# Milling long pieces



## Bernd (Nov 9, 2008)

Ever try to mill a piece of stock longer than your table will travel? ???

Here's a tip for those of us that have a small mill and need to mill a part longer than the table travels. Such is the case with my X2 mill, a Grizzly min-mill. I needed to make 2 pieces of 1/4" aluminum 1" wide and they need to be 12" long. The mill has a cutting distance of 9". What to do? Well you do what a wood worker would do if he needs to work on a board longer than his vise. You hold one end in the vise and the other end you clamp down to the bench. I have done something similar. The pics will explain better.






With the table at the end of travel to the left I moved the vise to the right with enough room for the cutter when moving the "Y" axis in. Then I clamped a 1-2-3 block to the table and used a machinist clamp to hold the part sticking out. This keeps the part from vibrating when the cutter gets out passed the vise on the left.





Here's a shot from the back.





Next I took a cleaning cut of about .025" a full 9" of travel





Then I flipped the part over





And proceeded to make a clean up cut on the opposite side. Here I've moved the piece over a few inches so I could mill all the way to the end.





I'm now on the first side again. Since the second side has been milled the full length I can move the part in the vise over for a secure hold and mill a few inches at a time. 





I'm now taking a finish cut of about .005" 





Here are the finished parts.

Hoped this little tip has helped.

Regards,
Bernd


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## wareagle (Nov 9, 2008)

Bernd, that is a great tip. The little machines are only limited by one's imagination!


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