Buy American, or save some money

[barnesrickw]

When it comes to tools, I generally follow the mantra "buy the best you can afford". Well afford and best can have different meanings when money is tight. My current dilemma involves the purchasing of a mini-mill. On the one hand I would like to buy a Taig. I do smaller work, and already have a lathe made by Taig. I love the lathe, and buying American means as much as practically possible to me. But saving money on purchase and shipping by going to Harbor Freight has an appeal too. A near $300 appeal. So one thing that can tip the balance is what type, and the amount of work required to get the Harbor Freight to perform as well as one of its higher priced, better finished clones. Anybody with insight on this?


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[goldstar31]

Rick,
This 'Must buy a mill' concept is more than questionable. Whether it is American, Brit, Chinese or BudBudland, it matters not. You DON'T need a mill. If you go back in history to the many designers of the pre-war and 50's, 60's and 70's. they didn't have a mill.
I do recall a couple who made them. On was Ned Westbury and the other was Professor Dennis Chaddock. Actually, I actually made a Westbury mill in the distant past from castings dropped at my local college and a head casting from Woking Models which eventually ended up as Hemmingwaykits.- which sells Westbury castings!

What you need is a well equipped King of Machine Tools called a lathe. If you take a look at a good lathe sideways, it is a drilling machine or look at it again, it is a mill.
All that a mill does is extend work tables that might be easier than a lathe.

Some of the best work was achieved using a simple vertical slide and a vice/vise. I still have mine but I also have a pair of 'Made of All Work' tools which are nothing more than steel blocks which hold things on the saddle and can be peppered with holes and threads and what you wills for milling. I also have a pair of faceplates. One is modified to take tee slots and the other isn't.

I'm afraid that other people might not have the same views as the old engineers. I am merely following the experts of old- and describing how they succeeded.

My first lathe- an old round bed Drummond cost £9 and to the best of my knowledge, is still in use.

I hope that this is of interest


Norman

 

[Tin Falcon]

IMHO and from experience think of the harbor freight and similar mini machines as pre assembled kits. expect to disassemble and put together properly and even replace some minor pars like gibs and adjusting hardware

There is a reason there is a big price difference between a harbor freight price and a LMS or micro mark lathe better components and a longer bed. .
The 10: center to center disappears fast. and you need screw machine drill (more money than jobber length in some cases. ) .

My grizzly 7 x 1o I purchased with the intent of making pen and pen sets and geting started in building model steam engines . It did what I asked it to I still have it and use it.

Urban legend has it harbor freight sells the stuff that the better brands like grizzly and jet pass over.

That said if you want a lathe and HF is all you can afford and you expect to tweak it it is a place to start.
Tin

 

[barnesrickw]

I've had some success with using my Taig lathe and its many accessories for small milling tasks, and I have access to a bigger lathe as soon as I get down to Ohio and pick it up. So you are right, I want a mill. And I've vacillated between really needing one, and just wanting one. If my wife ever see's you comment, need will become want extra quick. So I feel your point is valid, but not as fun.


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[barnesrickw]

Today I woke up on the "learn to use your lathe more effectively" side of the bed. I think a more immediate need is a good cutoff saw, buy my mind always comes back to a small mill. For those who use a mill, what made you decide you were in need of one? I'm going through this with my hand planes that I needed so many of, many of which I seldom use, or have seldom used.


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[Victor J]

Hi barnesrickw,
I bought my mill because it allows me to make the parts for models very much quicker and more accurately than I could do using a milling attachment for my lathe.
Having said that the model engine I have started ( Whittle Vee 8 ) was in part manufactured with a milling attachment back in 1995.
When I do get time to disappear into the workshop, my time is at a guess spilt 35/65 lathe/Mill.
So as you can see for me a mill is very necessary.
But for you, only you can tell if you want to do more in the milling area and therefore justify the
1. The cost.
2. More important 'She who must be obeyed'
Good luck
[FONT=&quot]From Victor J from a rather cold and wet Scotland[/FONT]

 

[Sshire]

I had a mill before I had a lathe. I made a wobbler on the mill. That said, I bought the mill a month later.
It seems that the limiting factor in milling on the lathe would be how much movement the cross slide allows. This does limit the part length. For small engines, probably not a deal breaker.
I give a great deal of credit to the builds I've seen here with all parts prep done with a hand hacksaw. Just glad I have a horizontal bandsaw.

Back to the mill. Last summer, I moved from a BF20 mill to a Bridgeport (circa 1968). The differences in finish, depth of cut, etc are astounding. I'm wondering about the rigidity of a milling attachment on the lathe. I'm quite sure that small engines can be built with a only a hacksaw, a drill and a drawer full of files.
Really comes down to budget, available shop time, skill and desire.

 

[BaronJ]

My first lathe- an old round bed Drummond cost £9 and to the best of my knowledge, is still in use.

I hope that this is of interest


Norman

My my ! Norman, my first lathe was a round bed Drummond ! It was given to me by a friend of my father. I never did much with it though...
I don't know what happened to it. I discovered the fairer sex around that time.

 

[crueby]

In my case, I started with the lathe (sherline), and after a while added the milling column addon to it - goes in place of the headstock/motor which bolts to the column. Used it that way for quite a few years. Finally got tired of moving the motor back and forth so often and got a mill table base so I could leave it set up both ways. For a small lathe like this, using a vertical mill table on the cross slide is really limiting, due to the small travel of the table. On a larger lathe it could be much more useful. These days, I really like having both as seperate machines - lets me leave a setup dialed in on each, and take parts back and forth. I think the decision depends a lot on what projects you are doing, and what size lathe you have. For a small machine, the mill setup has much longer travels and reaches.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Guys,

It might be time to have a look at my "Tool Grinder" thread. About half way down.

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f13/my-tool-grinder-22837/

This happened whilst slitting a 1 mm thick cut in a 12 x 20 mm aluminium bar.
Using a 60 mm diameter saw at about 550 rpm using paraffin as lubricant.

I don't know if the saw nipped or the gear failed. It happened so quickly and unexpectedly. A bump bump in very quick succession and the spindle just stopped.

Not very happy at the moment...

 

[Tin Falcon]

Rick sorry did not clearly read the original thread thought you were talking lathe. But the mini mill similar deal.
I have a micro- mark mill. Expect to clean up the ways adjust and even replace the gib hardware and gibs.
Tin