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Milling machine - $1000 - Calgary, ab
- Thread starter Jswain
- Start date
Here's what I have to add, YMMV. 
Forget about, for the time being, all the concerns about losing zero with height changes. For a long while, you will be doing most of your work by eyeball and cutting to scribed lines anyways, and, with a little practice, cutting to within a thou on a well scribed line (ie: one done lightly, with a SHARP scriber), is pretty easy to achieve.
Get a edge finder set with a wiggler, get some plasticene, and a few sewing pins, and a decent hand magnifying glass, and you can rapidly align your tool over any edge or scribed mark or dot.
The plasticene is used with a pin, to create an impromptu wiggler by sticking the pin to the end of the drill or mill, you true it up while it is turning (use a pen or popsicle style stick), and once it is running true, it gives you the center of the axis of rotation of the spindle. Align the point to whatever reference, stop the rotation, remove the pin and plasticene for reuse later, and carry on with your cut.
I can't emphasize how much a decent quality hand glass can change how much better you will see things. Once I started using one, it became a constant thing in hand, when inspecting tool edges, setting zeros on a CNC mill, and many other such jobs that can be done ok with the naked eye, but so much better with a better view of the situation!
Between magnification, and a Wiggler and 'Sticky Pin' for setting alignment, you will rapidly learn that it is not a big deal to find a reference point and set yourself up after any height change.
For a long winded collection of many different related mods and or improvements to the Mill Drill, take a look through the books published by Home Shop Machinist Magazine, one of their collection has most of what was a long running series of "Mill-Drill Adventures" where the author went over many useful mods improvements and projects, all related to improving the useability and usefulness of these machines. If you don't have access to a back library of the magazines, these are great books!
Direct link https://secure.villagepress.com/store/items/detail/item/820
Congrats on the new mill. Have fun!
Value wise, I think ya done good! Usefulness wise, the sky is the limit! If not further!
Forget about, for the time being, all the concerns about losing zero with height changes. For a long while, you will be doing most of your work by eyeball and cutting to scribed lines anyways, and, with a little practice, cutting to within a thou on a well scribed line (ie: one done lightly, with a SHARP scriber), is pretty easy to achieve.
Get a edge finder set with a wiggler, get some plasticene, and a few sewing pins, and a decent hand magnifying glass, and you can rapidly align your tool over any edge or scribed mark or dot.
The plasticene is used with a pin, to create an impromptu wiggler by sticking the pin to the end of the drill or mill, you true it up while it is turning (use a pen or popsicle style stick), and once it is running true, it gives you the center of the axis of rotation of the spindle. Align the point to whatever reference, stop the rotation, remove the pin and plasticene for reuse later, and carry on with your cut.
I can't emphasize how much a decent quality hand glass can change how much better you will see things. Once I started using one, it became a constant thing in hand, when inspecting tool edges, setting zeros on a CNC mill, and many other such jobs that can be done ok with the naked eye, but so much better with a better view of the situation!
Between magnification, and a Wiggler and 'Sticky Pin' for setting alignment, you will rapidly learn that it is not a big deal to find a reference point and set yourself up after any height change.
For a long winded collection of many different related mods and or improvements to the Mill Drill, take a look through the books published by Home Shop Machinist Magazine, one of their collection has most of what was a long running series of "Mill-Drill Adventures" where the author went over many useful mods improvements and projects, all related to improving the useability and usefulness of these machines. If you don't have access to a back library of the magazines, these are great books!
Direct link https://secure.villagepress.com/store/items/detail/item/820
Congrats on the new mill. Have fun!
Value wise, I think ya done good! Usefulness wise, the sky is the limit! If not further!
Well, thank you very much. I will set to these reads. Another hobby of mine is readingHere's what I have to add, YMMV.
Forget about, for the time being, all the concerns about losing zero with height changes. For a long while, you will be doing most of your work by eyeball and cutting to scribed lines anyways, and, with a little practice, cutting to within a thou on a well scribed line (ie: one done lightly, with a SHARP scriber), is pretty easy to achieve.
Get a edge finder set with a wiggler, get some plasticene, and a few sewing pins, and a decent hand magnifying glass, and you can rapidly align your tool over any edge or scribed mark or dot.
The plasticene is used with a pin, to create an impromptu wiggler by sticking the pin to the end of the drill or mill, you true it up while it is turning (use a pen or popsicle style stick), and once it is running true, it gives you the center of the axis of rotation of the spindle. Align the point to whatever reference, stop the rotation, remove the pin and plasticene for reuse later, and carry on with your cut.
I can't emphasize how much a decent quality hand glass can change how much better you will see things. Once I started using one, it became a constant thing in hand, when inspecting tool edges, setting zeros on a CNC mill, and many other such jobs that can be done ok with the naked eye, but so much better with a better view of the situation!
Between magnification, and a Wiggler and 'Sticky Pin' for setting alignment, you will rapidly learn that it is not a big deal to find a reference point and set yourself up after any height change.
For a long winded collection of many different related mods and or improvements to the Mill Drill, take a look through the books published by Home Shop Machinist Magazine, one of their collection has most of what was a long running series of "Mill-Drill Adventures" where the author went over many useful mods improvements and projects, all related to improving the useability and usefulness of these machines. If you don't have access to a back library of the magazines, these are great books!
Direct link https://secure.villagepress.com/store/items/detail/item/820
Congrats on the new mill. Have fun!
Value wise, I think ya done good! Usefulness wise, the sky is the limit! If not further!
Hmmmmm...... Not me. Not 50 years ago, not now at 77, and not likely when I grow up either.
Heck, I can't even scribe a line within a thou let alone cut that close using that method.
Height gages for layout are and were a thing, eh?
I found it well within the capabilities of myself and the RF-30 mill I had access to, as well as the stuff I built using just a Vertical slide on the Myford ML and Super 7's I used.
Magnification helps, as does setting up your work so it is able to be checked easily for dimensions, without removing it from the work holding. Between an accurate line, and a careful cut, it's not that hard to hit +/-.001".
One of the projects I built, that I will likely never finish, was an odd enging from Steam and Stiling Engines You Can Build, from Home Shop Machinist. It uses a round piston, looks like a wheel with an off center axle. The pricks at HSM, decided to round all the fraction dimensions to 2 decimal places, so every ".19" dimension, was SUPPOSED to be understood to be 3/16", aka .1875". I made every part as close as i could hit to .19", EXACTLY, as that was the dimension given, including making my own flat stock, as the size was not common (to me). When assembled, it locked up tight, as the stacked Tolerances of all those extra 2 and a 1/2 thousandths, bound it up nearly solid! Been PO'd about THAT, ever since! Was only ten years or so afterwards that someone from the magazine staff made an offhand comment in another article, that. well, everyone knows these sort of things... <spit>
Another work alignment tip! Centering over a hole. Use a dial test indicator (we had Starrett Last Word units in all our tool boxes, but anything you can mount in a common collet or in a drill chuck will work), and keep in mind that it does not matter what the actual reading is, just that you eventually stop the needle from moving!
Work in the X Axis first, swinging the indicator to one side, then the other, adjust to find center. Swing the indicator to the position where the dial is facing front, adjust to read same as the left-right reading. Done. Three sides of the circle, no need for a mirror or advanced acrobatics to see the dial when it faces away from you. If you get the needle to not move as it sweeps half the hole, it is centered over the center of the hole.
I have no trouble hitting a thou. Just not that way. For me it's all a matter of measuring properly to determine how much to remove. Then removing exactly that much.
Nice tip. I typically use a pin. If I don't have one, I make one. (always wanted a cylindrical grinder - and still do!) The only difficulty with your method is getting the indicator tip into the hole. I'm more or less blind in one eye so things like that requiring depth perception are a challenge.
I don't have a last word, but always wanted one. It has some nice features that other dial test indicators don't have. Just not willing to buy new because I have other dial test indicators that work well including both Interapid and Mitutoyo 10ths units. Might as well bury me the same day either stops working.
Can't help you with the depth perception.
I would not go out and buy a Last Word, at the prices asked, these days. They are not anything special as an Instrument goes, in my opinion, and the price well exceeds the value, in the current market. I used to fish broken ones out of the scrap dumpster at work, and mix and match parts to make up one I could use in my home shop. Used to salvage any thrown away measuring gear I could get. Micrometers, even if they took a fall and bent the frame, were still usually a good donor for the head itself, for making an adjustable travel stop and the like, and I have several pairs of dial and digital calipers that I had to grind back the jaws on, after they had been damaged.
The same technique works in a hole as on the outside of a pin. the only difference is the way the contact tip presses. Either inside or out, on a round feature, you really only need to see three sides to be sure that you are properly centered over the hole.
The main difference between a pin and a hole is that I don't have to be on axis with a pin. Just swipe past and note the highs. As long as it touches, it works. Easy Peasy for a one eyed snow man.
How is that any different than sweeping a hole then? What am I missing about what you are describing?
When you sweep a hole, you are turning the spindle.
When I sweep a pin, I am moving the table and the spindle doesn't move.
It's all really just a reference thing. Yours is a much more precise way to locate the center of a hole. I think mine is a better way to locate dimensions including things like the center of a hole. Both are important.
To understand the difference, Try to visualize my way like using an edge finder on a hole instead of a side surface.
In other words, you are locating the center of a hole to prepare for a subsequent machining operation. I am finding out where the hole is on the part so I can prepare for subsequent machining operations.
When I lost primary vision in my left eye, a lot of things changed for me. It's amazing what I used to take for granted. On the plus side, I definitely see things differently now.
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