One thing's for sure, you would need the services of a fully equipped machine shop just to make one of these and at a huge cost too...........consider these items to be the starting point for a project you can make better........cast iron is a devil of a metal to work on and I've worked on more iron in my 60 years of machining than I've had hot breakfasts.
Hello, I'm currently designing a cnc mill. Would this be good enough for the job? (I'm aiming to mill aluminum and mild steel) I'll replace the leadscrews with ballscrews and add motor mounts. Keep the videos coming they are helpful for tinkerers like me. Thanks.
Considering that it's built like a tank I would tend to believe it would be good enough for your needs. And since you pointed out that you'd be modifying it anyway, I'm sure at the same time you'd deal with the rough sliding surfaces.
For a CNC mill the only really useful part is the Tee slot table.......you could make it much better by fitting linear rails and ball screws in place of the dovetail slides as the dovetails are not what a CNC mill would be good at........at the same time a ball screw(s) is required.
There's no lock, but the bed is not going to fall off if you hang it on a wall. It's mounted on dovetail, just keep the gibs adjusted to put a bit of drag on the lead screws and it will be fine.
I can tell by the first few minutes of the video, where you show the cross gibb, and its terrible fit, would not interest anybody that has machine tool expierence. Thanks very much for taking time on the video.
My older Brother had 30+ years in the industry and he loved buying this kind of thing, he'd spend hours welding, grinding, fitting and polishing until he got it perfect. So while someone like you might just look at it and think "Garbage", someone else might see it as a project. Thanks for watching!
First, look at the gib at 3:10. Its at an angle. look at the dovetails. They arent complete. The corners are gone. Looks like a bad casting. Compare it to the other side. Was this assembled backwards? Second, besides the tapered chuck and bearings, that drill press is way to flexible. The impact of each tooth on the milling cutter will cause this to vibrate, giving poor finish and reduce accuracy. You can hear the chattering in your vid. I put braces on my table and power head and connect them with double nutted threaded rod. Then I make plunge cut to remove the majority of the stock and move the table for the finish cuts.
You weren't really expecting some sort of high quality machine tool that can crank out precisions parts for under $100, were you? Where I see this tool as useful is as a starter tool to use to make a better tool. The kind of situation where you need the tool to make the tool. Or in a very limited way otherwise. All too often in the past I've needed to make one tiny clearance cut and hogging it out with a dremel is a bit too crude.
Whats the spacing on the mounting holes to mount to a table
side to side it's about 5.5" (and the holes are slotted) and front to back it's about 6.25 inches.
One thing's for sure, you would need the services of a fully equipped machine shop just to make one of these and at a huge cost too...........consider these items to be the starting point for a project you can make better........cast iron is a devil of a metal to work on and I've worked on more iron in my 60 years of machining than I've had hot breakfasts.
Hello, I'm currently designing a cnc mill. Would this be good enough for the job? (I'm aiming to mill aluminum and mild steel) I'll replace the leadscrews with ballscrews and add motor mounts.
Keep the videos coming they are helpful for tinkerers like me. Thanks.
Considering that it's built like a tank I would tend to believe it would be good enough for your needs. And since you pointed out that you'd be modifying it anyway, I'm sure at the same time you'd deal with the rough sliding surfaces.
For a CNC mill the only really useful part is the Tee slot table.......you could make it much better by fitting linear rails and ball screws in place of the dovetail slides as the dovetails are not what a CNC mill would be good at........at the same time a ball screw(s) is required.
Does the bed lock off so it doesn't move at all? I'm thinking about wall mounting it but need it not to drop while in operation.
There's no lock, but the bed is not going to fall off if you hang it on a wall. It's mounted on dovetail, just keep the gibs adjusted to put a bit of drag on the lead screws and it will be fine.
I can tell by the first few minutes of the video, where you show the cross gibb, and its terrible fit, would not interest anybody that has machine tool expierence. Thanks very much for taking time on the video.
My older Brother had 30+ years in the industry and he loved buying this kind of thing, he'd spend hours welding, grinding, fitting and polishing until he got it perfect. So while someone like you might just look at it and think "Garbage", someone else might see it as a project. Thanks for watching!
@@3rdpig I am glad you responded to my post, as it clearly indicates the time and experience needed to make this tool usable. ☺️
The gib fit is wretched. There's no way to fix that except to make a new one. This is little more than a kit of parts with variable quality control.
First, look at the gib at 3:10. Its at an angle. look at the dovetails. They arent complete. The corners are gone. Looks like a bad casting. Compare it to the other side. Was this assembled backwards? Second, besides the tapered chuck and bearings, that drill press is way to flexible. The impact of each tooth on the milling cutter will cause this to vibrate, giving poor finish and reduce accuracy. You can hear the chattering in your vid. I put braces on my table and power head and connect them with double nutted threaded rod. Then I make plunge cut to remove the majority of the stock and move the table for the finish cuts.
You weren't really expecting some sort of high quality machine tool that can crank out precisions parts for under $100, were you? Where I see this tool as useful is as a starter tool to use to make a better tool. The kind of situation where you need the tool to make the tool. Or in a very limited way otherwise. All too often in the past I've needed to make one tiny clearance cut and hogging it out with a dremel is a bit too crude.
@@3rdpig Not at all. I experimented with milling on a drill press. This is what I discovered. Made a big difference.