Id bet not one guy in 500 has a milling machine in their garage, but for the few guys that make the leap to having the tool to do the custom work,
when I was in college I had several classes in how too use larger machine tools like lathes and mills,edm machines etc.
(this was well before computer controls)
I thought I had the basics down rather well, as I was rather skilled if you were to judge by the grading parameters, at the time.
we were only given a dozen or so simple tasks like to machine a steel block to a precise 2" x 3"x 4" size ,
drill a precise size hole and cut a steel rod that would slide through that hole with less than .0003-.0002 clearance,
but it gave you a feel for the machine function
once I decided I wanted a mill I looked for a deal on a used mill,
and could not find one in decent shape at a reasonable cost, I eventually found the FOX mill on sale
(about $5k delivered to a local dock, then I paid about $300 to have a guy move it to my shop)
then the realization hit that the collets, tooling, cutters vise, coolant pump were all needed in addition to the basic mill.
and yes Id forgotten some of the basics so I needed to read and watch videos, but over time the mill has saved me far more than it costs.
, most of us always want but darn few of us can afford to buy, after you have one and learn how to use, the more advanced tools like a mill,lathe and a TIG WELDER, even for very basic work, its amazing how things progress and together with a decent TIG welder the WHOLE concept of building/fabricating and modifying O.E.M. or custom parts becomes far less intimidating
A mill will easily cost you 7-12 times what a drill press will, but its also easily capable of doing FAR FAR MORE than a dill press can do, in fact a skilled MILL operator with access to a LATHE and the correct tooling for both machines and a WELDER can make about 80% of the common parts and tools and accessories youll use on a car, its a huge investment but it also allows you to do custom fabrication, and repairs man parts modification that most guys only dream about doing.
going into the MILL purchase I had no reasonable or realistic expectation that the tooling to allow the mill to function correctly would require a great deal more accessory purchases than I expected, or what the cost of those accessories might be, this is and was MY fault of course for not researching the project further before the purchase was made.
the first thing I found was I needed bit chucks, collets and cutters and a coolant pump, plus a much better quality mill vise to hold material, all of which did not come with the basic MILL,.I don,t know how I could have been so unrealistic , I guess its mostly because every mill i ever used in college or a machine shop already had those accessories .
but if I had been realistic I should have realized that the tooling and accessories would easily add $800-$1500 more to have a functioning mill.
This slowed me down considerably but IT DID NOT MAKE ME REGRET THE MILL PURCHASE, AS ITS BEEN BOTH EDUCATIONAL AND AN ASSET TO THE SHOP.
once you have access to larger machine tools you obviously need to learn how to use them, below Ive posted some useful links and educational links.
you obviously need a good vise on the mill to hold material, a coolant pump to flow coolant to prevent burning up tooling and bits and the collets and end mills or other tooling to allow you to actually machine and drill metal.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6093&p=18813&hilit=coolant+pump+mill#p18813
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=993&p=4129&hilit=mill+bits#p4129
http://www.grizzly.com/search?s=categor ... ing&page=2
http://www.americanmachinetools.com/how ... achine.htm
http://smartflix.com/store/video/53/Fun ... -Operation
http://www.ehow.com/about_5410787_parts ... chine.html
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2198
http://www.americanmachinetools.com/how ... achine.htm
theres info, with videos included, in the link and more videos below
theres a ton of valid info that you would need in these links that will allow you to gain a basic understanding of whats required to use a milling machine or lathe
http://electron.mit.edu/~gsteele/mirrors/www.nmis.org/EducationTraining/machineshop/mill/intro.html
http://www.eng.mu.edu/~dlc/machineshop/mill/intro.html
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/127-machine-shop-4
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/183-machine-shop-5
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/183-machine-shop-6
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/183-machine-shop-7
yes I know this stuff is only of interest if you actually want to know how things get machined or if you own a milling machine, but it never hurts a darn thing to have the basic concepts down when some machine shop starts to B.S. you about the difficulty of doing some things, if you've got a good grasp on what you want done and how its accomplished you'll make smarted decisions.
the milling machine and the LATHE are the two real basic powered machine tools that allow most machine work to get done, add a decent welder and you can do a great deal of the work on your car or fabricate many custom parts
LATHE RELATED
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/144-machine-shop-8
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/144-machine-shop-9
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/144-machine-shop-10
when I was in college I had several classes in how too use larger machine tools like lathes and mills,edm machines etc.
(this was well before computer controls)
I thought I had the basics down rather well, as I was rather skilled if you were to judge by the grading parameters, at the time.
we were only given a dozen or so simple tasks like to machine a steel block to a precise 2" x 3"x 4" size ,
drill a precise size hole and cut a steel rod that would slide through that hole with less than .0003-.0002 clearance,
but it gave you a feel for the machine function
once I decided I wanted a mill I looked for a deal on a used mill,
and could not find one in decent shape at a reasonable cost, I eventually found the FOX mill on sale
(about $5k delivered to a local dock, then I paid about $300 to have a guy move it to my shop)
then the realization hit that the collets, tooling, cutters vise, coolant pump were all needed in addition to the basic mill.
and yes Id forgotten some of the basics so I needed to read and watch videos, but over time the mill has saved me far more than it costs.
, most of us always want but darn few of us can afford to buy, after you have one and learn how to use, the more advanced tools like a mill,lathe and a TIG WELDER, even for very basic work, its amazing how things progress and together with a decent TIG welder the WHOLE concept of building/fabricating and modifying O.E.M. or custom parts becomes far less intimidating
A mill will easily cost you 7-12 times what a drill press will, but its also easily capable of doing FAR FAR MORE than a dill press can do, in fact a skilled MILL operator with access to a LATHE and the correct tooling for both machines and a WELDER can make about 80% of the common parts and tools and accessories youll use on a car, its a huge investment but it also allows you to do custom fabrication, and repairs man parts modification that most guys only dream about doing.
going into the MILL purchase I had no reasonable or realistic expectation that the tooling to allow the mill to function correctly would require a great deal more accessory purchases than I expected, or what the cost of those accessories might be, this is and was MY fault of course for not researching the project further before the purchase was made.
the first thing I found was I needed bit chucks, collets and cutters and a coolant pump, plus a much better quality mill vise to hold material, all of which did not come with the basic MILL,.I don,t know how I could have been so unrealistic , I guess its mostly because every mill i ever used in college or a machine shop already had those accessories .
but if I had been realistic I should have realized that the tooling and accessories would easily add $800-$1500 more to have a functioning mill.
This slowed me down considerably but IT DID NOT MAKE ME REGRET THE MILL PURCHASE, AS ITS BEEN BOTH EDUCATIONAL AND AN ASSET TO THE SHOP.
once you have access to larger machine tools you obviously need to learn how to use them, below Ive posted some useful links and educational links.
you obviously need a good vise on the mill to hold material, a coolant pump to flow coolant to prevent burning up tooling and bits and the collets and end mills or other tooling to allow you to actually machine and drill metal.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6093&p=18813&hilit=coolant+pump+mill#p18813
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=993&p=4129&hilit=mill+bits#p4129
http://www.grizzly.com/search?s=categor ... ing&page=2
http://www.americanmachinetools.com/how ... achine.htm
http://smartflix.com/store/video/53/Fun ... -Operation
http://www.ehow.com/about_5410787_parts ... chine.html
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2198
http://www.americanmachinetools.com/how ... achine.htm
theres info, with videos included, in the link and more videos below
theres a ton of valid info that you would need in these links that will allow you to gain a basic understanding of whats required to use a milling machine or lathe
http://electron.mit.edu/~gsteele/mirrors/www.nmis.org/EducationTraining/machineshop/mill/intro.html
http://www.eng.mu.edu/~dlc/machineshop/mill/intro.html
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/127-machine-shop-4
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/183-machine-shop-5
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/183-machine-shop-6
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/183-machine-shop-7
yes I know this stuff is only of interest if you actually want to know how things get machined or if you own a milling machine, but it never hurts a darn thing to have the basic concepts down when some machine shop starts to B.S. you about the difficulty of doing some things, if you've got a good grasp on what you want done and how its accomplished you'll make smarted decisions.
the milling machine and the LATHE are the two real basic powered machine tools that allow most machine work to get done, add a decent welder and you can do a great deal of the work on your car or fabricate many custom parts
LATHE RELATED
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/144-machine-shop-8
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/144-machine-shop-9
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-to/videos/144-machine-shop-10
Last edited by a moderator:
