Initial machine purchase

[crawlski]

Thanks for all the great info it has definatley pointed me in the right direction as far as where to start and what look for when buying my own lathe and mill. I have wanted both for a number of years now but never followed through on either of them. I recently had a chance to borrough an emco unimat 3 to turn down some tlt shocks and now i am hooked for sure!

 

[Charlie-III]

Here's my little shop ,Bought my machine's from Grizzly ,I made lots of parts for the quarter scale guy's and still do. I found, I enjoyed making parts and building winning cars more enjoyable,Than racin them,, I had to many trophies no more room for them,, Lots of A-main wins one championship,Had a great driver running my backup car,,, I have digital read out on one mill & lathe ,, My top suggestion most highest advice is to use Tap Magic tapping fliud for tapping all holes in aluimun ,KMS

Great looking set-up. Until a few years ago, I had access to a real machine shop (I was friends with the R&D shop head dude) and could do what I wanted.
Now I have a decent heavy duty drill press and a so-so lathe. The lathe needs some work, the drill press can't really do milling without some money spent.:roll:

When you say "grizzly", I assume this is a forum member? If not, please follow up.

 

[EddieO]

Grizzly a brand. I think they have a couple locations across the USA, with one being right up the freeway from me in Bellingham, WA....they make nice machines, though some are just rebranded chinese stuff. Good prices too.

Later EddieO

 

[rockslide24]

Didnt notice, but I get all my end mills and measuring tools from MSC Industry.

 

[foratm]

Didnt notice, but I get all my end mills and measuring tools from MSC Industry.

Good choice alro industries is another place our business gets end mills and other tooling.

 

[gixxer6969]

i have used one and it is great it did everything i needed and more i wish i had one at my house to use all the time you can do anything with it i have made some nice stuff with it and its not to hard to use

 

[eric113]

Thanks for all the great info it has definatley pointed me in the right direction as far as where to start and what look for when buying my own lathe and mill. I have wanted both for a number of years now but never followed through on either of them. I recently had a chance to borrough an emco unimat 3 to turn down some tlt shocks and now i am hooked for sure!

This would be prefect for the stuff I like to do.

Cool machine for sure!

Anyone know any other company that makes 3-1 ^ that size ?

 

[C*H*U*D]

Anyone know any other company that makes 3-1 ^ that size ?

Most of them seem larger than that now, but I saw this Sherline awhile ago and thought it was a nice size:

 

[C*H*U*D]

Got a link, I will prob end up going with a tormach mill.

Thanks, that's too large for me, I gonna have fun trying to get my tormach to fit .

I love my 770...I really can't imagine being without it now.

I just spent the day making these. Trying to fit time in at work was becoming a problem, and I really didn't want anyone knowing what I was doing, so the 770 in the basement (I mean Underground Lair 8)) has been perfect:

Here you can see why I have my homemade enclosure. It makes a mess, but it's easily contained:

 

[Crawling Calvin]

Wow Juan now I want a Tormach more and more :shock: Looks like you just need a few more and you got a full blown shop going :ror:

I can vouch for the Littlemachineshop.com Hi-Torque mill. Its a Seig SX2 with a few extra goodies (brushless drive motor/belt drive), slightly increased travels and no red nasty GOOK to get off! My friend got one for a CNC conversion and we have just messed around on it as a manual machine and its NICE :shock:

Few notes: the rotating base is... crap! Littlemachineshop was trying to get a rigid one but im not sure whats up with that?
It will fit a 4" vise, maybe even 2 if your lucky (that's what were doing :mrgreen
It has 12MM t-slots but you can buy t-nuts that fit it (I think 7/16" is a very close fit)
Its pretty powerful for its size and can make mincemeat of aluminum with a "roughing" end mill.
The end mill rating was in aluminum I think :lmao: but it can cut stuff so that's a mood point!
Keep an eye on the screws for the gibbs. They like to vibrate loose and your wondering why the machine is sloppy all of a sudden :shock: (happened to me!) but its nothing some thread locker or split lock washers can't fix "thumbsup"
It has an R8 spindle taper so you can use anything made for bridgeports... I know some have done TTS tooling and power drawbars but i haven't ventured into all that fun yet "thumbsup"

Overall for a small mill I rate it pretty high for being what it is. I think with a little help (mostly bracing it a little more) you got one nice little machine capable of working on stuff. And at 120 lbs (or so) its light enough that 2 people can move it... I mean 2 people "thumbsup"

 

[Joat]

Wow Juan now I want a Tormach more and more :shock: Looks like you just need a few more and you got a full blown shop going :ror:

I can vouch for the Littlemachineshop.com Hi-Torque mill. Its a Seig SX2 with a few extra goodies (brushless drive motor/belt drive), slightly increased travels and no red nasty GOOK to get off! My friend got one for a CNC conversion and we have just messed around on it as a manual machine and its NICE :shock:

Few notes: the rotating base is... crap! Littlemachineshop was trying to get a rigid one but im not sure whats up with that?
It will fit a 4" vise, maybe even 2 if your lucky (that's what were doing :mrgreen
It has 12MM t-slots but you can buy t-nuts that fit it (I think 7/16" is a very close fit)
Its pretty powerful for its size and can make mincemeat of aluminum with a "roughing" end mill.
The end mill rating was in aluminum I think :lmao: but it can cut stuff so that's a mood point!
Keep an eye on the screws for the gibbs. They like to vibrate loose and your wondering why the machine is sloppy all of a sudden :shock: (happened to me!) but its nothing some thread locker or split lock washers can't fix "thumbsup"
It has an R8 spindle taper so you can use anything made for bridgeports... I know some have done TTS tooling and power drawbars but i haven't ventured into all that fun yet "thumbsup"

Overall for a small mill I rate it pretty high for being what it is. I think with a little help (mostly bracing it a little more) you got one nice little machine capable of working on stuff. And at 120 lbs (or so) its light enough that 2 people can move it... I mean 2 people "thumbsup"

I made a rear backet and side adjuster for my LMS mill, they have a soild version now, and are working on getting the parts to convert tilting ones to a solid version.
I have a 4" vise and 4" rotarty table mounted on mine at the same time "thumbsup"
And for the loosening gibs screws buy the locking ones -
LittleMachineShop.com - Set Screw, M6x22 Socket Dog Point Self Locking=
I bought this LittleMachineShop.com - Tweaks & Enhancements Kit, Mini Mill= and was told by Chris Wood to put a note that it was for the LMS mill , as they would include extra set screws for free?

 

[Crawling Calvin]

I made a rear backet and side adjuster for my LMS mill, they have a soild version now, and are working on getting the parts to convert tilting ones to a solid version.
I have a 4" vise and 4" rotarty table mounted on mine at the same time "thumbsup"
And for the loosening gibs screws buy the locking ones -
LittleMachineShop.com - Set Screw, M6x22 Socket Dog Point Self Locking=
I bought this LittleMachineShop.com - Tweaks & Enhancements Kit, Mini Mill= and was told by Chris Wood to put a note that it was for the LMS mill , as they would include extra set screws for free?

Thanks for the heads up on that! I will keep that in mind for the next time I head there to spend more $ :lmao: Ill get some pics later of it rocking 2 vises just for kicks.

In the meantime I may equip it with a screw fed Z-axis to get rid of the awful rack and pinion/"fine feed" stuff... in my book its junk coming from the land of Bridgeports and quills :shock:

 

[Joat]

Thanks for the heads up on that! I will keep that in mind for the next time I head there to spend more $ :lmao: Ill get some pics later of it rocking 2 vises just for kicks.

In the meantime I may equip it with a screw fed Z-axis to get rid of the awful rack and pinion/"fine feed" stuff... in my book its junk coming from the land of Bridgeports and quills :shock:

LMK how that goes, I did the Frank Hoose air spring conversion on mine too, that makes a world of difference