Just bought a Mill :)

[TheHomeMechanic]

Hello everyone, my name is Brent and i'm new to this forum.
I have been into metal working for a long time, i went a year to school for it years ago.
I just bought a Optimum BF 20L for a really good deal, fully complete (that is the bottom and mill).
But now i'm looking at all kinds of mills, how do i know wich tools / mills are going to fit my mill?
I see alot on the HBM website, are they possible to fit on this mill.

All so confusing,

thank you very much.
Greetings,
Brent.

 

[DJP]

If your mill has an R8 spindle taper you will have more tooling options. I suggest an ER collet that fits the R8 taper as good place to start. A drill chuck with R8 will also be required. Some mills have Morse Taper spindles and some have strange Brown and Sharp taper. Once you find the taper you can buy the tooling.

I would look for estate sales where a machinist has passed on and the family wants rid of his collection. There will be lots of treasures to be found in a Kennedy Box.

Have fun.

 

[WOB]

The machine spindle has a #2 Morse taper with a 10mm drawbar. It would seem that either Morse taper collets or an ER collet chuck could be used. This company sells both: https://www.stuermer-machines.com/b...es-conventional/optimill-bf-20lvario-3338122/ Actual collet sizes would be dependent on end mill sizes needed.

WOB

 

[rlukens]

If your mill has an R8 spindle taper you will have more tooling options. I suggest an ER collet that fits the R8 taper as good place to start. A drill chuck with R8 will also be required. Some mills have Morse Taper spindles and some have strange Brown and Sharp taper. Once you find the taper you can buy the tooling.

I would look for estate sales where a machinist has passed on and the family wants rid of his collection. There will be lots of treasures to be found in a Kennedy Box.

Have fun.

Kennedy box? True, but there's gold in those old Gerstners.

 

[deeferdog]

I have the BF20L mill and it has a No 3 Morse spindle with a 1/2" Whitworth drawbar. Morse taper is quite popular in this country so looking for old Morse tooling at car boot sales is a lot easier than R8. All my tooling is metric based so I made a new 12mm drawbar. This machine is the same as the Grizzly G704. Just go with what works for where you live. Cheers, Peter

 

[grapegro]

Hi there, Seems there are some variations on these Optimum milling machines I have a BF20 l machine with a no. 3 mt . It came with a 1/2 whit drawbar, the 3 mt tools commonly have 12 mm draw bar so had to make up draw bar to suit. I must add that it is a delight to use.
Norm

 

[Hopper]

Aliexpress.com is a good source of low-cost but reasonable quality milling cutters, collet holders and other accessories. In spite of their rock bottom prices I haven't had a bad one yet.

 

[rockets]

ER32 collet chuck in whatever taper your machine has, your manual will help you here. A set of collets to suit and a keyless drill chuck in the same taper.

Find a set of milling cutters on Bangood or a similar website, a set of cobalt drills from same and you are in business. Add to your tooling as and when you tackle different jobs and you won't go far wrong.

The beauty of ER collets is that you can use just about anything in them, if you come across a set of threaded milling cutters at a sale for a decent price you can buy them as they will run in the ER32.

Rockets.

 

[TheHomeMechanic]

Thanks for the great advice guys!
I will look into all the options i can, i found a good set of tools for a reasonable price, 4 different end mills (rough and finishing end mills), 2 center drills, +- 80 drills, a machine vise, a fly cutter, a set of boring bars. All for under 220$! Let's hope they are somewhat decent, they fit the MC2 spindle.

Thanks again guys!

 

[blueywa]

G'day Brent,
I also have the Opti-Mill BF20L and I am very happy with it.
You don't say where you are located or where you bought yours.
They do differ slightly depending on the sellers configuration.
Mainly the draw bar.. mine is MT3 with 1/2 inch Whitworth thread bought from HAFCO in Australia.
Other seller have theirs with either an MT3 or MT2 and a 12mm thread so depends which version you have. Obviously one wont fit the other.
Tools are readily available and depends where you buy depends on whether they are easily affordable or requiring a bank loan.
I bought a load of replacement carbide cutters for the various tools I have from the R.O.C. before Mr. Morrison imposed the GST on imports.
IMO the Opti-Mill BF20L is a fine mill, not too small or too big and if you take your time (don't force it) it will do all the tasks a mill that size was designed to do easily.
Cheers Bluey.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Brent,

I also have an Optimum BF 20LB, mine is a MT3 spindle and 12 mm threaded drawbar. Before rushing out to buy tooling, think about what you want to do with it ! I agree that a good collet set is needed and ER32 is a nice size. I use one in mine. Think about how you are going to hold your work piece. Are you going to secure it directly to the table, or would you need to get a good vise. As far as cutters are concerned, I would recommend that you only buy what you need to do a particular job. Very many jobs can be done with very simple home brew tools, and if you have a lathe, the world is your oyster.

In the old days fly cutters were the most commonly used tool, there are not many jobs that cannot be done with a fly cutter ! OK it was one of the first tools that I made, since then I've made several more. It is very much the first tool that I look at when thinking about how I want to go about doing a job.

You have a nice mill there, learn how to take advantage of it.

PS. Welcome to the forum

 

[goldstar31]

I’ve just bought a new mill drill attachment to fit my Sieg4 lathe.

I’ts inaddition Tony Warco mill drill that has now powe feed on the X axis. I’ve added scales onto the X and Y axis.
Nice

Getting ready for Autumn

Norm

 

[TheHomeMechanic]

Thank you all for the input. After doing lot's of research i came up with a good set of tools i got for a good price.
I am located in Belgium, the mill is from kippers in the Netherlands, and it comes with a MT2 10mm spindle.
Got myself a flycutter, mill set (finishing & rough), boring bar, a set of drills, collets, boring vice, milling vice (Vertex VK-5) and so on for under 200$!
I noticed my mill had lot's of untrueness (is that a word? ). As much as 0.69mm in the z-axis. Going to secure the mill to the concrete later on, i hope that helps somewhat.

 

[RM-MN]

Thank you all for the input. After doing lot's of research i came up with a good set of tools i got for a good price.
I am located in Belgium, the mill is from kippers in the Netherlands, and it comes with a MT2 10mm spindle.
Got myself a flycutter, mill set (finishing & rough), boring bar, a set of drills, collets, boring vice, milling vice (Vertex VK-5) and so on for under 200$!
I noticed my mill had lot's of untrueness (is that a word? ). As much as 0.69mm in the z-axis. Going to secure the mill to the concrete later on, i hope that helps somewhat.

I think you mean "out of tram" but I'm just a novice so I might not understand what you mean. All mills need to be adjusted for tram. Some are an easy. Just loosen, tram, tighten again while others may require shims or a bit of machining to bring them straight.

 

[TheHomeMechanic]

I think you mean "out of tram" but I'm just a novice so I might not understand what you mean. All mills need to be adjusted for tram. Some are an easy. Just loosen, tram, tighten again while others may require shims or a bit of machining to bring them straight.

Yes, sorry for my English.
It's quite hard for me to adjust. Once i have it adjusted to 0.001" and i press on the table a bit, the indicated changes atleast 0.2".

 

[RM-MN]

The tables on your mill should run on dovetail ways that have gibs to adjust to take the slack out by using screws with lock nuts to push the gibs against the ways. Look for a set or 3 or more on each way. Search for videos on adjusting gibs. Here is one on the mini-mill but others are adjusted differently so you may have to look at more than one.