Hi I have purchased a new mill, what tooling should i buy to start using. I am a complete novice at machining sorry. I am gearing up for retirement "15 years away" I am also purchasing a Lathe so any advice on tooling for a "dummy" LOL
New Mill
- Thread starter cjharley
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Honestly, it really depends what you want to do; and you will never, ever be done with buying tooling and accessories, never; it will just get weirder shaped and more niche as you challenge yourself more!
I would suggest getting a couple of the "Workshop Practice" books on basic turning and milling, to help guide you through some simple projects, which will help you figure out what you need to buy when...
My experience has been that buying/making tooling as I've identified the need for it has generally resulted in much better purchases as I have a really clear idea of what I'm buying and what I need it to do.
At a minimum I would think by the time you reach a point of being confidently able to take on just about any basic machining project, you'll have ended up accumulating something like:
At which point you can choose to continue and begin the full descent into madness, moving on to increasingly exotic attachments and cutting tools for things like milling curved surfaces and/or strange angles, turning very shallow tapers (or tapered threads), gear-cutting, spiral milling, rotary broaching, and so on...
I would suggest getting a couple of the "Workshop Practice" books on basic turning and milling, to help guide you through some simple projects, which will help you figure out what you need to buy when...
My experience has been that buying/making tooling as I've identified the need for it has generally resulted in much better purchases as I have a really clear idea of what I'm buying and what I need it to do.
At a minimum I would think by the time you reach a point of being confidently able to take on just about any basic machining project, you'll have ended up accumulating something like:
- Measuring equipment:
- Accurate Digital/Dial/Vernier calipers which will read to 0.001"
- Outside micrometers in at least 0-1" and 1-2" sizes
- Inside micrometer in 0.125-1"
- Spring-loaded bore gauges in 0.5"-6"
- Some kind of micrometer/vernier height/depth gauge
- A very flat surface (ideally a surface plate, but any kind of very flat thing is a step in the right direction.)
- Vernier Protractor or Digital Angle gauge
- Generic workshop equipment:
- Little files in all kinds of shapes and relatively fine toothing
- Soft-jaws for your vice
- A decent plumbers blowtorch or welding torch, and some fire-bricks and welding blankets to use for warming things up, brazing, and crude heat-treatment/annealing.
- A bunch of big clamps and/or a small hydraulic press
- Workholding stuff for the mill:
- Milling Vice
- V-Blocks for holding round stock
- Clamping Kit with an assortment of t-nuts and hold-downs
- Workholding for the lathe:
- A 4-Jaw chuck if it didn't come with one
- and/or a Collet chuck if you have the money to play with, and intend to make a lot of smaller diameter parts.
- Tooling for the lathe:
- A bunch of square high-speed steel blanks of an appropriate size for your lathe's toolpost
- A parting tool holder and some parting tool blades
- Some steel bar, grub screws and round high speed steel blanks to make boring bars as needed.
- A bench grinder for sharpening lathe tools
- Tooling for the Mill:
- A Decent Collet Holder (Go ER32 or ER40)
- A Fly-Cutter
- A Drill-Chuck
- A Face-Mill or Shell-Mill and associated Arbour
- A Slitting Saw and arbour.
- A Boring Head
- Tools:
- A variety of sizes of HSS Endmills and Slot-Drills
- A variety of drills in common and tapping sizes
- Some larger Morse-Taper drills
- Reamers for certain sizes of holes and/or taper pins but unlikely a full set
- Taps, Dies and some kind of spring-loaded follower to allow you to use the mill to get them lined up dead-straight with the hole you just drilled.
- Boring bars to fit the boring head
- Edgefinder(s)
At which point you can choose to continue and begin the full descent into madness, moving on to increasingly exotic attachments and cutting tools for things like milling curved surfaces and/or strange angles, turning very shallow tapers (or tapered threads), gear-cutting, spiral milling, rotary broaching, and so on...
Strongly support Jelly's post. That's about the same stuff as I've accumulated, But heed the advice to just buy the stuff you will need for the next project, and some of it can give you useful practice by making them. Strongly agree with the Workshop Practice books by Harold Hall (available at Amazon).
Thanks for the advice, I recon you all should call be "Alice" looks like I'm going down the rabbit hole LOL. my goal with all this is to modify my harley and GSX then build bikes. I have bought a load of sheet metal forming equipment, tube benders etc. My shed is the size of a postage stamp. I have a 2x1m welding bench, I am cutting it apart and installing it on a flat car scissor lift in a Pit in the floor to raise it out of the ground to give me the space for the Mill and Lathe. I'm in the process of designing a TAB & Slot top to replace the 12 Steel Plate. I've been putting all this off for years, the way the world is going .... i've decided to take the bull by the horns....again thanks, just with you all live in Northern Ireland. LOL Stay save and take care.
Books ordered thanks for the help buddy
No worries, there are two other books I'd recommend:
The roebuck "Zeus" databook - it's a little plastic coated workshop reference for all kinds of useful info you might need a reminder of day to day, like tap-drill sizes, bearing fits etc. costs about a fiver, and well worth it.
A copy of Machinery's Handbook - this is the exact opposite of the Zeus book, a huge amount of info on everything you could ever need to know for machining; bought new it's really quite pricey, so as a hobbyist I'd keep a look-out on eBay and pick up an older copy at a decent price when one comes up.
The roebuck "Zeus" databook - it's a little plastic coated workshop reference for all kinds of useful info you might need a reminder of day to day, like tap-drill sizes, bearing fits etc. costs about a fiver, and well worth it.
A copy of Machinery's Handbook - this is the exact opposite of the Zeus book, a huge amount of info on everything you could ever need to know for machining; bought new it's really quite pricey, so as a hobbyist I'd keep a look-out on eBay and pick up an older copy at a decent price when one comes up.
AES
Established Member
Must agree with Music Man and support Jelly's 2 posts 100% - his 1st doesn't seem to miss anything out, and his 2nd about "Machinery Handbook" and "Zeus" also spot on. If you can't find/afford "Machinery Handbook" a reasonable & cheaper alternative buy would be "Model Engineer's Handbook" which also has a fair amount of info (but not as much as "Machinery Handbook") but also contains stuff on steam which as a motor-bikee I guess you won't need!
Don't worry about needing a magnifying glass to read Zeus - I need one to do just about anything on my lathe with any "precision" these days, including reading my non-digi callipers!
Most impressed with your "subterranean" welding bench idea, but what a job!!! Must be a good reason for it but wouldn't just extending your shed have been quicker/cheaper.
Don't worry about needing a magnifying glass to read Zeus - I need one to do just about anything on my lathe with any "precision" these days, including reading my non-digi callipers!
Most impressed with your "subterranean" welding bench idea, but what a job!!! Must be a good reason for it but wouldn't just extending your shed have been quicker/cheaper.
My Dream of extending the shed would be great, BUT I live in a 3 bed pensioner's bungalow I maybe have 6x5m in total... hence the lowering welding bench, I have a hydraulic washing line to get it up out of the way LOL yes hydraulic..... The bench will probably cost £2000 - £2500 and this will include a hydraulic fold out side so the full fabrication area will be 1.9x1.6m surface area. I have no room at all...... and the Boss "Wife" will not move, she has lived in the house for 40 years.... since she was a child. + I loved the James Bond films where things cam out of the ground... LOL
J-G
Established Member
I'd second that but - get the .PDF of version 26 it's free to download. The fact that it is a previous version is no great issue, the majority of the information is 'standard' and hasn't changed for eons.
My grandfather gave me his 1924 Sixth edition when I started my apprenticeship in 1956 and I estimate that 80% + is exactly the same.
J-G
Established Member
I presume that you meant 'Worth' (b****y keyboards!) but regrettably not. As a teenager, I didn't appreciate it's worth but did use it very frequently and it is now in a sorry state due to my abuse but as you surmise, priceless to me holding very special memories.
pidgeonpost
Established Member
Plenty of good advice there. Certainly the cost of tooling wasn't something I'd bargained on when I ventured into machining 10-15 years ago. It seemed that every project, however minor, demanded buying yet more tools and materials.
And then there's technique. I have found YouTube invaluable here, as there'll be a video to match virtually any task you want to tackle. I've found 'mrpete222' (aka Tubal Cain) excellent. He's produced loads of videos, and they're available in dvd format too. Take a look also at 'Doubleboost' and his methods.
If I'm honest I've found that achieving the accuracy required in machining small parts difficult after the relatively easy tolerances encountered in woodworking. 'Half-a-thou' may not matter much on your average M&T joint, but it sure does on many machining jobs.
Another thing that I hadn't considered was that many of the model engineering plans use the Imperial system. If you have Metric lathe/mill (as I do) then you'll have plenty of conversion work to do.
And then there's technique. I have found YouTube invaluable here, as there'll be a video to match virtually any task you want to tackle. I've found 'mrpete222' (aka Tubal Cain) excellent. He's produced loads of videos, and they're available in dvd format too. Take a look also at 'Doubleboost' and his methods.
If I'm honest I've found that achieving the accuracy required in machining small parts difficult after the relatively easy tolerances encountered in woodworking. 'Half-a-thou' may not matter much on your average M&T joint, but it sure does on many machining jobs.
Another thing that I hadn't considered was that many of the model engineering plans use the Imperial system. If you have Metric lathe/mill (as I do) then you'll have plenty of conversion work to do.
I'm awaiting quotes for this CORMAK 310x900 12" x 35" Lathe, & I have already bought this a Cormak Machine ZX7055 DRO. The lathe will fit into the side wall of the now "Machine shop" LOL when I get it air tight "30mm" to spare either side LOL. I bought a hobbiest lathe a 6 years ago, I have to rebuild it every time I want to use it, the last time I used super glue to stop it from moving about, now its in the skip.
Hi Buddy, this is where i have lucked out, I only know metric ;-) Imperial OMG LOL
I to agree with Jelly's post, but it normally takes years to accumulate everything suggested. You will need a fat wallet indeed to buy all that.
Work out what you want to make, say something like a Mamod steam engine. Basically steel and brass but you will have a working engine to pass on to the grand children. To make something that 'works' is very satisfying.
You can then move onto something else
What you want is in all our dreams, well they are in my case lol.
Work out what you want to make, say something like a Mamod steam engine. Basically steel and brass but you will have a working engine to pass on to the grand children. To make something that 'works' is very satisfying.
You can then move onto something else
What you want is in all our dreams, well they are in my case lol.
I went the route of buying old German or Swedish machines (Boley and Arboga). All metric of course so no issue there.
Funnily enough one of the old Boleys was made for the UK in the 1930s and has an Imperial leadscrew. But fortunately it has a 127 tooth change gear so anything metric can be done.
Indeed the tooling list will cost a bunch. I think Jelly and I were saying that this will be your total budget (well, one never finishes). That is why we both say, buy what you need for the next project.
Funnily enough one of the old Boleys was made for the UK in the 1930s and has an Imperial leadscrew. But fortunately it has a 127 tooth change gear so anything metric can be done.
Indeed the tooling list will cost a bunch. I think Jelly and I were saying that this will be your total budget (well, one never finishes). That is why we both say, buy what you need for the next project.
I remember in the mid to late sixties doing my apprenticeship and my City & Guilds. We found that if we sharpened our HSS tool bits (tipped tools were for the Gentry then) with a small radius at the cutting point, run the lathe slow with plenty of coolant we would get a really good finish and good precision to. Remember these machines would have been quite old but in good condition. After all they had been abused by years of cruelty by oiks just like me lol. I could tell you a couple i stories about things i saw that would make your hair curl.
