ML7 Owner now wants a Mill?

is there one in Weymouth perhaps?

**LINK**

Well you seem to have hit the jackpot for towns - Weymouth club right on your doorstep. Bournemouth too. A couple I believe in Yeovil.

Climb milling is where the cutter is going along the edge of the work like a wheel turning in the same directon as it travells so as to to throw the chips out behind it (which is good) but also to pull itself into the work 'climbing' up the curved surface it is cutting (which is bad ) as it can cause grabbing taking too big a cut on a small machine.

A slot dril can advance into a work sideways to cut a slot - imagine it with just two teeth (stopped) pushed up against a flat wall so as the two teeth are side on the don't impede the cutter advancing. But a 4 tooth cutter will have a tooth in the way so it can't advance until it is a 45 degrees. Also a 2 flute cutter has one end tooth extended across the very centre to cut in the middle which allows it to be plunged straight down to start the slot while a 4 flute cutter has a hole in the middle at the end. Actually amateurs can get round the difference but a slot drill is more versatile.

Like I said before don't get wayliad into getting non essential tooling like DROs and rotary tables at the start as you can add them later but you can't add on a bigger table to a small mill so you should put everything into the base machine to start with.

Edited By Bazyle on 01/07/2014 09:27:42

Quite. You don't NEED to buy any tooling other than something to hold your endmills. Everything else can be bought or made as needed, when you know you need it. Your choice must of course depend on whether it is a hobby machine (when time costs nothing) or for business (when your time is valuable).

When I bought my first mill about 10 years ago after my retirement I bought nothing but a few endmills and slot drills. I made an endmill chuck for it on the lathe (see MEW 82 and 83), then a few T-nuts and various clamps, an angle plate, and then a machine vice something like this but a bit bigger. I did fit a couple of digital scales which are useful as I work in a combination of inches and metric. The only major purchase was a rotary table/dividing head.

But then my time is cheap. You make your choice according to your circumstances.

Russell.

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 01/07/2014 09:38:08

Slightly off-topic but I think that one reason slot drills have 2 flutes is to get more accurate slot widths. Whenever a flute is cutting the edge of the slot there is no force acting to bend the tool sideways.

Neil

Neil

While there is some logic in what you say any even number of flutes/cutting edges will give that result. However I would have thought that the the cutting edge at the front of the mill, which at it's front edge is cutting at right angles to the direction of the slot, will produce a significant side force to the cutter while the trailing edge runs effectively under no load conditions. This too will supply an uneven force to the cutter encouraging it to deviate from its designed path.

Just a thought.

Martin

Ah well, clearly I don't know what I'm doing, since I use a 2-axis DRO on my vertical mill, and think that it was the single most useful accessory that I have bought. On the other hand I do make money from the mill, which I wouldn't be able to do without the DRO, as it allows me to be quicker, and therefore charge less per part, with less scrap.

I rather suspect that most of the companies with hundreds of mills and no DROs, and with people who knew what they were doing, are now out of business and the people out of work. Possibly because companies with mills and DROs were able to produce parts more cheaply, even if the operators were less skilled?

Andrew

I doubt it was DRO's that saw the decline in staff, it is more related to CNC machines but for most CNC's a 1 off not economical.

Only 2 axis what happened to the third one? My Marlow mill has a 3 axis DRO with glass scales works fine but I could do all the jobs with out it just makes things a little easier.

> I would have thought that the the cutting edge at the front of the mill, which at it's front edge is cutting at right angles to the direction of the slot, will produce a significant side force to the cutter while the trailing edge runs effectively under no load conditions. This too will supply an uneven force to the cutter encouraging it to deviate from its designed path.

That's what I meant, even if I didn't express it too clearly!

Neil

I cut a slot undersize then finish off with a light pass down both sides to finished size that way the tool deflection is minimised on the second pass.

Bit of a rash statement Nigel, I have DRO's on all of my machines and would not be without them. I find it extremely difficult to read the dials due to vision defects so the DRO makes accurate machining a pleasure not a chore. It all depends on the individuals requirements/abilities/disabilities etc.

A DRO is most certainly NOT a fad!!

Graeme

I thought that perhaps DRO's would prove a little contraversial, seems I was correct!

Thanks for the useful model club links, I will follow them up.

I am still a little confused regarding the plethora of collets , chucks and drawbars etc available so I will try and take some pics of what I already have with the ML7 to perhaps get a better feel for a this.

Thank you so much to everyone for all the help so far.

Cheers,

Martin

I bought a professional DRO (Newall) and the 3rd axis would have been over my budget. I don't miss it. Almost all of my work is 2D; hole depths and the like can be set accurately enough (within a few thou) on the quill and/or knee mechanical dials. For those few times where the depth of a feature is important I cross check the dials with a depth micrometer.

Andrew

I don't think anyone is saying that a DRO isn't a great asset it is just when the money is tight do you buy one or food for a month or two. I'm sure the seats in a Rolls-Royce are really comfy but I make do with a somewhat smaller car. Perhaps with the new legislation I should raid my pension fund and blow it all on a luxury motor.

This time/value arguement got me thinking. My kitchen is about 1/6 of my house so probably costs me a couple of grand a year in interest payments which would pay for weekend takeaways on paper plates and the rest of the week I could eat at work. There's a shower at work and I can sleep in the landrover so goodby bathroom and bedroom. The other bedroom is the workshop and I've got some important kit stored in the living room so they have to stay.

Hi all,

I thought I would post some pics of the kit I have already got to help sort out what I might need.

I have been using a Derbyshire Elect that I got at a bric a brac sale to make some small parts for about a year now but it is really not man enough for my needs so I intend to sell it to partially finance the purchase of a mill.

I believe it is quite desirable with all its tooling.

I have also collected a fair amount of tooling and odds and sods while in anticipation of getting the ML7 so am pretty much up and running with that but finding it a steep learning curve all the same. There is a small local precision engineers who have kindly let me use their power hacksaw to cut stuff up for rollers etc that need replacing on bookbinding tools. I must take care not to wear out my welcome!

There is a pic of the ML7 as well.

Cheers,

Martin

BTW (and another point of controversy) don't cover machine tools with plastic even if it says Myford on it. Plastic sweats in a domestic environment so use a cotton sheet. Those covers were designed with a factory in mind where there is a stable temperature but is sometimes rains through a leaky skylight.

After derusting your rotary table apply diluted clear waxoyle (outside on a hot day) to lay down a thin layer of wax which is nicer to handle than oil.

Hi Bazyle, Here I might partially take issue with you; while I agree in general with your remark, the reason I have used the plastic over on the ML7 and had one made for the Elect is that both machines have 3 or 4 VPI pads attached to them from Shield technology. The skirts of the covers are secured with loads of rare earth magnets to keep the space as draught proof as possible. All the clear boxes and the engineers cabinet have these too; never have had any rust at all. These are used in the film industry for all location camera and equipment boxes and while not cheap do an excellent job.

By buying them 20 or so at a time the cost is not too bad, an unopened drawer will last well over 2 years on one pad!

A cheaper alternative is to use Shippams paste jars with perforasted tops and filled with old fashioned naptha moth balls!

cheers,

Martin

Not a bad little collection, looks like you already have a ER25 collet chuck hence the little boxes and the chuck holder in pic 12. Looks like its MT2 so should fit a lot of milling machines some that have MT3 are easily accommodated with a MT3 to MT2 sleeve.

Bob, thanks for that good news!

Martin

Looking at the pics in your gallery, all you need is a Mill, a vice and a handful of colletts and away you go. Seriously, I wouldn't be worrying about the cost of tooling as you have most everything you need. Don't get hung up on the size of Collett chuck either. As has been mentioned, it looks like you have an ER25 chuck there and I find that by and large that size covers most everything I do. I do have an ER40 chuck but I mostly use my ER25 chuck.

Cutters. The only real bone of contention. I am lucky, I pay around £2.50 for brand new Dormer and Presto cutters of varying sizes up to 12mm or so. I am wary of some of the cheap cutter sets I see offered for sale as I have heard various stories of inconsistency.

With respect Bayzle, you are missing the point with regard to the DRO's, and I quote: "I'm sure the seats in a Rolls-Royce are really comfy but I make do with a somewhat smaller car" - but you don't do without though. And my argument therefore stands. For less than £100 you can fit out two axis on a Mill with a very modest DRO setup. Or you can buy a very expensive setup costing considerably more. Personally I prefer driving to the supermarket to do the shopping as opposed to walking, but like yourself I use my modest car and not a stretch Hummer. It does the job and that is what is important to me.

I will point out that some have had bad experiences with the type of DRO setup I use and in fact John Moore went for the glass scale setup after trying not one but two or more different "economy" setups. I personally am quite satisfied with my setup and if it becomes unreliable I would fork out the cash for a Rolls Royce.

graham.

Edited By Oompa Lumpa on 01/07/2014 21:12:28