used mill

Reply to
William Noble
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Dammit I wish you didn't live half the continent away from me... I'm a sucker for buying a old machine and spending more fixing it up than if I'd bought a new one to begin with. ;)

I just scored a nice old B&D radial arm saw for $40 but I need to put a new table on it, build a stand for it, and get the blade sharpened. I also broke the damned miter indicator (little piece of metal tape reading 90-0-90, busted one of the eyes out of it) when I was tightening up the belt that raises/lowers the arm.

I really want a small lathe and mill to play with. Alas, no room for them really but dammit! For now I'll have to resign myself with using the equipment at the University I work for (I have to take the class, I can't just go make chips, but I still get practice time on decent machines.

Mike Hroller McKnutt Pornstar, Mad Scientist, Genius for Hire Girls chased and caught!

Reply to
Hroller

They are known as 'very near calipers' in some quarters.

Reply to
Mike

Sounds like you are doing fine.

Go buy that $200 m> Ok, let me clarify one thing, and then I'm going to ask some stupid

Reply to
Rex B

Check used bookstores for old machine shop textbooks. One book covers everything from files to lathes to milling machines, well illustrated. Some even cover older CNC and gear hobbing. I have about a dozen varieties, most from the 1960s-1970s. I don't think I've paid more than $5 for any of them.

Reply to
Rex B

Reply to
Rex B

Most adults, particularly men, learn best by doing. The exception is those of us who have never been long out of the classroom. You do lose some ability to "booklearn" once away from it for a few years. I don't read the textbooks cover to cover. I look up what I need as I need it. The books stay in the shop, and they get smudged.

Reply to
Rex B

I've used a digital for years. Dials work fine, but they are prone to getting trash in the racks causing them to skip. The digitals can also be used for standard or metric by pressing a button.

Whatever you choose, make sure you get good ones for quality measurements. I like Mitutoyo for reasonable quality at a reasonable price.

Reply to
Dave Lyon

Hmm more deals seem to be springing at me, thankfully mostly on measuring equipment... since I already have a dremel, hacksaw, files, hand drill, etc, I think before I move too much farther I'm going to make a vertical mill-style mount for my dremel and play with that, maybe out of some aluminum or steel square section tubing. Obviously not precision, but... maybe enough to get my feet wet while hunting for the real deal, as it were. Do you guys think I can trust a HF $4.00 dial indicator or micrometer? Seems stupid to spend the least money on the parts I need to be most precise...

Reply to
gcc

There is a drill press attachment for Dremel tools that would be a good basis. I think also a router attachment.

I use the dial indicators, they work fine. With better ones you get smoother movement with less pressure. Don't buy a $4 mic except to make a carriage stop with. Get a set of

3 for ~$40. Or buy a used Mitutoyo or Starrett for $20 or so. I use both.
Reply to
Rex B

GCC

Any beginners out there looking for info on milling should check out this MIT website:

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also some great long videos there .

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Here's a PDF of Modern Machine Shop Practice, a textbook

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Reply to
Rex B

Thank you, great links!

To be honest, I don't like the dremel stands that they make- for some reason they don't fit well on mine. It may be because its an older cordless. I'm also thinking about what was said earlier about learning how to use a hacksaw and files- I'm obviously going to have to learn how to measure precisely and I'm thinking that's as easily done without a major tool as with one- I may be wrong, though. So, I figure that this seems like a good way to learn and maybe (hopefully...) come out with something I can use at the same time. I am kind of wondering how I'm going to be able to smoothly reposition it, but I'm sure I'll solve that question in time- maybe a base, three posts and a bit of threaded rod between them, weld (if metal) or epoxy a nut in place between the top of the rods, then feed the threaded rod through it, then drill and tap some small square sections of aluminum to size for the rod, drill horizontally through the square section and use zipties to secure my dremel. If i was smart about it I could probably just use wood for the base and posts and make the only metal I would have to work with be the rod itself and the arm, and I could maybe get away with bolting a wooden arm to the aluminum bits- I've never tried to tap wood before, and I can't say I think it would go well. It'll take some thought, but doesn't seem impossible. Thanks again for the links, GCC

Reply to
gcc

The dremel has a threaded section just behind the collet cap that is normally used to affix it to a toolpost. Seems like it's a common thread, so drill and tap a piece of 3/8" aluminum plate as the moving fixture to carry the Dremel.

Reply to
Rex B

Sorry but after over 10 years of Usenet I tend to get terse pretty fast. This n/g used to run some 40 posts/day and nearly all of them on topic. Now....

Anyway, Lindsay Books is your friend. As are used book shops.

You're 100% correct that you can't 'get' it all from book learning either. There's a lot of kinesthetics in a competent machinist. You can hear when a cutter is doing nicely. You can feel vibrations that tell you something is about to go pear-shaped RIGHT NOW. Etc. You definitely CAN'T get it all from book learning but bloody hell, it can save you an enormous amount of time seeing how someone else did something. I've got over 10 years of Home Shop Machinist mags that I still refer back to.

I think you getting good measuring equipment is a very sensible first step. You'll use that stuff all your life. I'm still using the Mitutoyo vernier calipers I bought 30 years ago. Ditto my Moore & Wright mikes. I've got an electronic digital calipers but frankly they're a bit of a PITA - I use them when I'm at the lathe or whatever but if I just want to find the size of a drill bit or similar, I grab the verniers. Instant reading, no turning on/off, never a flat battery - you get the point. The digitals are nice and very useful but if I never had them it wouldn't slow me down. The only downside to verniers is when you get to where your near vision is crap and you can't read them - only reason I got multifocal specs in fact. I may end up getting a digital mike because of this, but not yet.

So far you haven't said what size gears you want to make. That's gonna be the biggest factor in what machinery you need. But a small lathe is going to be useful for odd jobs forever. Friend of mine used his Emco Unimat to make a new firing pin for his Sako target pistol. Another has make replacement brass escutcheons for an old lamp his wife was restoring. Etc. Those little lathes have a place and you can get started without a lot of money invested. Later, if you get seriously into metalworking and your shop grows, as most of ours has, the little machine is still useful. I've used a 2nd lathe to make some part because the main lathe had a setup I didn't want to tear down more times than I can remember. Nowadays I have 3 lathes and used to have 4.

2 of the 3 see little work but they're there when I need them. Ditto the mills - the bulk of work is done on the B/port but when I want to cut slots, gears, make an angleplate from a casting or chunk of angle iron, I always go straight to the horizontal mill. Couple other machines I have - a shaper & slotter - are useful in my shop more for specialised tasks, but you can do a hell of a lot with a small shaper, including cutting gears. In fact I've been eyeing mine off to use for cutting a gear rack.....

PDW

Reply to
Peter

Well, you make a good point about the batteries, and the question of fluids had crossed my mind, but I think I might still wind up getting some digital ones for the vision reason- I may still be in college but after many years of late night reading and soldiering uc's my vision is very poor and likely to deteriorate. Not only that but if/when i do get a machine I'll probably eventually want to go DRO for the same reason, and I'm confident I could rig that from a couple sets of digital calipers. As far as size of parts goes, pretty small- no larger than 3 inches, probably not much smaller than 3/8s. Like I said, theyre mostly for home automation, and I would rather move voltage than torque any day, and for the most part that's possible. I was kinda thinking that if I went with a mill I could probably do some custom computer case mods and recoup a bit of cash but it wasn't a priority, more a rationalization than anything, and I'm willing to bet that if I wind up going with a lathe I could do much the same thing with a milling attachment, given the size of the pieces. Which leads me to another stupid question- how big a piece is a minilathe capable of milling? It seems like it wouldn't be that much, considering the limited maximum distance between the endmill and the ways, even if you were able to get it away from the milling attachment itself. Am I missing something? GCC

Reply to
gcc

Heh!

Can't have it both ways. You want quality, or a caliper?

Harold

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Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

Brent wrote: > I'm afraid to think of what shipping would be cross country on a mill >

In my case it was not that bad. I bought a Clausing 8520 from a private party in upstate New York, and had it shipped here to San Francisco by a trucking company. Cost me $400.00 In all fairness, I must say, that my mill is rather small and not very heavy. Plus it was easily disassembled into smaller easily manageable parts.

I did luck out, because I have known the owner of the trucking company for a long time. They normally truck art across the country for galleries, to and from art shows. At the time, they were trucking art back from a show in New York City to California, and on their way up to the North East where they also had to make a delivery, it just so happened that they had to pass not far from where the mill was. So on their way there, they stopped by the place where my mill was, and picked it up for me.

It already had been disassembled into a number of parts and the small parts were boxed up.

It all worked out great.

BTW, the Clausing 8520 is an excellent small mill, and I highly recommend it to any beginner. (which by the way I still am as far as machining is concerned)

Reply to
Abrasha

I don't agree at all. My mill needed work when I got it, and I had absolutely no knowledge of mills at all. I learned as I put it back together. Old mills aren't all that complicated to figure out.

Now, if you get one that is worn out beyond repair, then of course you're out of luck. But a lot of used machinery is just fine. My little Clausing sure is.

Reply to
Abrasha

Again not true. Many of these machines sell exactly for that reason. It is no longer "fashionable" (economically feasible) to have hand operated machined. Shops need CNC machines now to be able to compete.

i.e. out of fashion

To upgrade equipment so they can continue to compete.

Reply to
Abrasha

That reminds me of what a teacher of mine once said. "What an amateur lacks in skill, he tries to make up with equipment."

Reply to
Abrasha

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