[ponderosa_texas]

I just bought a Central Machinery mill from Harbor freight. Milling / Drilling Machine - 1-1/2 HP I am new to machining and any info or knowledge would be appreciated. I realize that this is a fairly cheap mill but it seems to be of good quality as far as I can tell. It is very heavy. I couldnt afford a mill that cost thousands of dollars at this time. What I am needing is some advise for what tooling and such I should buy in order to get started. I have already priced a few things thru Bolton tools, KBC and Wholesale tools. I am planning on getting a 6" vice, a clamping kit and parallels (cheap ones: I thought it was pretty crazy that a set of a few strips of metal could cost over $1000), dial test indicator, coaxial indicator, an edge finder set, a center finder set and some V-blocks. There is not much info as to what all is compatible with this machine. I also want to get a set of collets and I don't know what all I need. The ones that I am looking at are R-8, what this means, I don't know, Are they compatible with this machine and do I need a matching chuck for the collets. I am guessing that the chuck is what is going to have to be compatible with this machine. Are most tools universal so far as being compatible with all machine brands? The machine came with an adjustable face mill and I am planning on buying a good set of end mills, any advice? Have I missed any of the basics that I will need to get started? I think I am also going to need some feed rate/RPM charts also. Again thanks for the advice!

[tx_pilot]

I'm not much of a help here but maybe you will have better luck by posting this topic in the "Tools / Tooling Technology" area of the forum?

[stucapco]

R8 most likely, 3 morse taper not so likely. Lets see some pics. http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...0/250.1604.jpg or less likely: http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...0/250.1615.jpg Anything here? Need more info.

R8's are everywhere! MSC, Harbor, wow, so many. Cheap, easy, hope for the R8!