Member postings for Hollowpoint

William

I was in the same position as you not too long ago. Similar budget looking for a mill of similar size and like you I prefer British made stuff. I try to avoid Chinese machines if possible because in general I've had bad experience with them.

However in the end I bought a Myford VMC which I believe is Taiwanese made. The overall quality of the machine isn't bad at all. If the Chinese versions are as good I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. Infact I actually plan to buy another in the future.

So that leads us on to 2 more options. The warco VMC and the Chester 626. if you could get the chance to inspect either of these machines you might satisfy your concerns over build quality.

Considering they are just over £2k new with warranty, delivery and you get to choose spindle, phase and metric or imperial versions they begin to look pretty favourable.

Worth investigating.

I've had a few small mills and used quite a few more. Imo the sieg sx1lp would make most sense for your applications. I would just put up with the weight.

You see the problem with most of the very small machines is the round column. Trust me it soon gets tiresome loosing position when making adjustments.

The Sherline is not a bad second choice, its a nice machine (regretted selling mine) and it could be modified quite easily to better suit your needs. The motor for example would be fairly easy to swap and you could buy a "sensitive drilling attachment" to make drilling easier.

The only other options are an Emco 5 mill or Cowells mill. Unfortunately both of these are quite rare/uncommon so finding one might be a challenge.

I use these frequently:

CPC

RS

Switchelectronics.co.uk

Also you might be surprised to find screwfix sell momentary push button switches in several NO / NC configurations.

I've used arldite 2 part epoxy to glue aluminium endcaps into aluminium tubes many times. The joint is very strong. In fact the chances of pulling them apart is almost none existent.

This would be my list:

Myford VMC

Boxford VM30

Tom Senior

Thinking about this why not construct a belt and pulley arrangement?

You could use a slightly higher speed motor and use a 3 pulley arrangement to give you a range of speeds and torques. Maybe something like 1:1 ratio for small drills and maybe 4:1 ratio for bigger drills and cutters? It wouldn't be difficult to make.

I remember once dropping a small part I had just finished turning on the lathe, I couldn't find it anywhere even after about an hour of searching where I saw it land. I was kinda annoyed considering the part took about 2 hours to make. I did eventually find the part about 6 months later. It had bounced up inside a cabinet drawer and landed perfectly balanced on top of the door hinge! The odds of that happening again must be a billion to one!

A DC scooter motor would be ok, preferably 24v

A "spindle motor" (the type used in diy cnc routers) might also be ok. Though they tend to be high speed rather than high torque.

While we are on the topic of countersink bits does anyone have any recommendations for good value/performance?

I always found the cheap ones are shockingly bad and the good ones are shockingly expensive.

Predecessor to swiss cheese?

Seriously though, don't scrap it! Its a nice looking thing in its own right.

I am in the post office nearly everyday sending parcels for my job, The amount of times I see people being ripped off is staggering. I once saw someone pay £96 to send a small box to the USA. Disgusting.

For heavier packages you are better off using courier services, they are much better value. My pick of the bunch is UPS.

It's hard to see the scale of the wheel from the pictures but could the wheel be made in 2 parts?

The inner hub would be easy to turn from steel or cast iron and then painted. The tyre could be made from a thick o-ring.

OR

You could try "spinning" the wheel shape over a wooden form, Made in 2 parts from soft brass and then soldered together before painting.

Edited By Hollowpoint on 22/02/2021 10:55:52

What about the telescopic tubes you often get new drill bits packaged in? They are available on ebay etc.

I use Fusion 360 which is free in a limited sense for hobby users.

It isn't too difficult to learn once you get your head around how it works. If you ever used google sketchup back when that was free you will already have some knowledge.

The fact that it still actually runs tells me the circuit board isn't dead. As suggested check the potentiometer, it is well known that they are a bit crap. Even if you have to replace it, it shouldn't cost more than about a tenner.

Edited By Hollowpoint on 18/02/2021 15:45:19

That ebay seller seems to make his own parts, many of which look very dubious quality.

The runout on my genuine Emco collet holder is less than 0.01mm

Royal Mail have changed the guarantee from 1pm to 4pm This is from the royal mail website:

During the Coronavirus pandemic we’ve needed to make temporary changes to the guaranteed times for our Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am and 1pm services. Our current guarantees are:

• Our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am the next working day is by 11.00am the next working day*
• Our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm the next working day is by 4.00pm the next working day*

Therefor they failed to deliver the service which you paid for. Get back on the phone, tell them they owe you your money back and quote the website.

Difficult one really, I don't want to put you off but even the most basic of steam engines needs a whole raft of tools and machinery to make. If you are starting from nothing you would be lucky to setup for under £500

If that isn't a problem then perhaps a set of plans some materials and a micro lathe is your starting point.

It's more of a box to be fair, haha.

Thank you for the offer, very kind! but I'm in the Leeds area so a fair distance away and I've just ordered a piece of SRBP so will give that a go.