Typical rational: It's cheap and I could get it into my basement by my self. I did all this self teaching and building on a Harbor Freight Rong Fu (column type)mill. I am a self taught home shop machinist that has built a handful of race guns both Limited and Open. This is an interesting thread for me to follow. That way all of my tooling will fit when/if I find a steal on a real mill. I did initially chose the Harbor Freight version because it has an R8 spindle like most Bridgeport clones. I paid about $400 for my mini-mill, but I bet I have over $3000 in tooling. As others have said, the mill isn't really the big investment, the tooling is. I will eventually get a bigger machine, but the mini-mill isn't a bad way to get started. The best resource I have found for the mill (including lots of the improvements you can make) is the Yahoo group: There are a lot of things you can do to help the situation, but it's always going to be a small, light machine. The column is not very rigid, so when you put a high load on the bit, the column flexes and starts bouncing the bit against the work. It will chatter very badly if you get too aggressive. I've also made wings/shrouds for AP, drilled and tapped for scope mounts, etc. Talk about high pucker factor, but it turned out well. The first cut I ever made in steel was lightening the slide on a STI short-block kit. I know nothing about machining and just dove in and started making chips. It is capable of doing anything on a 1911, but like shooting sports, the results depend on the indian, not the arrow. If you buy used and sell used you often end up losing nothing. They seem expensive but hold their value well. I eventually sold the mill but came out way ahead on the deal.Ä«uying a mill is like buying a gun. I bought my little one for $600 but it had a rotary table ($300), vice ($150), face mill ($75), boring head (100), and 200 or so milling bits ($1500?). They sell for the same price as new but often include a couple thousand dollars worth of accessories. I would watch Craigslist since I see one or two little mills sell each month. Setting up is much easier on the bigger machine and I don't need to make as many passes. I sold my little mill for the same price I bought it for and put the money into a bigger machine. the difference between a $500 mill and a &1000 don't seem so big. The point I was trying to make is that if you choose a little mill the cost of the actual mill soon becomes forgotten when you have $3000 invested in rotary table, vices, cutting tools, arbors, measuring tools, etc. With patience these little mills can do a lot. I never liked doing STI style serrations on the machine though because mine always looked a ouch ragged. Cutting Cold style serrations was no problem. I had no problem doing sight mounts, fitting slides, done a few high power cuts and ball mill cuts. I too was able to do most everything on my little micro-lux.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |