a couple years back? He's doing better know and I stopped to see him. They're both still there and with retirement looming I'm thinking hard about how to finangle them. Time and money, time and money......

[dragonrider]

Well you done it now, there ain't no better tool than good verticle mill. I use mine all the time. Make a real fine overhead router for woodworking also.

[quasi]

Buckshot, I have a one shot Bijur system on my Bridgeport. The manual recomends 1 pump every 4 hours of use. And one pump or more if it has sat for a few days.

[Buckshot]

Hey Buck, just to tickle a distant memory- The old guy with the Index mill and Frejoth 13x40 lathe I talked about a couple years back? He's doing better know and I stopped to see him. They're both still there and with retirement looming I'm thinking hard about how to finangle them. Time and money, time and money......

.............It's a real battle between the Little Boy "gotta haves, boy that's cool" thing (which has gotten me into trouble several times, and the "Let's be mature about this" adult thing. And THAT has caused me to miss some neat stuff. Specificly to this machine stuff, since it's for a hobby and not your livelyhood you have to determine if it's a long term interest and something you'll enjoy for many years.

Here in Southern California people get crazy about having a ski boat, or some other kind of boat. Maybe they'd been out a couple times and have worked up a fantasy about their having one. It IS neat being on the water. Reality is that you have the Pacific ocean and the Colorado river. Other then that your choices are very limited within casual trailoring distance. True life sets in (maintenance, insurance, transport cost, and just time) and the next thing ya know it's for sale. I forget now the average time a boat is owned here. It's either 3 years or 5 years and most of that is just spent sitting covered up in the side yard.

That was a lot of money poorly spent and so far as I'm concerned, a dead loss to no good end. You'll have to figure out if the whole machining stuff for yourself is a long term thing or something you may tire of after a few years. You'll have to think about what you would like to make and do with the machines. Besides making stuff for your shooting hobby, would you be interested in making steam and/or small gas engines amongst other possibilities. Possibly they would allow you to help maintain your farm equipment? After all, you can only make just so many aluminum candle holders or brass napkin rings :-)

For myself I have ALWAYS been keenly interested in making or creating things. If you could buy something for $9.95 I would much rather make it myself even though it cost twice as much!

I have been lucky several times with this machining fascination of mine. Ist was being able to buy the lathe I did, tooled as it was, and for the price I paid. Not to mention how close it was, so I got to see it and run it. I did put a lot of stuff on the credit card, like all the milling machine accesories I mentioned I'd bought a year and more back. Yet it's paid for now. The extra stuff for the lathe has been purchased over the past 5 years since I've had it. I was lucky in my work that I was alone and had a T1 internet connection which let me study E-Bay. There you get some and you lose some, but I did get many items at great prices.

If machining is really a hot button and something that will keep you energized and interested for years to come, then go for it. It will be worth it in the long run IMHO. It's not like you have to be out there on top of that stuff 8 hours a day to have made it a legitimate purchase! That's a JOB, and not a hobby. Also, anything that keeps ones' dead ass out from in front of the TV is a worthwhile pastime. Especially if it's a creative pastime.

...................Buckshot

[sundog]

Buckie, the speedos you bought and never used because you never got that boat you would only use for three years that would sit in the side yard most of time. Do you cast or run you lathe in them? Need pics, pal.

[broomhandle]

Hi Buckshot,


WOW!
That is one nice machine!
The pump system will work for years. Don't get crazy pumping it up you will screw up the seals / oil limiters if you do.

I would have tried to get the delivery guys to lift it with the fork truck off the pallet & lay it on the floor inside the garage if they had clearance.

Best of luck with it!

broom

[danski26]

Outstanding machine buckshot! My used bridgeport j-head should be delivered sometime in august if my buddy gets his fork-lift fixed soon. Seeing you get yours delivered really charges me up to get mine home where it belongs and start learning how to use it.

[lathesmith]

Buckshot, I like your boat analogy. We have several nice lakes around here, and when I was a younger man I got hooked on water skiing. I eventually settled on buying a smaller boat for around 4 grand, and that little thing has given us countless hours of bargain lake fun. I could have spent 10 times the money, for maybe 5 percent more satisfaction. Plus, the cost of fuel, plus, the need to keep a big towing rig, plus, depreciation, plus....well, you get the idea. There's limits to everything, and a guy really needs to know the difference between "enough" of a good thing, and "too much" of a good thing. Yes, that is possible...!
Now, when it comes to machine tools, while there is such a thing as TOO big, you definitely need "big enough". Congratulations! It sounds like you have found your happy medium. And you even mentioned being able to pass up a beautiful, bargain-priced, but useless-to-you, rotary table because you recognized it was TOO big to be of any real use to you. Once again, you have displayed some advanced traits of how to really put your dollars to work FOR you instead of AGAINST you. Like you say, this is a real balancing act, and all of us have a few "coulda woulda shoulda's". But it's a great thing to learn the difference between what we REALLY like as opposed to a passing fancy, as you will, with time, do the right thing most of the time. Now get out there and enjoy that new toy!
lathesmith

[9.3X62AL]

Buckshot has kept up a running dialogue about his new toy, and mentioned that he put together a photo essay about the milling machine on the board. He more than implied today at the Burrito Shoot that I was culturally deprived for not having seen the post so far, and also more than a little remiss and inattentive as to the adventures of others in my circle of friends. Can't have that, so here I am seeing what's going on.

That is quite a machine, all right. It's about 107 times more complicated than any power tool I have any business operating, but I'm glad there are those like Buckshot who can make these monsters do things--like make their operators happy.

"Making their operators happy" is the explanation for the firearms in the safe--the fishing rods in the garage--and the boat parked alongside the house, which gets used at least 3X/month. The reloading gear and fly-tying tools support the other addictions nicely, and help keep me out of the bars and off the streets. The current 9'-12' swells and 12'-15' breakers on south-facing beaches help explain my presence at the Burrito Shoot this week, and absence from the La Jolla Kelp Beds or Huntington Flats. Sometimes, it's better to go shooting than fishing.

[Jon K]

Al,

Good to see you today. I'll bet it was a welcome break from the task of moving..............certainly not my favorite thing to do.

Jon

[Buckshot]

................I have the lathe wired now so it runs again, plus 2 plugs and an extenson cord for the new TiG welder. The mill and VFD have been a bit of an issue. The VFD is a Teco-Westinghouse unit. The problem I had with it is that the manual is written for people who already have a background using them. Most of the basic explainations you'd find, or rather you'd HOPE to find are not there.

Stuff like if there is an existing motor switch, do you go to that, or directly to the motor? Then there are all kinds of other technicalities detailed like vibration, magnetic fields, interferance, filters and yadda yadda yadda. Like the vibration thing for one for instance. You'd have to have a PHD in Vibration :-) to know what in the hades they're talking about.

The text is well written but technical and terms aren't explained, simply used in sentances with sometimes several of these terms used. Had me totally bumfoozled and afraid to move. I was kind of sheepish about calling them as I didn't want to appear to be a moron. But they did have an 800 number for tech support.

I spoke to a guy named Steve and he admitted the manual left a lot to be desired for someone not familair with VFD's. He aswered my questions very clearly and was one of those people who do a very good job in making things clear. The other nice thing was unlike other customer service techs he didn't make you feel like you had to rush because he had 18 lines on hold.

The only thing I really had hammered on this thing was the input wiring (2 hot legs and a ground) and the output (3 hot legs (U, V & W and a ground). He made the operation of it clear and got me started on the programing portion. In case you wondered, I bypass the motor controller supplied with the mill and go straight to the motor. So I opened up the box on the motor and there aren't the 3 legs (U, V and W + grnd) but SEVEN wires, counting the ground. Three U, V, W prefixed with 1 and the same prefixed with 2. The rotary switch supplied reverses the 3 phase motor.

I'm stumped again. Some more. Back to good ole Steve at Teco-Westingouse but I feel bad because the motor isn't theirs :-) Steve says he's not up on motor theory, especially polyphase reversing motors, but he puts me on hold to talk to their motor guru. Back on the line he says "No problem". Hook W1 to U2 and V2 to U1 and so on. Says it's a delta connecton IIRC. One becomes T1, another T2, and the final paring becomes T3, and if the motor runs backwards just swap any 2 legs. Hey! I'm home free :-)

I should have it running Thursday. All I have to do now is figure out the DRO programs and the various programing options on the VFD. At one point I was going to just forgo the VFD and mess with the belt for speeds, but I'm glad I didn't.

...................Buckshot

[scrapcan]

Buckshot,

I am glad you are out there so the rest of us can live vicariously through you. Now we expect to see the results of that mill in short order.

[Old Ironsights]

Fancy.

I wish I had the space & $$$ for even an old programable coil-fed screw machine...

[quasi]

Buckshot, you will still need to use the belt speeds sometimes. When you turn thr frequency down, you are decreasing the hp.

[danski26]

W2? UV? T1? VFD? Hot leggs??? I know what those are.....but i'm concerned if you think you have them buckshot ;-)

Always hated electrical stuff. You might as well tell me little gremlins live inside the motor eating beans and the farts make it spin.

[hammerhead357]

danski26 I nearly choked on that one. I hope Buckshot remembers that every thing electric has smoke in it and if you let that smoke out the whole thing is done for.....Wes

[Buckshot]

................All is still not well :-( Must call Teco-Westinghouse again tomorrow. I really think I have the VFD programmed correctly. I can switch directions of the motor rotation fine. I can have it ramp up to speed and ramp down at shutoff, or coast. What I CAN'T get it to do is to recognize the the various frequencies (speeds). The motor just seems to want to go to one speed and stay there. Bummer! We'll see what they say tomorrow.

...............Buckshot

[Buckshot]

.............It's a done deal and works like a champ! On the terminal strip in the motor connection box is 6 connections I described in my previous post. I'd called TECO-Westinghouse again the other day but this time (different guy) said he couldn't help with the motor. I don't blame him as it isn't their problem.

However, SOMETHING just wasn't right. The motor was noisy (almost a mechanical sound) and wouldn't run up to speed, plus the VFD would kick out and give the motor overheat code. I figured I'd brainstorm it out or burn it up in the process.

What I knew was that the VFD supplied only 3 wires T1, T2, and T3 to the motor ( I'd removed the rotary switch to go direct to the motor) .

And if you were going to operate the mill as delivered, ie: with the rotary switch, you also only hooked up 3 wires from 3phase off the pole, a rotary phase converter, or a static phase converter.

The motor did a couple things. It ran forward, and it ran backwards. It ran at 1720 rpms, and also ran at 3400 rpms. The rotary switch had 4 positions. Right quandrant was forward with the first position at 1720 rpms and the second at 3400 rpms. Left quandrant was the same, only in reverse.

I knew that to reverse a 3 phase motor all you have to do is swap any 2 legs.

The conclusion I came to was those 6 connections had to be for the 2 speeds. The switch mechanicly connected the 3 "T" inputs to either the "1" prefixed U, V, and W or to the "2" prefixed connections for 1720 rpms or 3400 rpms. The forward and reverse was handled upstream in the rotary switch. Likewise, the VFD has a code for FORWARD and one for REVERSE, so it did the leg swap electricly.

I pulled the 3 jumper wires off and connected the 3 wires to the "1" prefixed terminals first and hit the GO button. The motor growled and ran VERY slow. The VFD kicked out in a couple seconds and dispalyed a VFD overheat code. I then swapped them to the "2" prefixed terminals and hit the GO button.

This time the motor smoothly accelerated up to speed and just sat there humming. HOT DAMN! :-). I could push and hold the UP button and the motor smoothly picked up speed and ran faster yet as the VFD ran the frequency up. Naturally then, pressing the DOWN arrow caused the motor to slow down. All this time that obnoxious knocking sound was gone and the motor just whistled along very smoothly.

As Quasi mentioned I'll probably have to adjust the belt on occasion, but it should only be for extremes. The motor has 4 pully OD's as does the quill. For right now I have it on the 3rd largest for the motor.

http://www.fototime.com/C12AB0477A094C7/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/5314205EBA5B5A5/standard.jpg

On the left is the VFD. Top is the freq display and under it is the Up and Down arrow buttons for speed control. The two buttons on the right are program buttons. The only one I really need is for reversing direction. Two button pushes without doing anything else, and the motor runs down, reverses and runs back up to speed, Kewl beans! In the right photo shows I mounted it on two 1.5"x.250" aluminum bars and have it hanging from the DRO bracket arm.

http://www.fototime.com/7EE722DF1A18E4D/standard.jpg

I was so freaking jazzed about having the hunk of cast iron finally working I unpacked the vise I'd bought last year and set her on the table. I may have hurt myself :-) I'm going to have to make a cart I can put the vises and the rotary table on. Then I can run the knee up or down to it and slide them off onto the table. Humping those things off a shelf or something over to the mill would get old real quick.

Now I can tram in the head so I can actually USE the beast! I'm now a happy camper and all is right with the world.

...................Buckshot

[Nueces]

Cool beans, Buckshot! I know the feeling.

I expect your next photos to show a blizzard of chips coming off that machine. And, I look forward to reading of your milling techniques and adventures.

Mark

[GLL]

BEAUTIFUL !

I was ready to send you another mould but it appears to me you will be playing with that new mill for a couple weeks ! :) :)

Jerry

[HotGuns]

Nice !
Now you can really get goin.

Gotta watch it though, with the time you'll get playing with that machine, the wife might get jealous.