Drill/mill Whats a good one?

If you are using a machine like this, you do need to be aware of its limitations, and think about your depth of cut and cutting speed.

 

I have room for my 1951 Bridgeport, 16x60 South Bend, 6x24 Logan etc.- and I have a little Rockford Hand Miller that I want to get going one of these days, cute 'lil buggar with a mechanical power feed Also a lot of folks around here building miniature engines, and using a lot of the little machines for that kind of stuff. One buddy built his own mini cam grinding machine from scratch. I also have a buddy who's a Sunnyvale computer programmer, but likes to build stuff for his Indian as a hobby but has no shop, so he has a little Sherline set up on the vanity in the second bathroom of his condo (obviously he isn't married ) and built a CNC setup for it from scratch, and then rigged it up so he can program and control it from his cell phone- just to see if he could do it

And I never, ever take "advice" from anyone who leads with "G..F..Y.."- c'mon, really?

 

x2.

 

i would love to have a bridge port but there is never enough space for it. my littlt bench top mill has handled more then most do with a bridge port.

yes i cant take heavy deep cuts but my tooling last longer also.

have checked all my tolerances on a giant table and all is as good as my friends 5 axis cnc mill.

the machine is the cheap part it is all the tooling that cost. my bench top mill was under $1000 I have over $3000 in tooling it all adds up

see for your self what can be done with a cheap bench top mill. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=442351&showall=1

 

any mill-drill or 3 in 1 mill-drill-lathe is better than a nothing O-matic. if you can afford better and more expensive machinery than more power to you.

 

I have an First drill/mill they're made by long chang and sold under a variety of names. I picked it up for $300 a few years ago. It has a m3 taper in it and is accurate enough for my needs. My uncle has had the same unit for 10 or so years with no issues.

 

The nice part is I could give a damn less if you want to take my advice or agree with me...and more often than not it's the operator making the machine chatter and rattle apart, unless you've got yourself the cheapest dollar store machine you could find for under $300...I have access to whatever machining equipment I could want to use through my full-time and part-time jobs, and I'm still going to spend my money on a benchtop mill from littlemachineshop for myself, because my rental shop floorspace is at a premium, my money is on a budget and I don't feel like wiring 240 or building a phased converter for a place that I'm renting...my situation is a lot like the majority of folks around this forum, so the "you have to get a full size Bridgeport or nothing" attitude isn't exactly practical advice for a LOT of us...

 

So, you agree about not taking advice from me when your previous post was about how much of a good deal my suggestion was?...that's not confusing at all.../sarcasm

 

A heavily worn Bridgeport is still more useful, more capable, and more accurate than all but the most expensive high end drill presses. I have never seen a milling/drilling machine or add-on table I would choose over a worn Bridgeport. A worn bridgeport will have slop in the feed screws and the ways will be worn. You can learn to work around that. For anything other than high precision work a worn machine isn't going to significantly affect the the outcome. Used Bridgeports in very good shape sometimes turn up cheap. If you have some time and are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time you might find one for a low price that isn't heavily worn.

Bridgeport clones vary a LOT in quality. Some are as good or better than a Bridgeport, others weren't worth their weight in scrap when they were new.

 

I looked at a Smithy, and after looking around locally, waiting to save the money for the smithy, I bought a 220v lathe and a bridgeport mill. Total cost 1200.00 both the mill and the lathe came with tooling and I have made several pieces. The lathe is a gap bed unit, and extends to 7 feet between centers and has 1 1/2 pass through chuck, so I could turn something a lot longer that 7 feet, if I had too. I do need to do some work on the lathe though, but it is minor work, and I am still using it with great accuracy.

 

your workmanship is insain.my reasoning for getting a smithy that was cnc ready.was i was hoping to build bikes.the more parts i could make myself the more money i would make in the end.i wanted to be able to repeat the parts.so i wanted the cnc capabilities.i worked in metal fab for 16years.my dad was a mechanic and do everything himself kind of guy.now i have two little kids and not alot of time to spend in the garage anymore.i will have to see if i can find some pics for this thread.i love being self sufficent

 

The part you don't get is that any credibility your skill level and experience level might give you is overshadowed by the childish keyboard cowboy, attitude is everything, G..F..Y.. presentation- get a grip. If you want to talk about machines, and I can learn something from you, I'm all ears, we can talk. If you want to play keyboard cowboy and talk to folks like that from the long-distance safety of being behind a keyboard, like the man said, BS walks. If you're 5' nothin', didn't get picked for basketball, whatever, it's your problem. I for one didn't say anything against the little machines- quite the opposite, if you take time out between attitude sessions to actually READ the posts- my friends in the model engine club do some amazing work with the little machines. I just have room for the bigger stuff, and found good deals on them- and a decent Bridgeport for a reasonable price is just hard to beat- if you have room for it. I started with a little Craftsman/Atlas 12x36 lathe, learned a lot on it, and have passed that one on to someone else when I got the nice little Logan. And I'd still like to get that little Rockford Hand Miller going, it's built a little different from a Bridgeport and it has a mechanical power feed, pretty sweet and very solidly built for it's size




This is the little Rockford #3- I also have the optional vertical head for it

http://http://www.lathes.co.uk/rockfordmillers/

 

i think he might have ment me. i'm the one who mentioned "chatter" of some small machines. sorry, i was also pushing the smaller powermatic/ clausing mills if as they don't take up as much space as a bridge-port. let the anger flow.

 

For some guys who use a lot of the better "small" machines, check this out, and try to attend a show where they have a display- at the larger shows, the machine manufacturers usually have displays, instruction books & videos. In their "For Sale" section is a DVD of the show they did a couple years ago at Vallejo- I was there, and hearing about 30 of those little hornets running at once is great. One guy has even built a mini- 426 Hemi that runs- Ferrari V-12's, V-twins etc.
Second link is to my buddy Ken's engines, with a lot of videos. And yes, the mini-GMC blower on the blown V8 is handmade, and yes, it's fully functional. The little "Challenger" flathead V8 has been running great for about 15 years

http://www.baemclub.com/index.html

http://www.nvbackflow.com/engines/

 

I have one of those morris tapered mills and the bit keeps falling out when milling anything tougher than wood,plastic or aluminum.Just a fancy drillpress as far as i am concerned.Any ideas how to keep the bit in?No room for a real mill and my brother gave it to me,so that is why i have it.

 

A variable speed head is a nice option compared to moving belts all the time.

 

You need to clean (polish) the taper ID and the OD of the taper being used. "Set" the taper/insert with a sharp strike upward from a soft hammer. If you can fabricate a simple drawbar thru the spindle and use drawbar shanks the fallout will end.

 

Anyone on a budget looking for decent machines should at least try calling a local high school or community college to see if they have anything for sale. Quite often you can get machines for pennies on the dollar with very little use compared to buying used job shop stuff. Students may break a lot of tooling, but they seldom make anything big enough to stress a good machine.

 

U.S. Burke made those, called them Millrite. I have one.

 

I don't have to explain myself, my supposed attitude or anything else...I put my opinion and information out there and said what I wanted to...if you don't like it, well, there's 3 little letters that say it all for me...you can figure it out...

 

are the three letters P.m.s.?

 

Some folks feel that thier opinion is more important than the topic. The first post was a question about drill/mills not if old Bridgeports etc were beter. If you feel a need to post your opinions about Old bridgeports im sure many folks would like that post also.

 

ShortGuySyndrome? KeyBoardCowboy? NeverGrewUp? NoSocialGraces?

 

Big Smelly Doo Doo Head. (i don't know how you blackend those letters.)

 

I see you both lead by example as to how to behave in public...how about we keep this on topic rather than you both making asses of yourselves?...or you can both keep talking smack like 8th graders and get the thread shut down...your choice...

 

Like that
Besides- that's five letters

I have a book out in my clean room that I bought at the model engine club show when the machine tool salesmen were there, on miniature machining and using the small machines, including a chapter titled "Do you need a lathe, a mill, or both?"- VERY informative (lots of pictures, setup info, welding etc.) book titled "Tabletop Machining" by Joe Martin- just found it on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Tabletop-Mach...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333421731&sr=1-1

 

i chose the five word phrase becuse i thought it made things even more ridiculous, taking in down to a thrid or even second grade level.also thank you for allowing me to see my pharse stylized like that. just beautiful.

 

You lead off with that cute little keyboard-cowboy "GFY's" line- and then say that other folks will get the thread shut down by "talking smack"? Yeah, good one
Better lay off the disco biscuits there, pal
Or maybe just grow up
Bye now, you've completely bored me with your big (keyboard) talk

 

I found this on Craigslist for $500, all it needed was a good degreasing and a couple cans of spray paint. The vise I picked up used for $75 and it's a real Kurt vise. One thing to consider about full size machines like this (if it hasn't already been mentioned) is that they are usually three phase.

 

thats a nice machine mamllc