I am planning on buying a benchtop mill and lathe (two separate machines, not one of the combo things). Right now I am looking at the Grizzly G0619 mill
These will be for hobby use, and I don't have any particularly large parts planned. The materials I expect to cut are 4130 steel, T6 aluminum and mild steel, or softer metals like copper/bronze/brass, or plastic or wood--I don't foresee using much stainless or Ti.
I already know that I can get used full-size machines for the same prices (often even less money) but I have nowhere to put them--I have no drive-in garage to put them in. I will need to set these things up in a room inside my house, so eight-foot-tall 3500-lb machines simply won't work for me, even if the machines and transportation were free.
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1) I haven't played with any machine tools in the 20+ years since I was in high school. A /lot/ of this stuff still looks familiar, but not all of it. What is a good book(s) to buy that covers the basics of different operations of lathes and milling machines? (one book each, I'm assuming, unless there's one really good book that covers both)2) One of the mill accessories I'd planned on getting was the 6" rotary table, and I want to be able to mount a 4-jaw chuck on it. There doesn't seem to be any part available at Grizzly to do that directly. Other places I've read online just say to get a plain-back chuck and drill the four holes through it for mounting, between the jaws. Is this basically how it is done with these small mills? (I know the lathe comes with a
4-jaw also, but I don't want to have to take it on and off for both)3) Grizzly sells the rotary table, indexing plates and rotary tailstock separately and also together as a kit. Separately they cost $420, while the kit costs $265 at the moment. Are these the same pieces??? The photos show that the two tailstocks are different, but the photos may not be totally accurate....
4) I see that places sell adjustable reamers. I never heard of these when I was in high-school shop class (or perhaps just wasn't paying that much attention). Are these worth buying over the regular chucking reamers, or are they more trouble than they're worth? I had planned on buying a set of typical English reamers, as well as an .001" over/under set. I don't expect these machines to do better than .001 accuracy anyway, but I wonder if the adjustable reamers would end up being more hassle than they're worth.5) I've got a few coolant questions--the big machines I used way back in high school didn't run coolant for the big mills and short cuts we used them for.
---5A) Grizzly sells a water-based cutting fluid. For the metals I would cut (4130, mild steel,aluminum or softer stuff) will there be any problems with using the water-based fluid? Other places mention using petroleum-based fluid for other (harder?) metals, but I don't know how practical that is in an indoor room with not great ventilation. Also I don't know if the same coolant pumps could take the petroleum stuff...?
---5B) The instructions for the coolant tank that Grizzly sells mention coolant toxicity and proper disposal. Uhhh,,, how toxic is this stuff, and how do you dispose of it?
---5C) I had assumed that I would run coolant on both the mill and lathe, but figured there would be some cheaper pump I could buy (for a lot less than $150) that would just circulate coolant out of a bucket under the tool bench. I've looked around at a few sites that sell accessories for the benchtop machines and so far I haven't seen anything like that however. Does anyone make such a thing, or is there some cheaper pump that can be adapted to this use?
---5D) For coolant, Grizzly sells water-soluble "cutting fluid" and "lathe bed fluid". Both have some-amount-of-oil in them, but the second apparently has more in it. Assuming I use the same stuff for both, should I just use the lathe bed fluid? If I do spend $150 for the Grizzly coolant tank/pump, I'd only get one tank/pump, and switch it between whatever machine I was using.
---5E) The G9972Z lathe comes with a chip tray....
7) Lastly for now,,,, tramming. I've seen the radius things that swing a dial indicator, but haven't seen the mounting arm for sale anywhere. The ones I've seen appear different than the dial indicator holders I've found so far.... Also I have found the Nano-Tram things at eztram.com and it looks like a convenient way of doing things, but don't know if they would fit on the Grizzly or not. The Grizzly specs don't make reference to any spindle threads... is the Nano-Tram for some other machine? And is there anything similar for the Grizzly G0619?
TIA for any answers or other advice. ~