New mill drill

[jatt]

After lots of research and tyre kicking I have finally made the plunge and puchased a mill drill.

The funny thing is that my local could buy this unit in and the clamp kit (freight included) and sell it to me for less than I could by buying directly from H&F in Melb. One would assume he is making a few bucks for handling it. More than happy to support my local when he is preparared to give me a reasonable deal.

Picked her up from the shop in its shipping crate and made the 15 km trip home. Not the easiest thing to transport on the trailer, especially when I couldnt lay it on its side. There looks to be fair bit a weight up top in the head, so was very careful when I got it off the trailer with the chain block.

Now to set it up and clean off all of that goddarn preserving grease.

Would sewing machine oil be ok to use as a rust preventative? Have got a few litres of the stuff lying around already.

I'm thinking I should dump the oil thats in the head and start afresh. Now to do some searching and find a suitable oil to use.

Yes its gunna bit fun shopping for the essentials, you know mill vise, RT, cutters... the list goes on. Until then will just set it up as a drill and use the crusty drill press vise I have lying around.

Its the first mill I have owned or used to be honest so comments/suggestions are most welcome.

[arose62]

The first 2 projects I did on my X3 mill were a T-slot cleaner (from a bit of scrap aluminium), and then some T-nuts.

Simple enough to achieve as a newbie, cheap as chips material-wise, but actually useful.

Cheers,
Andrew

[artme]

Congrats. on the purchase. Hope you have lots of fun.:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

I assume a mill drill is a very accurate drilling set up?

I,ve never had anything to do with such a beast but I would appreciate some info on their use/s. Ta.

[jatt]

I,ve never had anything to do with such a beast but I would appreciate some info on their use/s. Ta.

Well it can do pretty much what any other mill or drill its size can I guess. Its geared head, so speed changes are quicker than belt drive.

The table is a bit smaller than many others of its type (about 600 x 190 mm) , but that doesnt bother me a great deal. At least I have some milling ability.

Might lose a little bit of accuracy over the full extent of the vertical axis, but I have more clearance in this department than its bench mounted cousin.

Sat down and went through what my needs were: something fairly solid, MT3 at least, plenty of clearance and at least some milling ability. It doesnt need to be mega accurate for what I do. This unit seems to tick all of the right boxes for me.

[arose62]

I assume a mill drill is a very accurate drilling set up?


That's one use.

A mill is used to create flat surfaces on bits of metal. Instead of a drill bit, you use a milling cutter, which can cut on its end, and on its sides.

Clamp or bolt the workpiece to the table of the mill, then use the table handles to move the workpiece around underneath or alongside the spinning cutter.

This way you can cut grooves, slots, make two sides parallel to each other, etc.

When you get the hang of the handles, it's pretty cool to be winding them back and forth, using all 3 hands at once, and watch your article come into being.

Youtube has lots of clips of mills in action. Search for X3, which is a very common home workshop mill model.

Cheers,
Andrew

[4-6-4]

:D Dear Jatt. The first thing you will find out about your new pride and joy is that after you put a vice on the table and and something in the spindle ie a drill bit. You will probably find that there is not much room left to work with. I have never owned on being a bachelor but they are definitely better than no Mill. Friends of mine who own them usually fall into the trap (and this is a problem most users have) of trying to exceed the capacity of the machine. Now comes the fun part of getting or making all the bits that go with the beast.
Do you have a lathe to go with the Mill.
This brings back fond memories of my first machine tools. I have a Lathe in the spare bedroom. Only a little one but still a lathe.
Yours 4-6-4

[blackfrancis]

Would sewing machine oil be ok to use as a rust preventative?If you leave it unattended for any time the oil runs off and rust begins. I've never had complete success stopping rust over the long term using just oil. Try lanolin based rust preventative spray, that stuff is awesome. It stops sheep getting wet - Lanolin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanolin)


Edit: the product is called "Lanox"

[jatt]

The first thing you will find out about your new pride and joy is that after you put a vice on the table and and something in the spindle ie a drill bit. You will probably find that there is not much room left to work with.

Got the answer to that one, its a pedestal model. Lots of vertical travel. The foto I took is probably a bit deceiving.
Might lose a little bit of accuracy over the full extent of the vertical axis, but I have more clearance in this department than its bench mounted cousin.


Do you have a lathe to go with the Mill.


Unfortunatley no at this point. Yeah I know normally most folks would have a lathe first, but it just didnt work out that way. Basically a case of the H&F drill press I already had simply isnt up to the tasks I put it thru these days

[jatt]

Yeah been busy on the mill.

First order of business was to make a new jaw for the vice that's been sent over to the other shed. Killed it did I with the hammer bending 10 mm rod oops....:roll: Think I could buy a replacement! not likely.
Its not all bad tho. Scored a new swivel base Dawn unit for the main shop. At least I can by replacement jaws for that one.

Darn phone crade the boss bought wont hold my fone with the belt clip attached. No matter I will just make one from some scrap plastic thats lying around.
Most interesting discovery was I could use a router bit
to make the radius on one corner. Did several lite passes.

The ER32 collets and chuck have definitely been the best pick up so far. Only trouble was the MT3 had a metric thread didnt it!!! This aint gunna fit the BSW. Hmm threadded rod, weld on a nut, whatta know a metric drawbar.

Lots of other boring stuff like making flats on round bar to give the grub screw better purchase.

The mill vise is on order. Lots of stuff to still make for the mill, think parallels top the list.

Happy machining
Jatt.

[pipeclay]

After you machine your parallels are you going to get them ground & hardened or wont these be used for critical setups.

[jatt]

After you machine your parallels are you going to get them ground & hardened or wont these be used for critical setups

For the most part what I do isnt that critical, so they will be fine without surface grinding and hardening.

Down the track maybe I might need something more precise, but for now if it looks good on the vernier its good enough.

[tanii51]

i use lanox or lanotech .. the column on my 20 yr old drill press hasnt shown any rust spots for at least a year (or is it longer :- )since it was sprayed . i use it on lathe chucks, centres, even my mt drill bits