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Old 04-06-2020, 01:20 PM   #1
mitch808
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Default Home machinists - show off your tools/tooling

I'm looking at picking up a micro mark mini mill (Based on the Sieg x2) locally. I'm interested in the hobby of making some things, small things that come up; that are beyond a hacksaw, a dremel, and an angle grinder, with a slight application of a drill and wire wheel....

I probably can't fit a lathe, so that will never happen in my current home. I'm toying with a bench grinder, but might see if I can get away with only a belt sander.

Let's see your home setups

Where do you shop for metal stock?
What are some of the things you've made/modified?
Got any great sites or youtube channels you view for help/tips/ideas?
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Old 04-06-2020, 03:33 PM   #2
Homemade WRX
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I've got a little Grizzly G0704. So far have the X and Y converted. I was hoping to get some downtime in all of this pandemic stuff to wrap up the Z...but I'm busy as ever with work.

I also have two Gerber Dimensions 200E routers. One lives with a buddy in Hampton and the other is currently living the good life at another friends garage...because I'm out of space

Where do you shop for metal stock?
I use local shops. Here in Mooresville I use Stock Car Steel for most general alum and steel. Being in the middle of NASCAR and race country, lots of drops and hand me down metal that works fine for my little projects.

What are some of the things you've made/modified?
With my mill, mostly little brackets, or machining flanges and such for little one-off things.

Got any great sites or youtube channels you view for help/tips/ideas?
There several guys on youtbue and instagram that I like even if not directly related. You'll see a lot of support for the Shapeoko router style mill.

Winston Moy, who now has a job with Carbide 3D

Piotr Fox with his homemade granite mill. I seriously now want to make one.

Physics Anonymous also has some good, related content.

Instagram wise I like Vince.Fab and how far off the deep end he has gone with modding a Shapeoko.
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Old 04-10-2020, 03:11 PM   #3
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Oh, this guys also do some nice work on his TB.

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/sho...&highlight=cnc
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Old 04-13-2020, 11:58 AM   #4
Wayne Suhrbier
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Watch out, tools breed. Started with a welder and now have 2 welders, plasma cutter, 3 drill presses, metal lathe, mini mill, 2 belt sanders, surface grinder, 2 air compressors, forge, 2 anvils, 20 ton hydraulic press, and vast quantities of hand tools.*Oh forgot the metal sheer and brake. And horizontal bandsaw. I may have a problem.
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Old 05-31-2020, 02:55 PM   #5
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Missed out on a couple of great deals, due to covid restrictions.

But Harbor Freight had their mill for 20% off and i ordered one. Still based on the sieg design. So off to order some cutters, bits, collets and a belt drive upgrade.

Which in the end, i am very sure the accessories cost more than the mill.

Looking forward to this hobby!
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Old 06-01-2020, 11:16 AM   #6
Wayne Suhrbier
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A good machinist vise (tend to be pricey) and a set of parallels (can be cheap ones) will make life much nicer.
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Old 06-02-2020, 12:05 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayne Suhrbier View Post
A good machinist vise (tend to be pricey).
What do you have? Have a cheap bench vise but need a better one at home.
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Old 06-02-2020, 12:13 PM   #8
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Got a thread mic off Facebook marketplace recently, $40! It was a bit rusty and was seized up from some gunk, but it cleaned up real nice.



Dual speed chinesium bench-grinder in the background also, been very happy with it for cleaning up work, haven't ground any tooling with it yet though.


PM 1236 Lathe - and a disorganized mess.


Everlast Tig, HF cart
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Old 06-03-2020, 08:30 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayne Suhrbier View Post
A good machinist vise (tend to be pricey) and a set of parallels (can be cheap ones) will make life much nicer.
Both micromark and littlemachineshop offer starter kits that have a small 4-6" vise with parallels, clamps and some basic endmill bits. I'll probably start there, with a fly cutter, and some midrange measuring dial indicators and such.

I'll convert to a belt system from gears, and also add an air spring conversion kit too.

From there, I've pretty much exceeded the cost of the mill.

I haven't even started on finding some stock to play with and what to make first...
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Old 06-03-2020, 08:49 PM   #10
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A 6" machinist vice is quite large, go easy on that front.

For small pieces of aluminum and brass you can get good stock off eBay courtesy of flat rate shipping. Steel less so, though it's still possible.
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Old 06-04-2020, 01:00 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowIMg View Post
A 6" machinist vice is quite large, go easy on that front.

For small pieces of aluminum and brass you can get good stock off eBay courtesy of flat rate shipping. Steel less so, though it's still possible.
Got it, thanks!

I'm looking at kits such as this:
https://www.micromark.com/Mill-Super...essory-Package
(Though the powerfeed is overkill for me at the moment, and will probably choose a lower end kit they make.)

Like this:
https://littlemachineshop.com/produc...gory=-74669629
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Old 06-04-2020, 01:11 PM   #12
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The LMS kit looks a lot more useful to me, since it has a clamping kit and such. Hard to say though, I don't know much about the capabilities of mini mills and such. I'd be worried using a power feed on a small mill with stalling the spindle. I have no idea what your budget is and such, there are some nicer still mini-ish mills that aren't quite mini mills, but they jump up in price quite fast. The G0704 as mentioned above and the PM-25MV and all the variants of it. That's closer to the $2k range though.
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Old 06-04-2020, 01:27 PM   #13
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I picked up a 4" Kurt swivel vise off ebay. It looks kind of funny on the little mill since it takes up almost 1/2 the table.

I found that in the generic clamping kits the T nut doesn't fit in the table I have. I had to grind a couple down by hand in order to clamp a vise so I could mill down more.
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Old 06-04-2020, 09:46 PM   #14
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I picked up Glacern 4" for mine.

https://www.glacern.com/gsv_440
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Old 06-10-2020, 04:04 PM   #15
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Now i need to find a good site about all the various endmill bits and shapes that are available.

Maybe something that has a side by side of the bit and the cutting profile

I getting overwhelmed with the choices and shapes available.

I got the paperback “the milling machine for home machinists,” and its helpful but some concepts it doesnt delve into too well like bit types and speeds/feeds. But also has some assumptions around typical use where i had to research further
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Old 06-10-2020, 06:55 PM   #16
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Don't overthink it. Tooling is an entire industry and science itself. If you aren't a production shop, you'll never need to bother with 98% of it. For a home hobbyist, just get what you need for the project you're on, to home hobby quality, and don't worry about the rest until a project comes up that needs them.
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Old 06-11-2020, 01:48 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowIMg View Post
Don't overthink it. Tooling is an entire industry and science itself. If you aren't a production shop, you'll never need to bother with 98% of it. For a home hobbyist, just get what you need for the project you're on, to home hobby quality, and don't worry about the rest until a project comes up that needs them.
I agree. What I was looking for was something like this:
https://www.mcmaster.com/end-mill-bits/

Basically what shape does what, and what it's best for. Looks like McMaster-Carr nails it.

Next I'd love to find a good reference chart to best RPM and feed rate. At least as a baseline. And then tips and tricks to identify if you're going too fast or too slow. i.e. swirls, chatter, bluing, etc.
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Old 06-11-2020, 02:40 PM   #18
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For that, you head to Machinery's Handbook. It really is *the* source for everything in that realm. Bear in mind that again it's an area where they're giving guidance for production shops. For us home hobbyists, we can get away with a whole lot of sins, and slowing down will let you get away with a huge range.
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Old 06-11-2020, 02:44 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mitch808 View Post
Got any great sites or youtube channels you view for help/tips/ideas?
I have no hope of ever owning any equipment, but This Old Tony on youtube is on my must watch list, whenever he puts something new out.
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Old 06-11-2020, 07:24 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by Stretch18 View Post
I have no hope of ever owning any equipment, but This Old Tony on youtube is on my must watch list, whenever he puts something new out.


To be honest i really only wanted a drill press. Thats about the one tool i was lacking with. Well maybe a bench grinder or table belt sander...

So when the HF mini-mill went on sale for about 20% off from normal pricing, why not? It would have been like buying a quality drill press new.

Then i think about some of things id like to learn and do, and am fascinated with; this was right up that alley.
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Old 06-15-2020, 09:23 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mitch808 View Post
Now i need to find a good site about all the various endmill bits and shapes that are available.

Maybe something that has a side by side of the bit and the cutting profile

I getting overwhelmed with the choices and shapes available.

I got the paperback “the milling machine for home machinists,” and its helpful but some concepts it doesnt delve into too well like bit types and speeds/feeds. But also has some assumptions around typical use where i had to research further
i'd recommend the NTMA Harig Speed & Feed Calculator. It's essentially a cardboard slide ruler that helps you determine cutter speeds and feeds for various operations and materials, based on either high speed steel or carbide cutters. It's available on the NTMA website. It's super handy to have in the shop.
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Old 07-07-2020, 08:03 AM   #22
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I've got the harbor freight mini mill as well as a vintage craftsman 109 lathe from about 1940. Add in a few other vintage tools (dayton drill press from the 60's, 1950s era red seal 4" vise) and a few more modern ****ty ones and I can fabricobble some metal together
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Old 07-10-2020, 03:33 AM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowIMg View Post
For that, you head to Machinery's Handbook. It really is *the* source for everything in that realm. Bear in mind that again it's an area where they're giving guidance for production shops. For us home hobbyists, we can get away with a whole lot of sins, and slowing down will let you get away with a huge range.
Machinery's Handbook is "THE" place to go for this information. I am a Mechanical Engineer and rarely have to go beyond that book for cutting and feed rates. Granted, I am not a manufacturing engineer who is trying to get the last 1%of time out of every process, but for anything below professional level production that resource is almost everything needed.
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Old 07-18-2020, 08:40 PM   #24
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Well it's 3months since ordering and due to covid, there was never any stock in the country to begin with apparently. Yet they were put on sale anyways....

Still waiting for it to arrive one day. Which is actually okay as I need to make more room in the garage for this.
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Old 07-31-2020, 03:53 PM   #25
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I have an older Novakon NM200 mill that always had some weirdness but nothing I couldn't deal with for home/personal use. But just before Covid really hit the Z axis went completely haywire, swapping stuff around it was clearly a board issue and Novakon isn't great for support. So I decided to redo the controls, going from Mach to Acorn, going to a bigger AC spindle motor/VFD and reconfiguring the cabinet at the same time.

Just got it up and running and I'm very pleased so far, haven't made any chips but everything seems to work just a little better. Electronic/wiring stuff isn't really my thing so it took me longer than someone that has a knack for it but the Acorn documentation is amazingly thorough. And the user interface is also worlds better than mach. I feel cheated not having known about it sooner.

Pics of before/after cabinet, the wire runs could be tidier but I was starting to get impatient.


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