Thread: What starter mill tooling?

I'm glad you have the machine in place and wired. Did you end up getting the power feed motor running, or just the main motor?

Your list looks pretty good, although these days i generally just use the 4 flute cutters and not the 2 flute, the 4 flutes can plunge. As far as cutters though, i have found that with my big (well it isn't against yours!) mill is that it breaks these cheap cutters very easily, you don't get any warning as the mill simply won't struggle and tell you your going too hard with such small cutters. Having said that i have never broken a dormer (yet).

You may find ER40 is too big for doing small work it limits visibility. I use ER40 and ER25, but if your using cutters with shanks over 20mm regularly then your probably better of with endmill holders. Taiwan tool is a good source for these.

You will need a vice, now i have the Glacern i'd say go an anglock style for sure, plus parallels, the 6" x 1/8" would be fine.

Otherwise have you got a horizontal arbor? If you need to move serious metal using slab mills and face and edge mills is the way to go. Watch ebay etc for these. There is a big lot on ebay at the moment, i'm tempted to buy them and keep what i want and move the rest on for what it costs me per item.

As far as the TCT tooling goes, what is your top speed? This may limit the size of tooling you can use.

Cheers,
Ew

Hi ueee

It not wired yet but that bit should be pretty easy from here. What I ended up doing was stripping both motors and modifying the windings by splitting and paralleling to halve the voltage. I have a changeover switch for the main spindle motor using the vfd i use on my lathe and a bought another vfd for the feed motor. Never played with electric motors much before this so it was really interesting researching and having a poke around inside. They ran fine unloaded but it will be the real test when put a bit of load on them.

Im pretty sure the vertical head has a max speed of 1500 rpm so i figured 25mm would be about as small as id want to go with carbides. I also figured it would make the smaller hss endmills pretty useless but they are relatively cheap and may work if i'm patient. Hadn't thought about visibility on the collet chuck so i might look at a smaller one....or just use it as an excuse to but another smaller set down the track.

It came with a reasonable looking vice as well as a stack of horizontal arbors and associated bits. Also got a pile of gears for a gear driven dividing head but sadly not the dividing head itself. I should grab a few photos of the loot, there may well be something useful there and i don't know what it is.

If you end up buying the slab mills and want to get rid of some i could be interested.

Hold downs if you don't have them. Buy 2 sets, one set is often not quite enough.

Nice looking beast you have there! A work light and an edge finder (wriggler) if you don't already have them.

Vee Blocks and Angle Plate are handy.

I wouldnt bother with a drill chuck, just use the collets.
Ive just bumped up from ER32 to ER40 and havent noticed visibility issues. However i tend to clamp my work down a lot and the dia of the collet holder affects how close you can get to the clamps, or how much cutter you need to have sticking out.

Not all 4 flute cutters can plunge, you need to check first.
I would buy a couple of solid carbide cutters in common sizes, they are so much nicer. I find 3 flute carbide amazing in alloy.
Roughing cutters are great on a small machine but you almost wont need them on something that big, it should have enough rigidity not to care.
Parallels for sure.
I dont bother with a bought clamp kit, i just use whatever stock and bolts i have lying around.
You can never have enough T nuts.

A dividing head would be extremely handy on a manual mill.


You missed a big one...... DRO! no DRO on a lathe is fine in my book, but a mill without i find quite limited and much slower to use.

Originally Posted by andrew_mx83

I wouldnt bother with a drill chuck, just use the collets.
Ive just bumped up from ER32 to ER40 and havent noticed visibility issues. However i tend to clamp my work down a lot and the dia of the collet holder affects how close you can get to the clamps, or how much cutter you need to have sticking out.

Not all 4 flute cutters can plunge, you need to check first.
I would buy a couple of solid carbide cutters in common sizes, they are so much nicer. I find 3 flute carbide amazing in alloy.
Roughing cutters are great on a small machine but you almost wont need them on something that big, it should have enough rigidity not to care.
Parallels for sure.
I dont bother with a bought clamp kit, i just use whatever stock and bolts i have lying around.
You can never have enough T nuts.

A dividing head would be extremely handy on a manual mill.


You missed a big one...... DRO! no DRO on a lathe is fine in my book, but a mill without i find quite limited and much slower to use.

I used to use some self made hold down brackets with threaded rod and hex nuts and bits of stock on my drill press. Now I have the hold down set for my mill that is all that gets used. The stepped blocks are much quicker to use than scrounging around for bits of stock.

DRO. I have never used one but I do agree. I would like one, but the cost! For a beginner kit, maybe learn to drive a manual before you buy an auto.

Dean

They are pretty cheap these days. For $500, you will never look back. You can also cheap out and just mount digital calipers on all your slides, but it is not as user friendly.

I got straight into a Ferrari, my first real milling was done on the cnc.... Now im back on the Model T, the knee mill has handles graduated in inches, so the few accurate jobs ive had to do involved lots of mental math to work out where i am in real numbers )

Everything came out where it was sposed to, but sssslllooowwww. I could have made the parts in 1/4 the time with DRO.

I have a set of 3 digital scales on my mill and it beats a "manual" hands down. I basically bought these as an interim measure till I could afford a "real" DRO.

Here s a link to the install of the X and Y axis scales, I have since replaced the modified digital caliper on the quill with one of those scales as well.

Now I'm not so sure I will ever go to that expense, they have so far done everything I needed.

I have made quite a few T nuts to add to my clamp down kits (I have 2), they make a nice little learning project.

I have a 5/8" drill chuck with R8 arbor, but also have a 10mm chuck on a 5/8" straight arbor that I use in my collet chuck, it gets used more than the 5/8" chuck.

Nice beast of a mill! Not sure if parallels were mentioned. Also a rotary table if the budget allows. I agree with two clamping kits. Make sure you get the correct one for your machine but you may want to look at the slots of your angle plate and rotary table (if getting them) as you may need a smaller kit for them. I got a M14 kit for my mill table and an M12 that fits the rotary table and angle plate. All kits seem to have the same step blocks and clamps, only the nuts, joiners and studs are specific to the size.

Cheers,

Simon

Originally Posted by andrew_mx83

They are pretty cheap these days. For $500, you will never look back. You can also cheap out and just mount digital calipers on all your slides, but it is not as user friendly.

I got straight into a Ferrari, my first real milling was done on the cnc.... Now im back on the Model T, the knee mill has handles graduated in inches, so the few accurate jobs ive had to do involved lots of mental math to work out where i am in real numbers )

Everything came out where it was sposed to, but sssslllooowwww. I could have made the parts in 1/4 the time with DRO.

500 bucks. Is that all? It is going to be a long time before I can spend that sort of money on a DRO. I have spent all the serious money I am able to on my hobbies. Will need to win a lottery to buy any more. Now I need to consider fencing, fertiliser, farm sheds, house reno and many other mundane things. As we lose money by living here it is difficult to find the money out of my wages but I am not complaining. I would not live anywhere else.

I have thought along the same lines as Big Shed. I know there are advantages to a full integrated DRO system but most of these can be duplicated on the computer and fed in as coordinates.

Dean

Originally Posted by andrew_mx83

Not all 4 flute cutters can plunge, you need to check first.
I would buy a couple of solid carbide cutters in common sizes, they are so much nicer. I find 3 flute carbide amazing in alloy.
Roughing cutters are great on a small machine but you almost wont need them on something that big, it should have enough rigidity not to care.
Parallels for sure.

The CTC 4 flutes can plunge.
The problem with solid carbide on these older mills is the top end speed just isn't there to run them properly.
Roughing cutter will remove material faster than plain cutters on any mill, although once you get up in size of course you will notice much more gain on smaller mills. The smaller ones is where i find they shine on my machine, where rigidity is lost not in the machine but the dia of the cutter itself.

Do this with a plain cutter..... Vernier Mill hogging cast iron with a Rippa cutter - YouTube i will tell you i broke the cutter on the next cut, i blame the cheap quality of the cutter. Or maybe the 6hp driving it.....

What sort of mill have you just got Andrew? (new thread maybe?)

The Dro is a very good point, especially on the X. Your table is bigger than mine Gallegos and i find my dial is just to far away to read and be paying attention to the cut. A dro has been on my list for a while, i just can't seem to stop spending my money on other things......

Cheers,
Ew

Edit, maybe you need a cutter like this Sandvik CoroMill 360 Heavy Duty Facemill Demo - YouTube

Hi dean, please dont take my comment the wrong way, $500 is indeed a lot of money, but also quite cheap for a full, brand new DRO kit. Im sure not too many years ago they were considerably more than that.
My lathe uses digital calipers on the cross and compound, and a hafco/ebay remote display scale on the saddle..... it works ok and im too cheap to upgrade it! But boy, when i use a machine with real DRO, its nice.

Ew, that's a hell of a cut. Very nice.
Your comments about tool rigidity make a lot of sense, and im certainly a fan of roughers myself. Was just hoping you could rely on them less with a 'real' machine.

That sandvik cutter is nice, but i reckon i would prefer one of these for everyday use )
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaLu...e_gdata_player

I was going to hold off on a thread for the new mill, so as not to be too much of a post whore, but i shall make one after dinner. Ive had enough of getting hot swarf thrown at me for the day anyway....

Clamp kit is on the list, I will probably just grab this locally...

Sound like parallels are the go... can anyone suggest a supplier? The ones I have found seem expensive for what they are and the tightarse in me says just use bar stock...

Originally Posted by Ueee

Edit, maybe you need a cutter like this Sandvik CoroMill 360 Heavy Duty Facemill Demo - YouTube

The mill actually came with a beefy face mill thats probably 150mm dia and looks pretty solid but half of the insert holders are busted so I assume its probably junk. Would be good if I could resurrect it.

The plan is to get a DRO and Rotary table at some stage but it attracts the attention of the cook if I spend too much money in a short space of time. As it stands I'm probably already pushing my luck with all this tooling.