Buy a milling machine

[tnimble]

I am going to ask a stupid question: Apart from being more accurate and having less play in the parts, what is the difference between a milling machine and a pillar drill?

From the photos of the Axminster machine, it looks just like a pillar drill with an adjustable table.

From the top of my head:

- The spindle is fixed, with a pillar drill when rotating the handle the chuck goes down, you need to hold it in the same height, when you let go of the handle the spindle travels back up.. Which a milling machine the head can trafel up and down by means of a wheel and stays at that height even is upward or downward pressure is applied.

- The chuck is fitted to the spindle by means of both a machine taper and a piece of threaded rod (called a draw in bar). So the chuck does not fall out due to the sideward pressure when milling

- The rotation speed range is wider - it can rotate much lower

- The bearings of the spindle act in both up, down and sideward axis, whereas with a pillardrill only act for forces in the upward direction

- The milling head can most often be rotated left and right.

- The castings are heavier to handle the load and reduce vibrations

- The power drive is geared in stead of belted, this provides more transfer power and no slip

- The motor is most often more powerful


In short: a pillar drill is the equally the same as a milling machinel as a plunge router is. They all spin, a bit can be mounted, make noise and a mess.

 

[Chris Knight]

Ian,
I too am looking at getting a milling machine - just spent the last week rearranging my "mini-metal shop" to make rooms for one. I have been inclining to the Sieg Super X3 but then came across this site with its article on buying a new machine and other useful stuff. The author bought the 626 on this page and some of the others look pretty good.

 

[Noel]

Ian, don't know where you are in NI but try McBrides (MTS) in Mallusk, usually have a few examples in stock.
PM me if you want more details.

 

[Ian]

Hi Chris

Their mills look good I sent them a email for a shipping cost to NI,
Noel I just sent you a PM

Cheers

Ian

 

[wizer]

More's to the point, what are these things used for? It's a toy I would like, but have no idea why

 

[jasonB]

Wizer, with a mill you could make some loverly jigs to drill the rod holes in your table top and drill the legs to 0.001" accuracy :wink:

Ian the Excel machine you linked to is very similar to the Chester Champion 20V but J&L prices are PLUS VAT

Jason

 

[tnimble]

More's to the point, what are these things used for? It's a toy I would like, but have no idea why

You can mill things If Lord Nibbo had asked that question the answer would be to make stainless steel planes, jigs and other toys.

I'm (have used large industtial CNC gang mill / lathes ) going to use them to make jigs, specialized hand tools, hinges, machine parts, small machines


For instenc in my curent avatar I did this thumb screw for the fine angle adjuster for a shooting board I made yesterday.

 

[wizer]

Intriguing stuff! I guess a metal working lathe goes hand in hand. Interesting.

 

[Chris Knight]

WRT preparting an X3, Arc Euro Trade offer a service where they do it for you. The say it is essential, as there are bits of sand and grime left in the moving parts from manufacture that will cause premature wear. You can download a PDF of how they prepare them here:

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Machines-Accessories/Milling-Machines/Model-X3-Small-Mill

Direct link to the guide here:
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/projects/prepguides/X3 Mill Preparation Guide.pdf

HTH

I have just had a look at that PDF guide. It's a heck of a lot of work they do!

Jason,
Any thoughts on the merits or otherwise of having a tilting head, like the Sieg Super X3?

 

[tnimble]

Intriguing stuff! I guess a metal working lathe goes hand in hand. Interesting.

Having only one of them always will leave a need for the other. If you have both of them and the lathe is low enough in bed height, you can even mount the lathe on the table of the mill. Opens up some more functionallity esp. if the mill is rigged up with CNC and the lathe motor is hooped up as well to the computer.

 

[jasonB]

Jason,
Any thoughts on the merits or otherwise of having a tilting head, like the Sieg Super X3?

If your budget will stretch to it then its worth having, so far I have not found the need for a tilting head, setting the work up at an angle with the wixey has done the trick and there is no need to tram the head back each time.

Have you had a look at this forum

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/X_Series_Mills/

Jason

 

[Rich]

Hi Jason, do you know of any good lathe sites that show videos of lathework in action, it's been years since I did any serious turning and need to refresh on a few things.

Regards,

Rich.

 

[jasonB]

Vids 8,9 & 10 cover lathe work, will post some more later but these should keep you going for a couple of hrs.

http://techtv.mit.edu/search?q=machine+shop

Jason

 

[Rich]

Thank you Jason, you're a gent,

Regards,

Rich.

 

[tnimble]

Any thoughts on the merits or otherwise of having a tilting head, like the Sieg Super X3?

Having a titling head is not nesseccera as Jason has sid. Instead of having the mill on an angle one could have the workpiece on an angle. However this limits the size of the workpiece to the diagonal of the piece plus the height on the clampng setup has to be able to sit in between the mill and the table. Also having a clamping arragement (esp a good and stable variable angle machine clmap instead of only one or two agnel blocks to tilt your normaling clamping device) comes not without cost.

 

[Ian]

Hi everyone

This is the model I went for, I had heard good reports and they were the best price on shipping.

http://www.warco.co.uk/shop.asp?catid=40&ProdId=161

Noel I went to Mcbrides and (nice range of tools had to keep my hand well away from my credit card) they didn't stock mills but could get them from axminster, the guy phoned for a price and he said due to the strong dollar axminster weren't doing them any favors but could get the delivery cheaper which was £70 cheaper than axminsters, but my heart was sold on the Warco model and their delivery was £50.

So many thanks guys and I can't wait to get it.
I have heard that when the mill comes it will have to be stripped which is meant to be a job for a engineer is this true?

Cheers

Ian

 

[jasonB]

They say some of teh X3's and their clones need stripping, I didn't need to do it with mine just needed an adjustment on the spindle bearings to take out a bit of slack, not sure what yours will need as its a different model. Same with the Warco Lathe I got earlier this year, runs straight from the box.

Now you have got to start buying all the tooling :wink:

Jason

 

[tnimble]

So many thanks guys and I can't wait to get it.
I have heard that when the mill comes it will have to be stripped which is meant to be a job for a engineer is this true?

Basically you would 'have' to do this with every new or second hand devivered cheaper machine (the expensive machines come with an engineer to assemble, adjust and tweak the machine (and software) and do some measuremnts on runout and backlash for the certification).

The need to strip any machine is due to storage and transport, all bare metal parts have an anti oxidation / corrosion grease on them. This substance is not only on the outside but also on inside parts and due to movement of the moving parts caused by packing and unpacking a slight amount comes in between the ways and bearings. This protective substance is not very clean and filled with all sorts of particles collected over time upto when you are setting up the machine.

Also stripping the machine to clean all the gunk off and put clean oils and greases on the moving parts its a grerat oppertunity to inspect all the parts, deburr some edges that where left undone, polish the gibs or even replace some parts (for instance brass gibbs). Also for the beginner insight into how the machine operated, functions and can be extended/improved is gained.

You do not have to be an engineer to do this, just be methodical.

 

[Ian]

Thanks Guys

Will start asking santa for some tooling.



Ian

 

[chipchaser]

Ian,

I too heard this particularly about machines from China which were said to be contaminated with casting sand. I bought a little Taig mill but secondhand so don't know about how it arrived new. However, I would expect one of those to at least leave the factory clean although protected with grease etc as Laura says.

Arc Euro offer their Sieg machines in two states, as this page:

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue ... ccessories

Regards

Graham