My mini-mill

Started by mhc, September 23, 2019, 12:43:53 PM

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Crow

I'm envious of both your equipment...AND your skill in using it !
There's nothing wrong with a few "F's" on your record....Food, Fun, Flowers, Fishing, Friends, and Fun....to name just a few !

mhc

#16
Thanks guys, Crow I've wanted a mill for ages but couldn't justify it to myself - until I recently realised if I didn't get one, I wouldn't get one and it would end up on the 'should've done' list.
At the risk of boring people - a few more photos of practicing with the mini mill. Using the head tilted to 30 deg and the rotab mounted horizontally to cut a 60 deg tip on the dead center shaft;




 
The body of the head was pretty straight forward, drilling a 16mm hole for the shaft and a brass end piece to hold the handle in place - I screwed the 3mm thick 316 stainless retaining plate to a piece of sacrificial aluminium to extend a 12mm drilled hole with an end mill;



To tap the dead center and handle pieces for a M10 thread, I centered the pieces using the spindle mounted test indicator, drilled then tapped manually with the head out of gear;







Used 6mm and 3mm end mills to mill a shallow slot for a locking screw on one side of the shaft and a stepped slot from 6 to 3mm wide in the opposite side for a stepped screw to stop the shaft from rotating with the handle;





This thread isn't directly linked to reels, but I thought it might help anyone thinking about getting a machine - I will move on to reel parts soon once I get more comfortable with it.

Mike
It can't be too difficult - a lot of people do it.

thorhammer

Way above my paygrade but well interested to see this!  ;)


John

Tiddlerbasher

Yep - like a duck takes to water :D

mhc

A few photos to finish my 1st year apprentice project - the tailstock. The mill has a fairly small table and my 6" rotab mounted with a 5" chuck takes up a lot of the length - so I designed a canter levered stand for the tailstock to gain a couple of inches between centers;



First step was to center the rotab (with a brass clamp plate I made from salvaged scrap) under the spindle;



Clamp the piece of 10mm (~3/8") flat bar in place;



Rough out the curved sections with a roughing mill;



Finish with an end mill and move the piece to cut the small reverse curve on the foot;





Test fit;



Cleaned up and ready to cold blue;





It's probably a bit more complicated than it needed to be, but the plan was to get used to the mill by experimenting making tooling and stuff before I tackled reel stuff.

Mike
It can't be too difficult - a lot of people do it.

Crow

That's super-good work !! If I lived close to you...I'd be making a "pest" of myself !! :D
There's nothing wrong with a few "F's" on your record....Food, Fun, Flowers, Fishing, Friends, and Fun....to name just a few !

foakes

Beautiful work on that tailstock, Michael!

Vest,

Fred
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

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"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

oc1

Quote from: foakes on November 09, 2019, 03:28:24 PM
Beautiful work on that tailstock, Michael!
X2.  It's really slick.
-steve

Cortez_Conversions

Visit: cortezconversions.com
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.-Sal

Rothmar2


mo65

~YOU CAN TUNA GEETAR...BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FEESH~


Alto Mare

Wow Mike! That looks amazing!
I believe you can make anything, once you set your mind to it.
Excellent job!

Sal
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

Donnyboat

Nice work Mike, thanks for taking us along, your foresight is above & beyond, anything I could dream of, cheers Don.
Don, or donnyboat

mhc

Thanks guys, these little machines make working metal pretty easy compared to the drill press and files that I have been using. A digital read out for the X Y & Z axes would make things even easier - for now I'm using the scales on the table winding handles to measure travel but it's easy to lose count and get lost, that's why I'm still scribing the layout to make sure I'm in the right place.

You wouldn't be a pest Crow, you might help me focus on making stuff that isn't for the mill! I made a table mount vise stop yesterday (not the clamp) - it should be handy  :-\  :)



Hey Chris, you can be my tech assessor anytime - you are much tougher on your own work!

Thanks Sal, but I am nowhere near making anything I want - for a start there's a lot of stuff that needs a lathe......

Here's the tailstock with it a couple of applications of Birchwood and Casey 'Super Blue' for protection. The blue is a bit blotchy in places and I considered re-doing it but I haven't used cold blue before and I'm not sure it would get any better. I don't think I'll notice after it gets covered in chips and cutting oil  ;).



Thanks again for the kind words.

Mike
It can't be too difficult - a lot of people do it.

mhc

A few photos of the tailstock in use, supporting a 10mm steel rod while I cut it down to ~ 4mm for a small surface gauge scribe;





The machine head tilted 20 deg to cut the shoulder;



And 10 deg to cut the tip;



The bent scribe, brass base and 12mm post waiting for a swivel holder;



I think I'm almost ready to start on reels  :)

Mike

It can't be too difficult - a lot of people do it.