[TroyO]

Hello! I've been wandering around the Mini-Lathe forum for quite a while, and (Finally!) had a fortunate enough turn of finances to get an X2 ordered and on the way. (I feel like I finally have the "other half" of the equasion to make cool stuff.)

So, now I am faced with tooling up. I have some bits of kit that are applicable to the 8x12 Lathe I already have.... spot drills, drill bits, boring bars and such. I also have a nice J33 drill chuck to replace what I have heard is the rather crappy stock one.

So, now I am looking at kind of a minimal "get me started" setup for the Mill, and i have about $200 (+/- 20%) to get some tooling.

For starters, I think I will pretty obviously need a vice. Enco has a screwless, no swivel 3.5" one for $50,

The other options are a 4 inch "Kurt-style" swivel base one for $100. LMS has a similar deal on the 3 inch Kurt clone. As long as the 4" model isn't too big, i'll probably go with Enco.

How usefull is that swivel, and is there no way to add it on to the screwless vice later? I'm pretty much convinced to get the 4 inch Enco Kurt clone, but since I don't have much experience with milling I figured I'd ask if a four inch model is just too big.

Next up... with the rest of the loot....

I can get an Enco R8 Collet set for $38, which seems like an awesome deal. (11 Piece, 1/8-3/4 by 16ths)

Or, i can get a single collet and Tormach quick change fitting for a 3/8ths shank end mills and a JT33 one for my drill chuck for about $60.

If you had it to do over... full R8 collets or a (Really) slow start on the Tormach system? I can see where the short length would help... but my $60 would only get me ONE size and a drill chuck. I guess I'm not stuck forever with either one, but would prefer not to buy stuff just to replace it later.

Whatever is left I will probably grab an Import end mill set to break while learning, LOL.

So, what would be your magic combo with a crap budget like mine? LOL

[Enraged]

if you can afford it, one of little machine shops value packs might be the best bet:

http://littlemachineshop.com/product...3491&category=

[TroyO]

That's just a little steep... I could wait about a month I suppose. (The R8 kit is around $300... and I'm pushing it to come up with $200 after dropping the money on the mill itself.)

But really... new toy? Who would want to wait? LOL.

[Enraged]

thats what credit cards are for

[TroyO]

Ohhhh my poor, beat up and abused credit card..... I dun think she can take much more, Cap'n!

[Teyber12]

Things that i use all the time on my x3 and would be nice to have when you have your mill:
collets
vice
1-2-3 blocks
vice
for starter cheap set of parallels (depends if you do mostly vice work, chuck work, or clamping work)
edge/center finder (only $10 or so)
center drills(you already have em)
hold down kit(cheap on ebay)

I would just get some cheapish 1/4" and 3/8" cutters from enco.
1-2-3 blocks are nice but if you are just using them to raise work off the table while you clamp it to something you can use something cheaper.

I hate the swivel base. it would be better for you IMO to just angle it at the angle the vice needs to be (if not parallel) and use the clamping kit to hold it down.

Buy the collet set for now. I have a couple hundred in tts and its still nice to have the odd size collets. forget tts until you(if you ever) go cnc

[vlmarshall]

Yeah skip the swivel, it eats up Z clearance and doesn't do much that just unbolting and moving the vise won't do.

[ibuildstuff4u]

Take a look around on E-bay too for deals on vises and R-8 collets. You may luck out and find a seller such as 800 watt with most of the items you need at a good price and combined shipping. I got a pretty good selection of endmills off E-bay too by searching for misc. lots that people had for sale. 90% of them were new and a lot cheaper than buying them one at a time.

If you have a Harbor Freight in your area they have parallels there for around $35.00 or less if they are on sale. Enco is a good place to shop too, and sometimes you can get lucky and place your order on a day where there is free shipping.

Another great tool for the mill is a 3" boring head or a smaller sized face mill, but you have to be careful with the plastic gears and not push the mill to hard. Your going to want to replace them with a belt drive in the future, but if your careful you should get plenty of use out of the original drive train.

Have fun with your new toy!

Dale P.

[TroyO]

Does the swivel base get in the way? It looks removable, but I don't know if it mounts different if you don't use it.

Any idea if the 4" vise might be too big for the mini-mill? I've been reading up and it sounds like most folks go with a 3 or 3 1/2" vice and i'm not sure if it was a size issue?

Yeah, the TTS sounds cool and I can see where not having to raise/lower the head to change tooling would be nice... but I'm NOT going to really be doing anything where production counts.

I'm thinking it will be Enco.. found a 10% coupon and with being able to get a 4 instead of 3" vise (if it fits) and some other deals on there ($12 fly cutter set) I can get the following from them for just over $200 shipped... (Approx)

$100 4" Kurt style swivel vise (The swivel is removable)
$38 11 Piece collet set 1/8-3/4 in 16ths
$55 10 Piece double ended TiN coated end mills
$12 Set of 3 fly cutters
Total like $206 - 10% = $185 Plus shipping (Unless I can figure out getting it shipped free. :-)

I think that's about the best I can do for the $$. The rest I can pick up later... my next non-mortgage paychesk in about a month, LOL.

A boring head and fly cutter are the same thing right?

A belt drive conversion will be in short order. I have a pile of AL round stock and will probably just make my own with Hoss's plan for it. (Since I have the lathe anyho.. LOL)

[port_huon]

First things I bought for my X2 were:

4" vice - with swivel that has not yet been used.
parallels
clamp set
collets and collet holder (MT3 in my case)
lots of cheap end and slot mills.

There were a lot of measuring tools in my initial purchases (gauges, squares, rulers etc) but these were not mill specific.

[TroyO]

I actually have some paralells... cheap HF ones, but they will do.

OK, I'm convinced... LOL, no one likes the swivel. It only saves like $10 but maybe that will put me under $200 shipped.

Hmmm, I may need a couple of T nuts tho to get the vise mounted. I wonder if they sell singles?

[MrWild]

I bought the 4" swivel base and found it to be huge for the X2. In order to utilize ir I've added a .75 block of aluminum to space the quill out further. If I were to re-buy a vise, it'd be the 3" kurt style, with or without swivel. You don't use it that much, and can clamp the vise at any angle using a sine plate without.

A set of 1/8" thick parallels.

A finger style dial indicator. Look for all the deals including the ones 24 days out on eBay. The best buy it now deals with free postage are usually found at the end of the listing. Paid $9 with free ship for an interapid clone. As you grow into it, you can improve your tooling. Bang for the buck is important now with just $200.

An indicator rod for sweeping quill tram. (1/4" diameter rod from the metal rack at a Home Center. Cut off 7", bend it a 85* angle with 2" - 5" on rhe legs and clamp in a 1/4" collet for all sorts of indicator work.)

Indicator adapter swivel

You don't need a full set of R8 collets. 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 are all you need. You could get away with 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 and not really miss the rest. The largest end mill the X2 can comfortably push is a 1/2" size. Yes I know it will do a 1" face mill. For rigidity, an R8 shank indexible carbide style is best IMHO. When you upgrade to a TTS style tooling, you will get the 3/4" collet you need, so no sense buying one now. Going with a single TTS 3/8" collet isn't really getting you off the ground very fast.

about $50 in end mills It goes fast when you buy decent ones.

A lead hammer. I've used plastic and rubber faced dead blows for seating stock against the parallels, and find a good lead hammer does a better job. My HF store sells them every now and then.

A quart of water-soluble oil. This is cheaper than WD-40, mixes with water, can be squirted from a squirt bottle, acts like a tapping fluid in higher concentrations, and keeps the rust away by evaporating the water and leaving an oil behind. It is stinky, so you might want to look into a different water based coolant you can spray from a bottle, or apply with an acid brush.

Acid brushes and cheap 2" paint brushes for chip brushes.

123 blocks. Four of them. Holes are nice, but solids are cheap. I found a set of 123, 15 hole blocks for 14 a pair with free ship from Shars.

Real micrometers. Verniers are only so accurate. HF has a sale on a 0-1, 1-2, 2-3 set for $34 this month. Add in a 20% off coupon, and you're out the door for $28.

Solid precision square. A cheap 4" will do.

Pass holes are usually 1/32 larger than the bolts you are using. You want tap drill sizes, and pass hole sizes, and the rest of a set just get kept in the box, so buy what you use, not full sets. I use #7 or #8 for 1/4-20 threaded holes, and 9/32" drills for pass holes of 1/4" bolts. Look up a chart for what you will be doing and buy accordingly.

In the future you want a drill doctor but not now as I've just spent $350 of your money... :-)

[arizonavideo]

If you do a good amount of steel or aluminum I would hunt Ebay for a nice 1/2" or 3/8" carbide three flute American made end mill.

HSS is fine for many things but they will dull fairly fast on steel and the China HHS is not always the best. One or two carbide cutters can go a long way.

I have found that the cheep Ebay 1 1/2" R-8 insert cutters with three flutes work really well and would take one of those and a few good carbide cutters over a whole set of China HHS EM's for about the same price. I machined a Nook ball nut with mine with the cheaper inserts installed and they took a bit of a beating but were still good for ruffing some HR steel.

Have fun with your new mill.

[Teyber12]

the t nuts will come with a clamping kit. My mill became so much more useful when i invested in a cheap ebay clamping kit... you can machine parts that are not small and cubic

[TroyO]

MrWild... thanks! Fortunatley I have a decent little pile of measuring tools from the lathe already, so that end is sorted. (Well, you know... not that I have everything I *want*.... but enough to get by, LOL.)

Thanks for the heads up on the vise size... I was wondering if it would be "just a step too big" to get the 4". Hmmm, now I am thinking of that cheap screwless they have on sale now... I even did a search on it and someone posted in another forum "It's the perfect size for my Mini-mill". The price is right... http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?P...AKA=EY428-9127

(Odd that you can add it to cart from the catalog and it's the full $102...)

So, that frees up about $50...

The shopping list now looks like:

$34 R8 Collet set (For the price, i can't pass up the full set)
$50 10 Pc double ended 4 flute end mills (TiN)
$46 3 inch screwless vice (It may be 2 7/8... close enough)
$18 2 sets (4 total) 123 Blocks, w/holes
$15 B&S Double sided edge finder
$12 T-slot nuts, regular nuts (Will grab threaded rod locally)
$5 T slot cleaner/brush combo

The last $20 I grabbed a couple of other odd size T nuts for the lathe, and a hunk of 3/4x7 inch linear shafting (To indicate/test runout on mill and lathe) and the shipping..

$200.95

I think it's a go on the order.

Thanks for the help all, you saved me from spending more on a vice that just wouldn't work that well!


Also, I'm under no illusions that this will be my last purchase of stuff for the Mill, just enough to get going and doing some simple stuff. The clamping kit will have to wait a bit.

[photomankc]

I went with a 4" screwless from Shars and I really like it and it was not much more than the smaller ones. It's dead flat on the faces and opens wide enough to get all the Y axis I can get out of the little X2. It looks very small up on the new BF20/G0704 sized mill though.

I hate the fiddly little jaw screws on them but I can deal with it till I can afford a real vice.

[degreaser]

I notice that a clamping kit isn't on your list. As others have said, a clamping kit is extremely useful (mandatory?!). It has T-nuts with it:

http://lmscnc.com/1144

[photomankc]

If you get a screwless vice you need some way to clamp it down. I made some custom clamps for it by slotting steel angle iron but I had to use the clamping kit to hold the vice while I made them. I eventually made a shorter set, so the set that I show being made on my web site is just sitting there. If you'd like them let me know.

http://www.cranehome.org/index.php?o...lwork&Itemid=2

[TroyO]

I ordered a handfull of Tee nuts from Enco with the rest of the stuff... hopefully enough to get the vise mounted.

I do have access to a lathe, and it has a somewhat limited milling ability... enough that I think I can make the hold downs for the vice, or at least figure out some hack to get it mounted solid enough to make a set of real mounting clamps. Thanks for the offer, though Photomankc!

A full clamp down kit is the very next purchase, once I can clear enough fundage. I can probably do it to coincide with the delivery of the mill... or maybe just a little after.

There is so much setup/cleanup and hacks out there that it sounds like I will be months just working on the machine itself, LOL. Luckily, most of that is dead cheap.. and I have plenty of sandpaper.

I see the belt drive and column reinforcement (Maybe epoxy-concrete and a stiffening brace?) as pretty much required.... plus a day or two of simple cleaning/fitting/polishing/adjusting/tweaking as well. (Much like the 8x14 lathe).

For now... I am pretty much non-stop reading everything I can get my hands on!

[TroyO]

I got the Enco stuff in, and the vice looks just about perfect. it is 2 7/8" wide, not 3. Made in India. (Not sure what that means... just noticed the sticker, LOL)

It does have the clamping SLOT and not the holes, so it should be pretty versatile. Looks like it will *just* clamp a 4" bit of stock... maybe 4-1/6" if the wind was blowing right.

For $46 it seems an awesome deal.

BTW.. there's two tapped holes on either side of the rear jaw... what are they used for if anything?

The rest is all as expected... decent quality at first blush, nothing looks "junky". The collets have a nice finish and clear stamping.

Next up is the clamping kit, and a belt for a home brew belt drive. I'll get those from LMS. I may be able to order them now... have to check with the LOML.