Let's See Your Mill

[TomG]

Whippersnapper.

[dallen]

youngsters

[stevec]

(12-31-2013, 02:57 PM)Mayhem Wrote: Trade school? I was born in 1972

Baby!

[Sunset Machine]

Bunch of geezers. The new sleeve works great, ready to hog some metal now. This is 3/8" wide at a 1.5" depth of cut through some scrap steel using dark oil, about 50 RPM @ 2 IPM, better than a half cubic inch per minute. Perfect job for an old mill in its retirement home; keeps the joints from rusting up.

[PixMan]

Ah, technology! Back in the day when I was running those machines I was getting similar results...and smoke from the high sulfur cutting oil.

Now I have tools for my Bridgeport clone that get 4 to 6 cubic inches a minute out of my 2HP spindle, though I try to get near net shape stock so I don't have to rip. Down the road from me a shop where I know the owner he uses a 4", 7-insert high feed mill on his 50HP Mazak P6800 horizontal machining center and gets 109 cu/in/min in A36 and 48 cu/in/min in heat treated 4140. That's some serious MRR (material removal rate.)

I'd enjoy a machine similar to yours, but I'd want one with higher available spindle speeds so I could make piles of blue chips now & then.

[Sunset Machine]

Holy cow. After making a bucket full of CRS chips I'm wishing I'd have sprung for a wider cutter. The 1-1/2HP motor barely got warm and the machine was happy. But so long on the stool for me - a 16 hour cut time with a 3/8" wide cutter. A 5/8" cutter would do it in 10, a 1" would be an afternoon, but I don't know how much the old mill will take and the cutters are expensive. The dribble of oil managed to keep the smoke away (these things originally came with a oil can mounted on a little peg as a "coolant system"). I'm running it at a sane speed, hoping to keep the cutter sharp (so far, so good). It's really easy to get blue chips spinning a 6" diameter cutter.

I've spent $50 on cutting oil for this job so far, most of it still in the chips (the rest is on me and the floor). Need to rig up an extractor of some sort, don't suppose anyone here has any ideas...? Some sort of spinner I suppose, been eyeballing the wife's washing machine.

[mechman48]

Hi all
Here's my mill, UK version of the BF20L / Grizzly 0704, not a big machine & apart from initial degrease, clean up & some minor adjustments last year has worked straight out of the box and it does what I ask it to but then I don't ask it to do silly things.




Regards
George

[Sunset Machine]

I've got something like that too, but an older one with a round pipe for a column and no electronics. Downsides are too much slop in the spindle housing and fixed dials on the handwheels, but I find it handy nonetheless. 3/4" endmill, .050" DOC in steel and a mild air blast works pretty good, no cutting fluids needed.

Busy Bee called it a mill/drill, but I really didn't expect much from it as a mill (pleasantly surprised). It looks like a drill press, I bought it as a drill press, and it's a nice drill press with the built-in X-Y table (9 x 31 or so, about 3 inches thick), the swinging head extends the working area even more. Step drilling can be a nuisance, raising the head loses position but if I poke the bigger bit at the hole (spindle off), it's easy to see a deflection. Rubber mallet right or left and it's back on track. Same sort of problems with a regular drill press when lowering the table.

[hswaters]

(05-09-2012, 11:54 AM)Dave J Wrote: Here is mine, it has changed a bit since the photo was taken, but still basically the same machine.

It's a HM52 which is the Grizzly 3617 over in the US. It has both vertical and horizontal spindles, and come fitted with a power feed on the X and I added the Y and Z power feeds.
I has a 3 axis Sino DRO and I have fitted a glass quill scale as well. I also moved the X scale to the front and added way covers for coolant use.

Just after getting the machine I pulled it right down to the column and went through the lot giving it a good clean up. I also cleaned up some of the inside of the castings so I don't have to do it when I CNC it.

Pulling down a new $5000 dollar mill is not something everyone does, but this was a replacement after sending back 2 others and I wanted to make sure it was right and would last me for years. Also having owned this same type of mill before hand I was familiar with it and it's workings.

I have done plenty of mods, but I will post them up in other sections when I get to them.

The yellow you see in some photos is the factory paint and was on all the inside casting. I ended up with a 3 ltr ice cream container full of casting sand out of it after cleaning it up. Also found plenty of it in the oiler etc.

Dave

From the photos I would guess you really like red. My wife does not like greasy old machines but I know she would like your shop, she is a red addict also.

[PLUTO]

[img][/img]
MY MILL
TOS KURIM FNK25A
40 int taper
4 HP top motor
X Y Z axis all power
i have now fitted a digital spindal readout
and am about to fit a full 3 axis dro