Forum machinists/Lathe/Mill

I started my company with a little grizzly bench top lathe and an old bench top mill.

The lathe was loose, so I had to do something’s to tighten it up. Namely put a little more torque in the gibbs and the 4 tool post was loose and did not repeat so I disassembled that and bore out the hole, pressed in a bearing and honed it to a precision slip fit on the post. After that the tool index was within a couple “tenths” (machine shop lingo for 1/10,000”). I mounted a couple dial indicators on it and proceeded to run the shit out of that little lathe making various aluminum, steel and inconel parts. Made a boat load of money with it that went into better equipment.
That lathe and the old mill have long since been replaced with haas Cnc tools, but I did fine work with them while I had them.

Every machine has character, get to know yours, tighten up whatever you can and learn how to allow for what you can’t and you’ll do fine with it

 

I bought a little harbor freight lathe from a local guy for $250.00 along with a little bit of tooling and an extra three jaw chuck. Of course the guy had just removed the "safety guard" and twisted the switch wires together, but I would've done that myself so no big deal. I've got low expectations but I'm a little excited to see how it does. S0 the very first thing I tried on it was a spacer that I needed to finish and, I'm making chips and thinking "not bad!" Then a string of aluminum comes off the part just right, touches the bare ends of the switch wire, which makes a nice big spark, and the lathe coasts to a stop. "Son of a biscuit!" I smoked the control panel. New panels were $180.00 but I found a guy on ebay who fixes them for $50.00 so now I'm back in business.
Mine definitely needs some love, but it'll do for now.
Next purchase is finding the right size small CNC mill. My main requirement is that it'll need to be big enough to make triple clamps.

 

What’s your budget in the mill?

there’s an outfit in California called CNC Masters that does 3-axis retro fits on Taiwanese machines. They’ve got little knee mills and bench top models. They’re fairly pricey new, but you could probably find a deal on something like that used. Their ‘Supra’ model was the first Cnc I bought. It wasn’t super accurate, but it did repeat really well, so I could fiddle the program to get what I wanted. As I recall I had an aluminum part I made that had a boss on it that was around 1.25” diameter and I was getting .0015-.0020” out-of-round, but the size held part after part.

I’ve seen people making smaller units out of table routers for much less money, but they’re so flimsy I can’t imagine they’re rigid enough for doing anything more than engraving.

the real hot ticket would be if you could find a decent haas office mill or tool room mill used for a decent price. I’ve got a tm2p tool room mill that I bought new I’m 2012. I’ve had to replace the y-axis ball screw on it and the tool change motors, but that’s it in almost 10 years. It’s getting a little loose now, but I used to run steel parts with +/-.0005” tolerance on that thing and it can fit in a 2car garage and plug into the 220v single phase dryer outlet. Mines still going strong.

 

Suuuuuper jelly that you're tight with Abom. I'm coming down to FL at least by Daytona, for the 200, and I've always wanted to meet you in person but now also want an introduction to Adam lol.

You made the right call buying something that'll work right, right now. I've got a Clausing 14" lathe and a Bridgeport 48" mill, and I don't ever use either, because I've got 'em half ripped apart for rebuilds.

 

man definitely stop by. I’ll take you right to his door. Prepare to spend a few hours cause between my shop and warehouse and his machine shop you’ll definitely wanna see

 

Recently? Up here equipment is going for solid prices at auction. Not dirt cheap like a few years ago, but definitely at prices where the people buying are either idiots or have a serious need for the machines. I'd like to think the bulk of it is idiots, because going to an auction lowers your IQ 100 points, considering I saw people buy some old Handy lifts that were well used for a benjamin short of brand new.

If all you're doing is making little soft metal parts where the tolerance is 'it has to fit on the thing', that Grizzly will be fine. Can always craigslist it when you think you want nicer.

 

Is Adam EVER coming home from Vacation???

 

Those look like some pretty awesome hobby CNC mills. I need to keep that in mind. For racing vintage bikes, machining capabilities are incredibly valuable. We already have a small Jet lathe. This would definitely increase my ability to produce some go fast parts.