New Mill - Starter Tooling

Thats good to know Jason, thanks.

Ron

Just out of interest I have had the mill for 5 months now (seems longer) and following advice from you guys I have not got any tooling just for the sake of having it. Every piece of tooling I have I purchased or made for a job, I put it all together this morning and it is amazing how it builds up in a relatively short time. I think it is good advice for all beginners, also it spreads the cost and you can just buy tooling as required and you dont run the risk of having tooling that is seldom or never used. There is still items I am going to need but havnt needed them just yet.

Thanks again for all the advice you guys gave me, its quite a steep learning curve when you are starting out as a beginner.

Edited By Ron Laden on 12/03/2019 08:42:26

It looks like you have a good collection of tooling suitable for most jobs. The cost of tooling can be more than the cost of the machine and as you have done, it is best to buy as you need them for a specific job. I also spend a lot of time making jigs to hold the job, so I can utilise the cutters which I already have in my kit. Tooling is expensive and I don't have bottomless pockets.

Good luck with your projects, Paul.

Nice looking pile of kit there Ron. I think if you have used all that lot you are getting beyond raw beginner stage!

It has taken me 8 months since getting the mill but I have just ordered a set of 3 DRO,s from ARC. I have some jobs coming up on the class 22 which will be easier with DRO,s so thought I had better pull my finger out and get them fitted.

I've noticed your workshop is not insulated Ron, your tools will get damp over winter.

My shed has been lined with just reflective bubble, and now three winters with a small blow heater no damp.

The insulation is easy to put up, cheap, and really effective,

Bob.

Edited By BOB BLACKSHAW on 27/07/2019 10:05:15

If Ron fits insulation that will half the volume of his workshop

Pictures on this thread Bob are taken in the old workshop, I am now in the 5 star shop which is fully lined with 50mm polystyrene sheets... see below. I also have a massive 42 square feet of space, oh the luxury of it all I just dont know myself. I am even thinking of adding a kettle..

Edited By Ron Laden on 27/07/2019 10:52:18

And a dehumidifier!

Edited By John Haine on 27/07/2019 10:58:16

Looking at that lot, I suspect the tooling has already (almost?) exceeded what he paid for his machine, if he compares full purchase price of the tooling against his second hand(?) machine.

If, as I suspect, Ron has ordered the simple(r) dro sets he may later rue not fitting a comprehensive arrangement that copes with all sorts of engineering problems (pitch circle drillings, etc). I kinda made that mistake but the other mill has the ‘all-singing, all dancing’ option.

But he may already be eying changing to a larger mill in the near future - so trying out the cheaper option might not necessarily be a bad decision. My smaller mill isn’t that big, so not so much necessity, perhaps... but dro’s that indicate to only 0.01mm and have a last digit ‘accuracy’ of, say, 2 digits should not be as good as one reading to 0.001mm, even with a last digit error of ‘10’! (yes, iI know one digit can’t have a two digit error)

I don’t see a set of dividing plates for the rotary table. I bought my rotary table long before I used it for the first time (health issues at the time), but it has come in handy for all sorts of jobs since (and the original job it was bought for is still waiting to be completed!). It was a chance to purchase at the right price - looked like it had never been fitted by the modeller who was selling it on.

Apart from the dro mistake, my other was buying sets of tooling - cutters and QCTP (with multiple holders). Some cutters never used and a QCTP, with only the holders I required, would have saved me a few quid at the time.

Like, I will never use the parting-off holder again as it has a sloping blade (so needs re-setting at centre height whenever the cutter is extended or shortened). The rear parting tool, affixed directly to the cross slide, has made parting off so much easier as I no longer need to take as much care, to avoid parting issues, as previously.

I have a 9x20 lathe with the three phase motor, I have not read all the threads so sorry if this has been said.

The leaver for tightening the belt I never use as I have found that it stretches the belt to much and will twist over on its self.

I only use three pulleys and have adjusted the motor so a tight fit on the three wheels.

I have mucked up quite a few belts before I made the adjustment, at around £12.00 each they get expensive.

Since the adjustment I've had the same belt now for around a year.

If you fit a DRO to your mill it will have to fit on the front as the SX2p has no room at the back, the other mill before the SX2p did have room.

If you need a photo of my DRO on the mill let me know.

Bob.

Edited By BOB BLACKSHAW on 27/07/2019 13:02:52

NDYI, I have not added the tooling up but you are correct, it does amount to more than I paid for the mill. I think it easy to forget you can buy a machine at a good price but the cost doesnt stop there, far from it in fact.

Yes I have gone with the basic DRO,s but that is governed by price really £120 is as much as I wanted to spend just at the moment but I think they will be fine for the work I have coming up shortly. Re the rotary table since the picture was taken I have got myself a much better quality RT which has a dividing set, the RT in the pic is just a cheapie.

The QCTP that was with the 918 lathe comes with a dozen holders, like you I would never have bought that many but I wont complain. Also I have a rear tool post on the 918 plus I fitted one to the back of the mini lathe which transformed parting off.

BOB

Early days with the 918 lathe but I am using the belt tensioner and to be honest the pressure it applies doesnt seem that much, dont know if it has been modified or not but it seems fine. The previous owner said that he cant remember the age of the belt but it is a good number of years ago, so fingers crossed.

I am interested to hear you say that there is no room for the DRO at the back of the SX2P, I assume you are talking about the X at the back of the table..? If so that surprises me as that is where I am going to fit it, I have worked out a swarf cover and the brackets etc and dont envisage a problem but maybe I,m missing something..?

Yes I would like to see the picture of the DRO fitted to your mill and also learn more about why it wont fit at the rear.

Thanks

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 27/07/2019 13:49:46

Ron, I will takes some photos this weekend and put them on this post.

As for the rear fitting, at the time I found a problem so I will take a look at this as well.

Bob.

Hi Ron,

So you have two rotary tables now? Or was that a case of buy cheap buy twice? I have two identical ones - useful with two mills - but the second only arose because the good quality chuck, fitted to it, was still cheaper buying both than buying only the new chuck separately. As it was, both items were as good as new. No dividing plates with the second, but that is no real problem as the number of times when I might want the dividing plates on both tables at the same time is negligible.

PM will arrive re dro.

If you check out the thread on the 09/02/2016 SX2 PLUS MILL ,the link by Dennis D, the photos etc is how I done the DRO, and why there is less room for fitting at the back.

Bob

Bob,

Thanks for the link, the guy went for the front of the table so not to lose any travel. I am still going to fit the DRO at the back, using a 25 x 20mm piece of angle as a swarf cover I lose 15mm of travel but I am ok with that. The thing I dont like about fitting to the front is you lose access to the gib screws and the table locking handle.

He also went with a 500mm DRO which meant a mounting extension added to the end of the table. I have ordered a 300mm which covers the length of X travel or at least it will the way I use the mill. The spec for the table is 330mm of longitudinal travel but I try not to go further than 280mm, though if required I may stretch it to 300mm which keeps the table in full contact with the length of the gib. If you wind the table fully to one end there is an awful lot of unsupported table hanging in the breeze and on only 3/4 of the gib. To consider that with a heavy lump mounted to it plus machining forces I dont think bodes well not on a mini mill anyway.

I,m sure you know Bob that the DRO,s are not swarf or coolant proof and need protection which is easily done with a length of thin angle running the length of the scale. Its easy with the X and Y but not so the Z, with the scale column mounted and the connecting bracket to the side of the head its not possible to fit an angle to the front of the scale. I havnt to date seen any Z mounted scales with any protection but I have an idea which I,m going to try, if it works I will let you know.

Ron

An excellent set of tooling there.

Referring to Paul Lousick's " I also spend .... time making jigs to hold the job. "

Whenever I make a jig, even of something a bit rough-and-ready for a simple, non-critical task on the bench-drill, I try to think " Can I also use this for XXX type of operation... " simply by , say, adding some extra mounting-holes, or making it bigger than for the immediate project so it can be modified readily. And doing so without undue extra time.

As an example, I needed an inner circle, so to speak, for the rotary table so I could round off the carriers on a Hemingway Kits boring-bar set. (My RT's T-slots end quite a way out from the middle.) While at it, I drilled and tapped quite a few more than immediately necessary of the clamping-screw holes, to cope with a range of similar tasks in future.

+++

On Ron's remarks about protecting DRO scales, the Allendale Machine-DRO set I am fitting to my Myford VMC comes with lengths of purpose-made extrusion. Fitting the Y-scale cause me much cogitating (it's all right, it's allowed) and a lot of making of brackets and semi-rigid PVC-sheet cover . The Z-scale is even worse because the machine's column is a cast frustum of a pyramid, but I have worked out a mounting arrangement on large-section aluminium angle that also protects the encoder by a sort of " wrap-around " assembly. It puts the strip facing the wall behind the machine.

The set I purchased does have a pitch-circle calculator, but all is not lost without it because tables of (x, y) constants originally developed for setting jig-borers are available, and it would not difficult to create a simple spread-sheet in, e.g., MS Excel to rattle off the actual dimensions from them, the hole-count and p-c radius. easily.

Would anyone happen to know the rubber thickness of a bicycle innertube, I am looking for some thin rubber strips and an innertube sprang to mind. Thinking about it I guess there may be various sizes, i.e a mountain bike tube been heavier than a normal road bike but I am not sure.

I've got a collection of old inner tubes waiting to come in useful. Thicknesses are between .75 and 1mm.

HTH,

Rod

Thanks Rod, that is helpful.

Ron