Small milling

[wesley]

Hi bill ,re cnc no thats not for me,l do this hobby on a very tight budget and my machines are old, but l get buy now with a little help from the good people on here l can now do what l want.If l was starting out again with doing engines etc then yes l would have a say a cnc mill ,but for my models this is a learning curve and am more than happy with doing it with hand control ,now wheres that dam file gone.
wes

 

[BobsModels]

Another thought might be to get a small x - y table and mount it on the large mill.
Like this one:

https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2008&category=


I use one like this on my rotary table with an angle plate. I make parts with shapes and the whole setup is on my Bridgeport. I can move centers relative to the rotary table, make angles to whatever needed, and make lots of shapes.

Bob

 

[fcheslop]

A thing not mentioned is to make the part on a larger bit of stock either by machining excess material away rather wasteful or simply gluing or soldering the smaller bit of stock needed onto the larger bit
This is the way I make my small oscillating engines >How small try 2mm bore 3mm stroke 14ba pivot pins, No75 steam passageways .All done on a very knackered RF25 thats plus or minus an inch on a good day.
These engines are a 2/3 copy of Senfits Thimble engine all good fun
cheers

 

[BillH]

I have to say that my TIG welder has been an amazing advancement in my shop, to actually return scrap back into useful parts.

 

[GailInNM]

Wes,
In response to your original post. As tohers have mentioned, a Dremel is not
suitable for miilling. Too much runout and end play in the spindle.

The same is true for most of the hand held rotarly toools. One exception is the
Proxxon IB/E series, which is an industrial grade tool. Tight spindle with low
runout and end play. It also has a machined metal nose making it easy to
mount. The first photo shows mine in a quick change toolpost mount.

I use mine mostly for drilling small holes in things like gas jets. I have drilled
holes dowu to 0.006 inch diameter in brass using #97 carbide circcuit board
drills. I also use it for light milling for putting grooves in the face of parts in the
lathe as it is much quicker than making up a trepaning tool. Photos 2,2 and 4
show a groovin 0.100 wide x 0.100 deep in brass using a 3/32 carbide end mill.

The last of those photos show the surface finish achived. Verry little chatter.
Proxxon RPM was 20,000 RPM and tyhe lahe spindle was at 30 RPM.
Disadvntages of the Proxxon is that tey are little noisey and the cost. New
ones are about US$120, but reconditioned ones are about $75 and used ones
can some times be found for under $50.

Another option for an auxullary spindle is the engraving spindle from China. The
last photo sow 33 watt 12,000 RPM ibe mounted in a floating head adapter
mounted in my Brideport. I use it for engraving, drilling and profiling printed
circuit boards. Pofiling is normally done with a 0.047 diameter end mill. The
spindle uses ER11 cpllets. They are available on EBay and from Amazon in a
variety of sizes, power,and cooling options. Mine is 300 watt, air cooled and
uses 48 volts DC. Cost is about US$ 65 but I had t add a 48 volt/6Amp DC power
supply to the cost.

Gail in NM

 

[MRA]

...Probably the long forgotten chunk of steel which one peppered with holes, plain and tapped is a thing not to be sniffed at....

Aaah. That was not something _I_ had forgotten, because I had never until now thought of it. But I do have a lump of steel about the size of a half-brick which I have been stubbing my toe on for ages, Many thanks!

 

[wesley]

Well the milling slide is now all fitted on as it should be and to be honest am very pleased with it,so another tool problem sorted,just need some warmer weather to get on with things,many thanks for all the replys.
wes

 

[goldstar31]

,just need some warmer weather to get on with things,many thanks for all the replies.
wes

Have you seen the UK weather map for next week?

9 Months snow and 3 months bad weather?

Brrrrr


N

 

[Wizard69]

Hi bill ,re cnc no thats not for me,l do this hobby on a very tight budget and my machines are old, but l get buy now with a little help from the good people on here l can now do what l want.If l was starting out again with doing engines etc then yes l would have a say a cnc mill ,but for my models this is a learning curve and am more than happy with doing it with hand control ,now wheres that dam file gone.

wes

CNC may not be for you but i do hope that you consider motorized axis so that you can operate at precise feed rates.

The problem, for me anyways, is that small cutters provide zero feedback for manual operations. Thus the high risk of broken cutters when machining manually. On small slides it is fairly easy to rig up low cost feed solutions.

Of course this is a personal thing dependent to an extent on the hardware you are using, but personally i dread small cutters even drill bits.