To all,
Over the weekend I was at Team Thicko member Rick AKA "Dr. Dreadful"
Gurolnick's home. Rick is a toy inventor by trade... and has a lathe and a
mill made by EmcoMaier... available through Blue Ridge Machinery and Tools
in West Virginia (304) 562-3538. The lathe is made in Austria, and the mill
in Spain.
He's very pleased with them.
WST
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Evans <brian@uunet.ca>
To: Derek Harling <derek.lola@sympatico.ca>; <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Cc: <vintage-race@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: Small Milling machine
> A bench top mill, or mill-drill can, in the hands of someone who knows how
> to use it, do anything that will fit on its table and under a tool. The
> problem is the length of time it takes to shift the metal with a small
> tool, and the skill required to work around the limitations of the
equipment.
>
> The first step into "real" milling machines are the bench-top mill-drills,
> with 1.5 - 2 hp motors, imported from one of the China's. Price ranges
> from say $1200 C to $2400 C for what appear to be the same machine. Key
> characteristic of these machines is fairly rough castings, poor rigidity,
> and most importantly - a round column that the milling head slides up and
> down to position the Z-axis outside of the range of the quill. The
problem
> is that as soon as you move the head, you loose the registration of the
> point you're centered on and effectively have to start your set-up from
> scratch. Major draw back. You have to move the head a lot when changing
> tools - you might center drill, then drill to get clearance, then put in a
> boring head - each step of which will need to head moved because the quill
> doesn't have enough movement.Next up the scale are bench top "knee"
> mills. Like real mills, these have gibs that the knee (or the head in the
> case of some of the smaller types) slide up and down on, allowing accurate
> vertical adjustments without loosing that all important registration to
the
> workpiece. Price is about $2000 and up, in Canada. Used real mills can
> start to be had for this amount. Check out this web site for what looks
to
> me like a real nice little mill: http://lautard.com/myfordpa.htm. Just a
> little picture, but it's a small mill that uses a gib system to adjust
> height. You'd have to call to get more information.
>
> Derek, I looked into the small mills extensively, and decided to get a
used
> industrial type mill. I probably have more room than you do, tho'. Just
> as an aside, you should plan to spend at least $1,000 on tooling, vises,
> collets, cutters, etc. You're welcome to come up to my shop and home for
a
> weekend or two and make your pieces on my mill and lathe, BTW. Any time
> after the 24 hr race at Daytona...
>
> Cheers, Brian
>
>
> At 03:06 PM 01/22/2000 -0500, Derek Harling wrote:
> >Need advice/recommendations.
> >
> >Some years ago, never having used a machine tool before, I bought a Taig
> >micro-lathe. Since then have made or modified all kinds of things for my
> >vintage race cars. Obviously mainly small parts - but I have gone "up to
> >and beyond" the nominal capacity of the lathe by taking small cuts and s
> >l o w feeds. Have even used the micro mill attachment quite a bit.
> >
> >And boy, is it nice to have more bench space by putting it back on the
> >shelf when I've finished the job.
> >
> >Question
> >
> >I now need to make some suspension uprights from billet 6061. Biggest
> >pieces would be maybe 6 x 4 x 1-1/2 and 4x4x5. Should I even consider a
> >mini mill such as the Taig or Sherline? Obviously I'd need to take small
> >cuts etc.
> >
> >Or do I need to spring for a $1000 "real" bench-top mill with R8 collets
> >etc - such as stocked by most mail order people and local supply houses?
> >
> >I'm not even thinking about a 3-in-1 lathe-mill-drill; but if you think
> >I should - pls tell me.
> >
> >Educate me.
> >
> >Derek
>
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