Mill, Lathe, Router, CNC for Beginners

[jid2]

It's hard to beat a Bridgeport style knee mill for a manual mill. Finding a used one for under $2K is typically pretty easy to do and they get it done. For me that was my original plan, but it involved waiting until I had space for something that big. I have a two car garage, but it has two cars in it and I plan on keeping it like that, one race car and my wifes car. But I wanted some machining ability, so I decided that for now I would get a benchtop type machine that I could place in the corner of the garage with the cars in there. I then found that there was a specific type of benchtop machine that had a good sized working envelope and power, and those are the RF-45 type machines. So now I have the ability to make parts, without waiting years until I move to a place with more "shop" space. The problem now is that I don't want a Bridgeport for the next place, I'd want a real VMC!

Working on some bigger parts right now, motor mounting plates to finish up the full CNC conversion. This will allow me to run a 2HP 3 phase motor with a 2 speed belt drive that will be controlled via the computer interface and give a spindle speed of up to 8000 RPM. I'm also adding a power drawbar to make tool changes quick.

CAD of the finished belt drive top end of the milling head on the machine.

Here's a part that would have been a serious effort on a manual machine.

[OperationHitFactor]

I gather that I should just buy something like this?

Edited June 29, 2012 by OperationHitFactor

[jid2]

^^^ That thing is a serious manual mill in a "bed mill" configuration, would be very hard to find and expensive.

This is the standard Bridgeport type machine you find on Craigslist.

[Griz]

I have been shopping for that exact configuration for about 3 years... They are incredibly hard to come by in my area. Every one that I have found was either in so-so to good condition for $5k-$8k, or ragged out with saddle shaped ways for $3k. I have also found a couple at used equipment dealers that were slap wore out but had a nice fresh coat of paint for $3k or so. I won't even go look at one now if it has new paint.

If I ever find a decent Bridgeport, I'm going to convert my Sieg X2 to CNC which can be done for about $600 in a couple of hours. I don't want to be without a manual mill though, there are too many little jobs in gunsmithing/tinkering that require just a quick little cut here or there which I think would be a hassle with CNC.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but there is a lot you can do with a $400 chinese mill (and uncounted hours of time and thousands in tooling)

[Guest]

OHF - Yeah! We need to meet up sometime, I plan on being at the July PM match. Just look for the old guy with a goatee wearing a baseball hat.

Also, need to make a correction to my earlier post - I thought that BCC had a machine shop vo-tech course, but now am not sure. I thought a machinist where I work went there, but it turns out he want to a school down by Palm Beach. As one of the other posters mentioned, I would strongly recommend taking a course and learning on their machines under a watchful eye. The learning curve is steep and ruined parts (and possibly the machine/fixtures) are nearly a certainty...and it is really easy to get very, very hurt...like losing a finger or getting whacked in the head with a flying part that wasn't chucked up well. Plus you would get the benefit of experience from the instructors, there is always more than one way to skin a cat...some are just easier than others.

[BryanMunson]

2) Its all about removing material and there really is no right, or best, way to do it because its all a matter of opinion.

I have zero education in metalworking, I simply bought a Harbor Fright mini-mill and started removing material.... There may be no "right" way, but there sure are a lot of wrong ways and I have discovered most of them

I didn't mean to imply that there is no wrong way to remove material, I think that is an ever growing list.

If you are running a mill manually you want to conventional mill that is with the mill cutting towards the direction of travel (Oh! BTW make sure the mill is turninig the right way-I've seen people removing material with a mill running backwards ) Other than that its all speeds and feeds along with depths of cut on a mill, when I first started out I used the Machinery handbook and cut everything in half as a starting point and let tool wear/chatter and the desired finish dictate the changes or amount of material removed at a time.

So much information I assume everyone knows because it was all I did all day every day for years and its hard to summarize it in a post or even a thread.

[firemantj]

Reading all of this has really made me appreciate the "apprenticeship" that I lucked out on in a local smith's shop. He was a Tool and Die maker for years before he got into gunsmithing. I get to work on a Bridgeport Knee Mill that looks almost exactly like the one in the picture that jid2 posted, nearly everyday I'm off work from the Fire Department.

I can really attest to Bamboo's last post. I have been working in the shop for about 4 months now, and I can't tell you how many tools that I have broken. One was a $70 carbide cutter, snapped it before I turned the machine on.

On the flip side of that, once you get comfortable (not complacent, that's how you get hurt), you will be astounded by what you can do.