Dore-Westbury Mill

Brian, it was advised you buy a collet chuck from decent supplier because often the ebay specials are substandard.

But if it's a choice between a 3 jaw chuck or a potentially not fantastic er collet chuck, I'd give the collet chuck a chance, 

It’s not a cheap hobby, some things you need, some you don't, a proper way of holding Miller cutters is definitely one of the things you need, not really much point owning the mill otherwise, it's like people who buy fancy cars with massive engines but can't afford to put petrol in them

Edited By JasonB on 13/08/2021 19:07:08

Is the link for the Amazon collet chuck set not allowed? I thought it was foreign businesses not registered in the UK that were banned?

It's "Fulfilled" by Amazon, look down the right of the page and you will see "sold by Comdryeu" click on that name and you will see who you are buying from.

Just because you are buying through Amazon does not make it from a decent supplier and probably no different from ebay specials which could be good bad of somewhere in between.

OK I understand I just saw Prime, didn't notice it was from a third party.

I know Amazon would never be considered a good supplier of engineering supplies, that's why I put 'potentially not very good collet chuck'

I wouldn't buy it, but then the person it was aimed at thought a 3 jaw scroll chuck was acceptable, so clearly we have 'very' different ideas of what is acceptable.

The thought of that 3 jaw coming loose is frightening!

For holding cutters use ER collets,m 25 or 32, will give youupto 16 mm for 25 and to 20 mm shanks for the 32.

I use ER25, since the largest shank that I have i 16 mm.5 Anything larger, and I am into the realms of Face Mills.

HTH

Howard

Thank you all for your kind words of advice.

My DW came with a self centering 4jaw already fitted. Not yet even tried to unscrew it but when I do, will fit milling chuck that came with the mill. Typing this in lounge, chuck upstairs with lots of other tools in spare bedroom, but off top of head, I think it's called Modeloy or similar. Might splash out on an ER type and the odd collet. I already have a number of ER collets. When I obtained the "Angel eye" LEDs, I received 2 rings of LEDs, so will look at fitting one to the DW in due course. First one was fitted to the "Sharp" mill, a long time ago now. My pal apparently never had any means of tool sharpening and it seems by the vast quantity of endmills, that he bought new replacements for blunt ones! One very expensive cutter grinder will buy an awful lot of endmills. Almost finished my Harold Hall jig, so got plenty of endmills to practice on.

Been thinking about how I could extend the X axis leadscrew out of the LH end of the table with a view to fitting a power drive, possibly using an old 12v wiper motor in the come in handy collection.

John

If you look through the build series for all the old locomotives by LBSC and Martin Evans, this method for holding the cutters when using a vertical slide on a lathe is very common - almost standard.

Yes it would be better to get a proper chuck or collets for the reasons that people have given but I have used the same method many times without having a problem. Just be aware that it isn't the best method of holding a cutter if you continue to do it.

Well guys I have taken on board all the wise counsel and seen the error of my foolish notion of using an old chuck. I have ordered the Amazon ER32 recommendation and its supposed to be coming this Sunday - amazing. As said, owning a mill is not a cheap hobby and so I shall equip myself properly in due course. I dont have much experience on mills and no formal training thereof.

It seems that an xy DRO is a rather essential must have on a mill like this

I shall look for advice from other members as to how they arrived at a satisfactory assy. Some of the kits I have seen seem like a lot of trouble to fit. I would want one with a proper screen readout

I expect to do quite a bit of sheet drilling eg making instrument panels which requires a lot of xy coords for centre drilling. Doing this manually on the dials is tedious and easy to make a mistake vs working directly from drg and dialing in the required distances = well thats my guess

thnx for all the help

Brian,

If it is only sheet drilling - you could easily use the sticky paper method (stick a printed out drawing onto the sheet). That would surely be accurate enough for instrument panels?

My digital read out came from M-DRO for X, Y and Z axes (they did advertise on here). It was a fair few hundred £ and took a good few hours to fit. Also, their kit was specifically designed for my machine. It is good though.

I have fitted xyz DRO to my Dore Westbury using bits from EMS International. As with Phil, it wasn't cheap but I can say that it has transformed the machine.

Best wishes

John B

Edited By John Billard 1 on 14/08/2021 17:16:50

I followed up the sound advice and went for the Amazon link ER32 set ca£40. It arrived couple day on sunday evening!

Took me 2 mins to screw on the existing drawbar and the collet chuck was up and snug - just like that

Impressive so far what you get for your money 10 pce metric set. no markings on the chucks

So Auntie Myford is now respectable.

In the meantime I came across a youtube site offering milling m/c instruction - as i had no formal training

I would not normal suggest the usual old blowhard uncle Bubba rubbish that is largely informercial and a waste of time but I found this site extremely good very little product placing but some amazon links definitely useful anyway

So IMHO if you are coming from nowhere ( I never knew how little I knew) then I can recommend this tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyuG-B95PQs&list=PLY67-4BrEae9m8v20LNARIRl9Pd9bdFRZ&index=1

I also came to understand how important a proper milling vice is (not the cheapo type used on pillar drills)

Its like having a lathe without a proper chuck

The other point made was that modern end mill design hss and carbide really transformed the role of the vertical mill Probably in my early years why I had so little exposure to them.

I associated them with jig borers and the toolroom ( a rarified room with aircon and only allowed entry to pass holders)

How many of you would be brave enough to tackle an apprentice piece to make a 1" precision cube +/- half thou

I have now trammeled my slide and found it +/- 2 though over 12". Is this something I should worry about. I see members using laser pointers. I dont envisage anything larger than 3" say

Thanx for all that valuable help it has really put me on the right road

Hello Brian,

If you got that sort of performance on the table movement accuracy for a machine that has seen some service I think you have a good one that will serve you well for many years.

I built my Mk2 getting on for 30 years ago now and It has done a lot of work in that time. Without actually testing it, I imagine I would get a similar result to you

Regards

Another Brian

Yes indeed Brian I think I was extremely lucky when I bought my DW from the chap who made it. He was obviously a perfectionist and I havent found a single dodgy fit anywhere. I feel ther m/c hasnt done a lot of work and just needs TLC.

Having seen the video I am struck with wanting a DRO. I see a 3 axis kit for ca£200, I am wondering whether to stay with a 2 axix model as I dont see myself doing much precision Z work. After all most of the time you lock your quill Also fitting the slider on the spindle head is going to be a pig/lash up as theres not much room for placement. I am sure I could easily manage with a DTI for Z and it would save £50

Does anyone else place much value on a Z readout?

I use a stand alone vertical digit slide on my raglan mill with the rest from machine dro. I have checked the vertical and personally can’t fault it.

Hello again Brian,

I fitted a kit similar to the ones used for a digital caliper to give me Z axis motion, but in fairness I don't often use the precision it offers. It is prone to error if the scale becomes oiled and they do eat batteries..

For the other two motions on the table, those are very different and I lashed out to install a Newall system, having had excellent experience from their equipment both professionally and on my Myford lathe. One function I recommend strongly is the PCD option and whatever you chose to fit in the end would in my view be incomplete without incorporating it

Regards

Brian

WOW Newall system is a Rolls Royce system with a price to match ca£900 for a Bridgeport way out of my league

but I take your point with thnx that an accurate z axis system is rarely needed for a hobbyist so maybe £150 is a more likely option.

Anyone had experience with these cheap charlie offerings?