[omegaghost]

hey i was wondering if any of you might know how to keep the head of my mill from walking all over when i raise it up to say put in a new tool in the quill i lose where i was at and have to hope to aline the table agine some times i can just watch the dial on my handle move it out of the way and then back but that is not always the case some ideas woulde be great http://www.grizzly.com/products/G1005Z/images this is my mill

[Dirt Rider 3006]

easiest way is to replace mill with this one:

[acondit]

Someone else that had a round column mill, suggested that I machine a bracket to fit the side of my mill head to hold a laser pointer that would shine on the back wall. Then draw a vertical line on the wall at the point where the laser hits the wall. Then when raising or lowering the head, just twist the head back to where the laser is on the vertical line before locking it down again. By moving the mill out from the wall a few feet he said you can maintain position within a thousandth. (Mileage may vary)

[Bubba]

omegaghost,
I have a mill/drill very much like yours and my best advice is to:
PREPLAN
By this I mean that you have to figure out how to do the job without moving the head. In my case, I use a couple of procedures to meet this goal (and it has worked about 99% of the time)
1. Raise the work surface so I can have a clear area to be able to have enough clearance at some point on the table to make the tool changes. I do this by either mounting the work piece in my vice or on a "raised table" that I bolt to the normal table.
2. For the smaller (shorter) tools, I use an ER 25 Collet extender and collets to hold the tool. The one I have fits in a 7/8" collet and for the really small tools (like my 1/16" end mill), I can then "slide" the adapter out of the R8 to some extent and be able to reach the work piece (OK, I know this isn't desired, but it works)

Many times in my setup, I will acutally put the longest and shortest tool in the quill to be sure I can achieve the desired depth and/or clearances.

Just my nickles worth

[omegaghost]

well i liked the whole laser idea so i made one that mounts on the front of the mill useing a laser sight from a BB gun. here are some pics. crap!! wished i knew how to down size this pic sorry to all. anyhow useing my dial indicator 0.001 turns into 0.050 on my wall when the head is moved. so this ws a cheap accurat way to get my head back on to my shoulders so hope this helps any one that has the same problem