Member postings for Ron Laden

Jack, I agree with John, you should speak to Warco. Not suggesting you would but I wouldnt be tempted to go adjusting or changing anything until you have explained the problems to Warco, you could find the warranty void should the machine have to go back to them.

Thanks guys, does the column to base have dowel pins as well as the fixing bolts..?

Thanks Philip, thats good news as I have just ordered one

Ron

Once I receive the mill I will check the gibs and the backlash and adjust if necessary, hopefully it will be ok.

I,ve watched a few videos on how to carry out the tramming of the table to spindle. One video I watched on a Chinese mini mill showed a 12 thou run out across 12 inches (6 inches either side of the spindle) in the X whilst it was 2 thou front to back in the Y. I,m hoping mine will be better than that, it would seem that the most popular method of correcting any problem is to shim the column to the base. I was thinking about that and though it will correct the run out, surely you lose the full face contact between the column and the base casting as the face of the column is bridged across the shims. Wouldnt that be losing some rigidity or am I wrong..?

Edited By Ron Laden on 14/10/2018 11:00:53

Is your friends job that urgent and even if it is, it is going to take you until Tuesday from today to get a replacement. Surely its worth trying to sort the problem, you may find it an easy fix plus it seems a pity to condemn it without trying.

Thanks Paul, I intend to get myself a R8 ER25 collet set in the future. I am pleased to learn that it is not just me having to get by in a small workshop, mine is tiny a 6ft x 4ft shed so its cosy to say the least but I manage. I have a mini-lathe at one end and come next week there will be a mill at the other. The mill will sit where the bench drill did, that will now live under the bench as does my bandsaw and bench grinder, not a problem actually as they get pulled out when needed. Its a good job we dont suffer the fear of small places...lol

Thanks Jason, great, and the price is good too.

Found it Jason its 100mm, 95mm high and £95, I can run to that for a good vice.

Thanks

Thanks Jason, I cant find the 80mm universal, only a 70mm precision universal which is swivel and tilt at £315..?

Ron

Yet another question...sorry guys.

The mill arrives Tuesday and it has a clamping set, I have 6mm and 10mm end mills plus finger collets on the way just to get me started.

I am trying to decide on a vice and looking at the ARC catalogue (budget range) there are two options I am looking at. There is a 100mm swivel vice for £52 and a 100mm tilting (non swivel) for £80. The mill has 285mm spindle to table so I was considering the vice height, dont want anything too tall. The swivel vice is 110mm high and 83mm with swivel base removed, the tilting vice is 75mm high so quite shallow with no tilt.

I was wondering in practice and general milling what am I likely to find more useful the swivel or the tilt..?

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 13/10/2018 08:49:44

I did say that the forum member I am buying the mill from is a nice guy, he told me he would make a box to ship the mill to me but I didnt expect this, he made a timber packing crate with a pallet base. I think it stands a good chance of arriving safe and sound !

Edited By Ron Laden on 12/10/2018 14:22:39

Edited By Ron Laden on 12/10/2018 14:30:24

Edited By Ron Laden on 12/10/2018 14:31:26

Thanks guys, quite useful then, I will remember those for the future.

Stevensons Collet Blocks..?, not that I want any its just I saw them in the catalogue and couldnt get my head around how they would be used.

Not fifty shades of grey just two, the main painting is finished. A few bits of surface detail to add, weathering and a final top coat of clear satin. Cab to glaze plus correct a wonky window frame, build and fit the cab control panel and finalise the wiring.

Chassis needs front and rear foot ladders, some areas of detail plus a pair of clevis couplings, with my first mill arriving next week I will be able to produce my own.

I have a couple of small slip gauges in my box and I used one of those to check that I was presenting the blade square. Seeing Jasons post and thinking about it I checked the blade was square to the work piece when really I should have checked against the chuck, I can see that now. I found the difficult part was grinding the blade square as its such a narrow cutting edge.

I recently turned a set of buffers from 35mm dia ali and Jasons advice above is pretty much what I found worked for me using a 1.5mm HSS tool. Moving up to a 3mm tool I would avoid if my experience with one is anything to go by. If you are using a mini-lathe as I am I would argue that a 3mm parting tool is too much for them. I have a HSS 3.2mm tool and the lathe just doesnt like it, even with ali, I tried everything I could but it was not happy.

Edited By Ron Laden on 11/10/2018 14:03:25

Edited By Ron Laden on 11/10/2018 14:18:05

Thanks Vic, but I have no space for a bigger mill, I only have just enough for the SX2P and as far as I can see I think it will cover most of what I need a mill for, thanks anyway.

Thank you guys, much appreciated, hope I,m not a pain with all these questions.

Ron

How important is knowing the spindle speed when milling..? The SX2P doesnt have a speed DRO as standard but a plug in one is available, there is even a bracket to fit it too. Using the mini-lathe I dont always refer to the DRO, I sort of got into the habit of setting a speed by eye for the size and type of material and tweaked it up or down depending on the cut. I tend to use it more when parting and producing more than one part, making a note of the speed that worked best.

I am a beginner ndiy and I did start the thread by saying I had a limited budget and didnt want to buy things I may never use. As far as I can see I think the advice the guys have posted here took that into consideration. There are a lot of very experienced people on the forum that seem to be happy to pass on their knowledge to the beginner. To be honest the way I was thinking of making a start with the mill would in hindsight have taken me down the wrong path but the help I,ve received on starting this thread changed my thinking.

I do wonder sometimes if asking the same old beginners questions one becomes a bit of a pain, but so far I have never experienced that, or at least I dont know about it.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 10/10/2018 11:02:46