Hi everyone. I am fed up with making bodge parts for my projects out
of epoxy resin and general stuff that I salvage from here and there,
and have been pondering the idea of machining parts out of aluminium.
The sort of parts I am talking about are small bits for remote control
vehicles, for example, a swash plate for an RC helicopter. Also I
would like to have a go at building a "Lucy the steam engine" which is
a basic brass block steam engine that sits on your desk.

I have read a fair bit from sites on the net, and I think a good bit
of equipment to start with would be a desktop mill. I live in the UK
and have found this mill which is quite low cost compared to a
Sherline mini mill:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product...0&r=2043&g=106

Can anyone make any comments on this if they know of it, or suggest
any other ideas?

I am planning on mainly using aluminium and brass, probably not steel
cos its quite hard.

Thanks

Andy Peaple.

andy (at) apsystems (dot) org

If you have compared the mill to the Sherline and are comfortable with
specs/price ratio, I'd say go for it. Be sure you compare necessary
tooling, etc. One thing I noticed, the little mill doesn't seem to come
with re-settable handwheels nor did I see them listed in accessories.
Re-settable handwheels are quite handy, esp. for small modeling jobs.

Bob Swinney
"Andy Peaple" wrote in message
om...
Hi everyone. I am fed up with making bodge parts for my projects out
of epoxy resin and general stuff that I salvage from here and there,
and have been pondering the idea of machining parts out of aluminium.
The sort of parts I am talking about are small bits for remote control
vehicles, for example, a swash plate for an RC helicopter. Also I
would like to have a go at building a "Lucy the steam engine" which is
a basic brass block steam engine that sits on your desk.

I have read a fair bit from sites on the net, and I think a good bit
of equipment to start with would be a desktop mill. I live in the UK
and have found this mill which is quite low cost compared to a
Sherline mini mill:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product...0&r=2043&g=106

Can anyone make any comments on this if they know of it, or suggest
any other ideas?

I am planning on mainly using aluminium and brass, probably not steel
cos its quite hard.

Thanks

Andy Peaple.

andy (at) apsystems (dot) org

Andy,
If you buy that machine, you will buy another very, very soon. Invest a
little more money and buy a real one. Do the auctions.
Steve
"Andy Peaple" wrote in message
om...
Hi everyone. I am fed up with making bodge parts for my projects out
of epoxy resin and general stuff that I salvage from here and there,
and have been pondering the idea of machining parts out of aluminium.
The sort of parts I am talking about are small bits for remote control
vehicles, for example, a swash plate for an RC helicopter. Also I
would like to have a go at building a "Lucy the steam engine" which is
a basic brass block steam engine that sits on your desk.

I have read a fair bit from sites on the net, and I think a good bit
of equipment to start with would be a desktop mill. I live in the UK
and have found this mill which is quite low cost compared to a
Sherline mini mill:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product...0&r=2043&g=106

Can anyone make any comments on this if they know of it, or suggest
any other ideas?

I am planning on mainly using aluminium and brass, probably not steel
cos its quite hard.

Thanks

Andy Peaple.

andy (at) apsystems (dot) org

Andy,

Have you considered the Taig desktop mill? I believe they have a
distributor in the UK. Its the right size for the work you want to do
and it can be upgraded later to CNC if your hobby takes you in that
direction later. I have the CNC version and its a great little
machine.

Regards,
Ed Ferguson

Hi everyone. I am fed up with making bodge parts for my projects out
of epoxy resin and general stuff that I salvage from here and there,
and have been pondering the idea of machining parts out of aluminium.
The sort of parts I am talking about are small bits for remote control
vehicles, for example, a swash plate for an RC helicopter. Also I
would like to have a go at building a "Lucy the steam engine" which is
a basic brass block steam engine that sits on your desk.

I have read a fair bit from sites on the net, and I think a good bit
of equipment to start with would be a desktop mill. I live in the UK
and have found this mill which is quite low cost compared to a
Sherline mini mill:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product...0&r=2043&g=106

Can anyone make any comments on this if they know of it, or suggest
any other ideas?

I am planning on mainly using aluminium and brass, probably not steel
cos its quite hard.

Thanks

Andy Peaple.

andy (at) apsystems (dot) org

It seems this design will lack rigidity at the base

On Sun, 05 Sep 2004 02:09:42 GMT, Poster wrote:

It seems this design will lack rigidity at the base

Guess number one, the column seems pretty small. However, the note
that the table is nice, says nothing about it being flat and square.
the dial indicator will be the final judge there, and it's likely to
be highly variable from mill to mill. Round columns, I worked with a
mill drill for almost ten years, might even be over ten years. That
machine owes me nothing but now that I have a knee type, I'd never go
back to a round column. As a starter mill, it depends on what you
expect from it, it's still not big, while bigger than the mini mills
now available. Mass is not your enemy, the heavier the mill, the
better they seem to work. I have yet to see any import mill that the
knee was square to the table, Every one I've had needed the knee
scraped in to work right. Don't remember if it's an R-8 spindle, if
so that's a plus. Dimensions of the table might be nice, but it looks
pretty small anyhow. 400 rpm might be a little fast for a lot of
things, it's going to limit your cutter size more than anything else.
One thing that's going to be hard to find, a milling vise that won't
be oversize for this machine. Sure, you can use a bigger one, but
there will be a lot of times that you'll wish you could see the cross
feed dial under the vise. Been there.

wrote in news:3o0lj0la2i5jegn0442us479e50sc3u1kt@
4ax.com:

On Sun, 05 Sep 2004 02:09:42 GMT, Poster wrote:

It seems this design will lack rigidity at the base

Guess number one, the column seems pretty small. However, the note
that the table is nice, says nothing about it being flat and square.
the dial indicator will be the final judge there, and it's likely to
be highly variable from mill to mill. Round columns, I worked with a
mill drill for almost ten years, might even be over ten years. That
machine owes me nothing but now that I have a knee type, I'd never go
back to a round column. As a starter mill, it depends on what you
expect from it, it's still not big, while bigger than the mini mills
now available. Mass is not your enemy, the heavier the mill, the
better they seem to work. I have yet to see any import mill that the
knee was square to the table, Every one I've had needed the knee
scraped in to work right. Don't remember if it's an R-8 spindle, if
so that's a plus. Dimensions of the table might be nice, but it looks
pretty small anyhow. 400 rpm might be a little fast for a lot of
things, it's going to limit your cutter size more than anything else.
One thing that's going to be hard to find, a milling vise that won't
be oversize for this machine. Sure, you can use a bigger one, but
there will be a lot of times that you'll wish you could see the cross
feed dial under the vise. Been there.




This mill's round column is pretty darn heavy for its size. Not like a
drill press column! This baby is thick. At least 60 pounds just for
the column.

Furthermore, a cylinder is the most rigid shape a given amount of steel
can take.

I currently use a four-inch wide kurt style milling vise and there is
plenty of room for it, and a drill bit and a part. It doesnt impair
the use of the frontal dial, not only because it's a full 2 inches
away, but also because the lever moves along. The 400 rpm is perfect
for drilling. I use the 1000 speed for milling a 0.5" groove. I do
wish it could go slower for threading operations. Still, I manage to
do those with my lathe. I think this mill kicks alot more butt for the
price than the mini-mill, and it has about 2 inches more spindle
clearance. It has MT3 so it can use parts from my lathe. I don't think
this product outscores heavy mills, or is by any means perfect, but it
sure can compete in its category anyday.

Poster wrote in message 35...


This mill's round column is pretty darn heavy for its size. Not like a
drill press column! This baby is thick. At least 60 pounds just for
the column.

Furthermore, a cylinder is the most rigid shape a given amount of steel
can take.

The problem with a round column, "loosen head, lose centering,
re-indicate to pick up center again." Not that it can't be lived
with, and I did for ten years.

I'm not knocking the machine, for most hobby use, it's probably
perfectly adequate. Just things that I've found over the years that
have caused me headaches. MT-3 collets are ok, but pricey as hell, and
hard to find. Anything else, such as the collet adaptors will extract
a price in spindle to table clearance, and when it's limited to begin
with, it can cause problems. Low speeds, there is no such thing as
too low, no matter how low a machine can go, someone will sooner or
later wish for even slower speeds. With a 2" face mill, well within
the spec of 53 mm, even on gray cast, you're going to run into
problems because it's too fast. Not that you're going to find an
answer in anything less than a Bridgeport, most of the imports don't
go slow enough. IF one chooses to use one of the better steels, the
FPM is going to run out in a hurry with any small mill, and the only
thing anyone can do is go to a smaller cutter. It's not impossible to
work around, and it's common to almost all of the imports.

I'm not knocking the mini-mills either, I have one of the HF and for
the small stuff I bought it for, it's perfectly adequate too.
However, it uses the same collets and spindle attachments that my A1-S
does, which is a big plus. With the variable speed, it will go slow
enough, but also runs out of power at the low end. There is no
perfect compromise.

In article , Lennie the Lurker
says...

... Low speeds, there is no such thing as
too low, no matter how low a machine can go, someone will sooner or
later wish for even slower speeds. With a 2" face mill, well within
the spec of 53 mm, even on gray cast, you're going to run into
problems because it's too fast. Not that you're going to find an
answer in anything less than a Bridgeport, most of the imports don't
go slow enough. IF one chooses to use one of the better steels, the
FPM is going to run out in a hurry with any small mill, and the only
thing anyone can do is go to a smaller cutter. It's not impossible to
work around, and it's common to almost all of the imports.

Basically a restatement of the fact that back gears in a mill head
are pretty much a requirement.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================