Build my own milling machine

[SmithDoor]

Today it would be welded steel
The drawback is you have to stress relief be for any machining.
Just A big BBQ pit and let set for few day covered .

Dave

Hi everyone
I'm new here and even wit website but this is different story
So my intention to build whole milling machine and need some informations about cast iron used I have chosen grey cast 250 grade or sG500-7 and don't know witch one to use for , even for column any help here thanks

 

[MrMetric]

I always love your backyard machinist's approach to "getting stuff done", Dave. Most of us don't have access to heat treaters with giant ovens, multi million dollar plants, etc. So, yeah, dig a big hole, dump some charcoal in there, light 'er up, and cover it. It is outside my knowledge of how well this works, frankly, but I always enjoy the alternative approaches you frequently put out. There were some good posts you had recently regarding the amount of shrinkage and expansion on different material. I printed out those charts and put them in my booklet of, "before you take a hammer, idiot, try this." Sure, I know the fundamentals of this, but now I have it backed up by some tangible charts to understand how much tolerance is available...

 

[MrMetric]

Good God! It actually sold for some serious money! I am really quite surprised... Here is the machine I was talking about:

https://www.govplanet.com/for-sale/...,sm|0,ms|G,mf|1&rr=0.33333&hitprm=&pnLink=yes
This will make any machine lover roll over and cry... I bet the guys who used to work on the machine would just shake their heads and ask "why on *earth* would you stick that out in the rain?"

 

[SmithDoor]

I had heat treating a large weld steel jig. My largest oven up to 15" ID.

You can not machine a large part with stress relief or it will twist as machine the part.
This also happens with aluminum too but this takes 30 days.

1) Ship out of town to larger oven
2) Think outside the box look how backyard shops do the job.
3) Look a kiln use for potty but try find any has big kiln that will put steel in kiln.

Will someone got lucky and dug a big hole. The get job was done. It save on shipping and the cost of heat treating and no cost for backhoe.

Dave

I always love your backyard machinist's approach to "getting stuff done", Dave. Most of us don't have access to heat treaters with giant ovens, multi million dollar plants, etc. So, yeah, dig a big hole, dump some charcoal in there, light 'er up, and cover it. It is outside my knowledge of how well this works, frankly, but I always enjoy the alternative approaches you frequently put out. There were some good posts you had recently regarding the amount of shrinkage and expansion on different material. I printed out those charts and put them in my booklet of, "before you take a hammer, idiot, try this." Sure, I know the fundamentals of this, but now I have it backed up by some tangible charts to understand how much tolerance is available...

 

[Chiptosser]

What tools or equipment, experience do you have ?
There are a lot of factors and knowlege, reference base involved in building a mill. Do you have somone available close at hand to help you? It gets mighty expensive scraping material and discouraging to boot.

 

[goldstar31]

What tools or equipment, experience do you have ?
There are a lot of factors and knowlege, reference base involved in building a mill. Do you have somone available close at hand to help you? It gets mighty expensive scraping material and discouraging to boot.

I agree with with Chiptosser and I simply don't think for a moment that most posters here have even got near to 'making a milling machine'
There's and an old saying that one needs a lathe to make a lathe and i have no doubt that this applies to making a mill.
As a non engineer, I have 'sort of done it' by making a Westbury Mill Drill but not from scratch.

The castings were dropped at the local college and rough machined there. Apart from the headstock- that is. I bought that from the then Woking Precision Models at Queensferry jusst a stone's throw from the City of Edinburgh. I bored the thing at the college as an evening class student - and slit it to clamp to the column------AND IT NIPPED!!!!!!! It took hours to scrape it in.
The rough castings were done against 'references' which have yet to be mentioned here- and by HAND.
This was llong before the arrival of home workshop mills mainly from China.

To answer the most obvios question-- NO I would not reppeat the exercise.
Just to whet appetites, might I humbly suggest that you buy a scrap mill and scrape it back to a sort of perfection

When you think that you have seen it all-- make a Quorn tool and cutter grinder. It CAN be done on a lathe with a 7 inch swing-- which is what I used.

My thoughts---- and experiences, naturally


Norman

 

[Richard Hed]

Looks like I need to get that book. The large blade I have is 6 to 8 in. The blade you see in the pic is 5" the I dulled was 6" But I seen slitting blades on here look like it was ran above 1750 rpm.

You can download old copies of Machinery's Handbook

 

[mikelkie]

Hi everyone
I'm new here and even wit website but this is different story
So my intention to build whole milling machine and need some informations about cast iron used I have chosen grey cast 250 grade or sG500-7 and don't know witch one to use for , even for column any help here thanks

Like MrMetric say if you like building machine tools go for it, or you will be wasting time and and get frustrated and may even loose enthusiasm. if you were close by and with the strong pound you could buy a working Bridgeport from me for thirteen hundred pounds incl. vice and feed on X axis.
I would look around first for a used machine since they were build in your country

 

[SmithDoor]

I agree.
It may time find the size you looking for mill.
The Bridge Port type mill is simple to find but the weight and size may not fit your shop or needs. The small size harder to find.

To rebuild is simple
The machine tool rebuilds use Devcon epoxy, brass flat bar or plastic for worn slides and reshaping

Dave

Like MrMetric say if you like building machine tools go for it, or you will be wasting time and and get frustrated and may even loose enthusiasm. if you were close by and with the strong pound you could buy a working Bridgeport from me for thirteen hundred pounds incl. vice and feed on X axis.
I would look around first for a used machine since they were build in your country

 

[dazz]

Hi
Rather than build a machine, an easier route would be to rebuild an old worn out machine. They are cheap and would provide a good foundation to regenerate a sound machine.

Dazz

 

[MrMetric]

If size is a concern, here are a few alternatives beyond the new, Chinese mill/drill machines:
1. Emco Maier Super 11 with a milling attachment (not exactly small, but has both mill/lathe capacities, for better or worse)
2. Deckel FP1 - an awesome machine which has been around for almost a century. Older ones that need help can be amazingly cheap
3. Small belt drive BridgePort. These are substantially smaller than the normal ones
4. Rockwell mill. Comes in a H/V flavor, if desired. I had one for a while and it worked quite well
5. Hardinge horizontal mill..... and then put a Rosnok vertical head on it (or similar)
6. Sherline... These are quite a bit smaller than the machines above, but are very inexpensive, widely supported, and really very capable. You'll find a lot of people here that have them and I think you'll be surprised what can be done with one.
7. Aciera... probably not a great option because these are pretty small (F1 was for the instrument/watch trade) and are now sold for a premium. They are nicely built if you want tiny though and sometimes you can get them for cheap (or even free... I know!!!!)

There are many others too... I'm just giving you some ideas. And, in fact, if you really have some specialized thing you want to make that is small, Sherline sells parts for reasonable prices. That is also an option. I don't own any Sherline stuff (well, other than a rotary table), but I give them really high marks for balancing availability, cost and capability. I think they provide an excellent way for people to get into the hobby, and they have an excellent creative eye towards different tooling... They also seem to have one of the strongest financial foundations in the small machine market.

 

[TSutrina]

Concrete bridge port milling machine has been built as other big commercial machines. Concrete is typically made with epoxy replacing concrete. Machine Casting – Castinite However actual concrete machines were build during WWII to produce production parts. The base line is patent 1154155 by L. I. Yeomans Sept. 1915 Articles on the web can be found.
The Multimachine Open Source Concrete Lathe Project is a standard concrete machine found on the web. Sorry do not know the full site address: Build a Metal Lathe, Drill, and Milling Machine | Make:... Other sources include Vintage Projects and Building Plans CNC concrete casting:

Popular Mechanics has many builds often by Romig small mill concrete base it is horizontal Popular Mechanics Turned it into a shaper also PM article
Popular Mechanics - May 1930 - Page 870

Popular Mechanics - May 1923 - Page 86

Popular Mechanics - Jul 1922 - Page 129 lathe

 

[SmithDoor]

Back around 1810 they used wood with cast iron slides. By 1860's they used bricks and cast iron slides.

I have use concrete in China made tools in the columns. See downloads

Dave

Concrete bridge port milling machine has been built as other big commercial machines. Concrete is typically made with epoxy replacing concrete. Machine Casting – Castinite However actual concrete machines were build during WWII to produce production parts. The base line is patent 1154155 by L. I. Yeomans Sept. 1915 Articles on the web can be found.
The Multimachine Open Source Concrete Lathe Project is a standard concrete machine found on the web. Sorry do not know the full site address: Build a Metal Lathe, Drill, and Milling Machine | Make:... Other sources include Vintage Projects and Building Plans CNC concrete casting:

Popular Mechanics has many builds often by Romig small mill concrete base it is horizontal Popular Mechanics Turned it into a shaper also PM article
Popular Mechanics - May 1930 - Page 870

Popular Mechanics - May 1923 - Page 86

Popular Mechanics - Jul 1922 - Page 129 lathe

 

[SmithDoor]

Look at all the drawings on Vintage Projects is the battery charger 3 different places. I guess that is one that worked.

Dave

Concrete bridge port milling machine has been built as other big commercial machines. Concrete is typically made with epoxy replacing concrete. Machine Casting – Castinite However actual concrete machines were build during WWII to produce production parts. The base line is patent 1154155 by L. I. Yeomans Sept. 1915 Articles on the web can be found.
The Multimachine Open Source Concrete Lathe Project is a standard concrete machine found on the web. Sorry do not know the full site address: Build a Metal Lathe, Drill, and Milling Machine | Make:... Other sources include Vintage Projects and Building Plans CNC concrete casting:

Popular Mechanics has many builds often by Romig small mill concrete base it is horizontal Popular Mechanics Turned it into a shaper also PM article
Popular Mechanics - May 1930 - Page 870

Popular Mechanics - May 1923 - Page 86

Popular Mechanics - Jul 1922 - Page 129 lathe

 

[TSutrina]

Concrete is about ten times stronger in compression as tension. A great starting point to understand concrete is Tyler Ley youtube videos. Primary goal is to keep concrete in compression. when that isn't possible then fibers of may types are used to carry tension so that the tension in the concrete is lower. If below the yield strength the concrete will not crack. If it does crack the fibers help minimize the width of the crack. The big advantage is the reduction in vibration of concrete for the same strength is much better then cast iron and much better then steel or aluminum. The problem is that the machine is heavier when the strength is the same. Thus few parts that move are made from concrete. The knee of a mill is moved but not dynamically so it can be made with concrete. the table for a hobby hand powered machine could be a mix of concrete and steel.

 

[MrMetric]

I would guess that another problem with concrete in production products is that it is also fairly brittle. If you need to move/ship a machine, there is probably a much greater chance that the machine could be damaged due to cracked concrete. This could be mitigated, of course, by additives which also increase the tension component that TSutrina refers to.

I love the idea of making a concrete machine. I think it is a neat (and inexpensive) product. I don't know that I think it makes *sense* to fabricate your own machine (as mentioned previously), but if the OP wants to do so, I hope he does. I further hope that he chronicles his achievements (and frustrations) here. In the end, we all share a common interest here in this forum, so hearing what others are doing is always fun.

 

[goldstar31]

I seem to recall that all of this has been hacked about here with the mention of epoxy resins as a binder for filler for lathe and milling machines.

We seem destined to suffer 're-invent the wheel' syndrome.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

23Rd June 2018. Epoxy filled granite by Niels Abildgaard!

I learned Pelmanism at a very tender age. At 90 it is still sort of working.

Write the name down in case you forget it

Norman

 

[MrMetric]

Well, if we keep coming up with the same ideas, then we are obviously all geniuses or raving lunatics. You decide.

 

[clockworkcheval]

A good friend once explained that if you don't try to re-invent the wheel you won't really understand it.

 

[TSutrina]

I would guess that another problem with concrete in production products is that it is also fairly brittle. If you need to move/ship a machine, there is probably a much greater chance that the machine could be damaged due to cracked concrete. This could be mitigated, of course, by additives which also increase the tension component that TSutrina refers to.

I love the idea of making a concrete machine. I think it is a neat (and inexpensive) product. I don't know that I think it makes *sense* to fabricate your own machine (as mentioned previously), but if the OP wants to do so, I hope he does. I further hope that he chronicles his achievements (and frustrations) here. In the end, we all share a common interest here in this forum, so hearing what others are doing is always fun.

Concrete or rather bricks held together with concrete building have been move without cracking the concrete or plaster, also brittle, in the building. My parents two floor home was moved about 5 blocks without a single crack in the home. Picked up off a foundation, rolled over a basement, onto the street, the 5 blocks, off the street, and over a new basement. Then set down with in 1/4 inch of the ideal location. Moving concrete structure takes care.