Beginner Machinist

[fishingboat]

Hi,
I have been involved in all types of machines for longer than I care to admit. I have repaired clock movements (spring and weight driven), cars, and now I just bought a fairly decent lathe an old horizontal mill and for you older folks a shaper (from my dad's estate) and now I am working toward a vertical mill. I have spent a fair amount of time looking over and finally joined HMEM. I guess I am looking for fairly simple first engine and something that I can complete (or nearly complete) on my lathe. Any suggestions? one other thing, I have a decent drill press and for the time being I was considering using an index table on my drill press for what milling I need to do. Has anyone done this? Any tips for a new machinist would be appreciated! Thank you
Paul

 

[Paulsv]

Yeah, I tried that, and ruined the bearings in my drill press. They aren't designed for the radial force of milling.

 

[Kaleb]

I've done a bit of that, and the bearings coped fairly well, but the main problem I have encountered is that those radial forces can pull the chuck off its taper (my drill press doesn't have a Morse taper spindle, just a JT taper on the end.)

 

[Mainer]

What Paulsv said.... In addition, the bearings in all likelihood are relatively low precision bearings that will result in chatter marks (small, but visible) on the milled surface.

There is also the great possibility that, assuming you hold the end mill in the drill chuck and the chuck is mounted on a taper, the side loading will walk the drill chuck off its taper mount.

That being said, people have managed to do milling on a drill press, but it's not very satisfactory.

You could get a milling attachment for your lathe. They aren't very satisfactory either, but they may be better than a drill press. If you get one, be sure it mounts in place of the compound, not on the compound. The attachment is flexible enough when mounted directly on the cross slide. Mounting it on the compound (Palmgren does this) makes it ridiculously non-rigid.

 

[jwcnc1911]

Main thing is safety, if a setup doesn't look safe... it's probably not safe. Especially when your using a machine for a purpose other than its intended use like milling on a drill press. Time will bring skill. Enjoy the learning process - that's the fun part!

 

[fishingboat]

Hi,
Thank you all very much for your input, I already knew the answer to my question but I just needed to ask someone that had tried it.
I guess it falls back to the old saying, if you can't afford to do it right you shouldn't do it at all. I guess I will have to save my pennies for a vertical mill. Another $2,000 to $3,000 toy in the garage.

Paul

 

[jwcnc1911]

But you can never have too many toys. I saw a shirt once that read: "he who dies with the most tools wins!"