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Basic Knee Mill setup ???

squeezer

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OK RDP, after 30 or so years of wanting a mill at home I am picking up a newe Jet 3/4 scale Bridgport clone on Saturday. https://www.metalshoptools.com/prod...MItvDqoN2b4gIVkR-tBh0B8AejEAQYBSABEgIimvD_BwE

This is very much a for fun thing with no intention of doing any work other than pissing around. The first project will be a folding barefoot boom for the Sanger (Mounts/brackets out of Al). Will follow that up with some cavitation plate hardware.

What would you all suggest for basic tooling to get started?

Vise
Clamps/blocks
end mills/collets
Rotary table ???
Edge finder

I have a pretty good assortment of calipers, mics, and dial indicators already.

Would prefer to buy decent quality used stuff over cheap imports for most things.

Thoughts...

SQ
 

monkeyswrench

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Most of my "real" tooling came from guys retiring, and selling stuff on Craigslist. It may be an option for you, that way you're not breaking the bank. I sold my old Bridgeport when I moved...regret it, but didn't have a spot for it...will real soon. Be on the hunt in a month or so.
 

squeezer

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School me on Rotary Table vs Dividing Head. I undestand the basic differences but not why one would be a better choice for a home shop...
 

CoolCruzin

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Those Jet machines are a good machines
One of my mills I have is a Jet
Bought it like 20yrs ago and we hold are numbers all the time .
And the machine is not loose
Good buy

Just buy a good 6” vise ( Kurt)
 

BamBam

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Single Phase 220 - This might be on my wishlist
 

lbhsbz

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Get a set of parallels, some 123 blocks, R8 collets, counterbore cutters, an R8 chuck, and a clamping set from these guys...http://www.cdcotools.com/

Get a good vise...kurt, orange vise, avoid the shitty china ones unless they're almost free. Look on C-list for a used kurt

Don't buy a cheap chinese endmill set...they're garbage. Get what you need, when you need it, from McMastercarr. If you're gonna be playing with aluminum for starters, get yourself a 3/8" 3 flute, a 1/2" 3 flute, and a 1/2" roughing endmill. Those will do almost everything you need.

Rotary table is nice, but I very rarely use mine. I find a workaround whenever possible to avoid moving the vise off the table.

Sign up on Homeshopmachinist.net

Buy a lathe.

Then of course you'll need a horizontal bandsaw to cut stock, a vertical bandsaw, a shop vac dedicated to cleaning up chips, a big disc grinder to do clean up outside curves that take way to too fucking long on the mill, a full index of GOOD drills, some center drills, deburring tools, countersink cutters, good HSS taps along with a tapping head, boring head, and a whole bunch of other shit. You'll be 25K deep in this before you know it.


Most important though...a pair of shop shoes. You'll never hear the end of it if you track chips in the house.
 
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squeezer

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Brought it home on the weekend...
 

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Backlash

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Nice shop!!! And you call yourself a weekend warrior?! :eek::D
 

Headless hula

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What size is the table on that bad mama jamma?
 

DRYHEAT

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Nice rig! Have you made anything with it yet?

I'm in purgatory with getting my new shop set up. My mill has been in storage since the robbery.:mad:
Robbery! :eek: I must’ve missed something. Damn what a year :(

I apologize for the off topic interruption.
 

Luv2gofast

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School me on Rotary Table vs Dividing Head. I undestand the basic differences but not why one would be a better choice for a home shop...

I know this question was a while back but i just read this thread and it's a good question and relevant to a milling machine thread.

There are actually three devices that do the same kind of work:
Rotary table - used for making curved cuts, inside, outside or slots on a part in a milling machine, calibrated in degrees and minutes for accurate start and stop points. The part is usually bolted or toe clamped to the rotary table which has Tee slots for nuts. This is usually the only device used to move the work in a curve while cutting.

Dividing Head - Indexes the work (key point as it stops in exact positions) in x number of equal positions based on holes in a plate and number of turns to do an operation in a milling machine. Think of making a gear with x number of teeth or cutting a number of splines in a shaft. The part is usually held in a chuck or a collet in an Dividing Head.

Indexing head - A much simpler and quicker version of a dividing head for indexing a part to do an operation in a milling machine at specific increments divisible by usually 32. Think of flats at 90 degrees on a shaft or a hex to put a wrench on a part. The work is usually held in a collet or chuck.
 

monkeyswrench

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I need to start saving. I would really like to have the ability to cut keyways and splines. First thing's first, need another full size mill!
 

lbhsbz

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View attachment 773777

The 4” Kurt’s were on backorder...

And because it's fun spending other people's money...you need a speed handle for that vise...or you could waste half a day making one...https://www.travers.com/edge-technology-2-position-vise-handle/p/99-008-118/


Get a 3/8" 4 flute carbide endmill and do some work on those vise jaws...once you indicate the vise in...so the fixed jaw is dead nuts on the X-axis, grab a few short parallels and clamp them in the vise. Then come in and mill a small step...I like about 1/4" deep by 0.040" in the vise jaws.

When I bought my mill it came with a bridgeport vise, which was a piece of shit, but it's saving grace was that it had a solid bed, all the way across...no big slot in the middle where the clamp screw/wedge mechanism went. It was great for small stuff that was too narrow to stradle the KURT vise bed. I milled a small step in the top of each jaw once I got the KURT and almost everything I do gets clamped there, unless it's real big.

You want your workpiece clamped in the center...not off to one side, because that will wear the vise. Get some aluminum and steel soft jaws on ebay if you don't wanna cut on the OE ones. Best mod I've made.


And get that vise handle off the mill table....keep the table pristine.

Cut out some 1/8" or so aluminum to cover the table on each side of the vise...machine up a couple small aluminum TEE nuts and use a flat head screw to secure each plate to each side of the table.
....these serve 3 purposes...you won't have to dig chips out from the TEE slots ever time you make a mess, and the table (if you oil it up good before putting down your aluminum pieces) will continue to look like new for ever, and you can use them as a work surface to pile shit on
 
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JUSTWANNARACE

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First thing I would do(and will get you familiar with the machine) is pull those plates off that kurt vise and duplicate them out of aluminum. Make a few sets(or use the ones you make and put the originals on a shelf) cause with different projects you will need to cut them to hold different stuff and make certain projects alot easier.
 
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JUSTWANNARACE

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And having the DRO is awesome! Just make sure it's set up correctly! Way better than watching the handle dial #s and having to do the tear math..lol
 

JUSTWANNARACE

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I need to start saving. I would really like to have the ability to cut keyways and splines. First thing's first, need another full size mill!

Keyways are no problem on the mill. But splines you would be better off with a brotching machine. Which in most cases, unless you use it alot the return on investment is pretty minimal. But would be awesome to have for "justin"(just in case) and would be amazing time saver for when you do run into those projects when you could use it
 

squeezer

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Get a 3/8" 4 flute carbide endmill and do some work on those vise jaws...once you indicate the vise in...so the fixed jaw is dead nuts on the X-axis, grab a few short parallels and clamp them in the vise. Then come in and mill a small step...I like about 1/4" deep by 0.040" in the vise jaws.

Assuming something like this...???

(On both sides of course)
2D55AFEA-8829-4328-A3CF-C9C86D93F983.jpeg
 

squeezer

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Ordered $1200 worth of stuff yesterday... Doing my part to keep the economy moving!
 
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