Advice wanted

[deadin]

I’m feeling the need to accessorize a little more.
Which of the following would you suggest I start with?

1. Metal Change gears for the lathe
2. Belt Drive for the mill
3. Power feed for the mill
4. Column extender for the mill
5. Set of corner rounding end mills.
6. What may I be missing?

(I have a Grizzly Mini Lathe and Mini Mill)

Dean

 

[Cedge]

Belt Drive and Power Feed
Extended column rack

Steve

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Mounted DROs?
Cover the apron gears on the lathe.
A partner?

 

[rake60]

I'd say belt drive and air spring for the mill.

You will see a lot of different opinions here.
The choices need to be based on what you expect
from the machines.

Rick

 

[tel]

7. All of the above.

 

[vlmarshall]

A boring head? Quick-change toolholders for the mill? QCTP? A coolant system?

 

[va4ngo]

Your choice of accessories will be determioned by the projects which you are most likely to be most comfortable with in the coming months/years.

I use change gears regularly

I dont have a mill and yet dont feel the urgent need for one.

We all have different needs

After reading all the useful and interesting threads on this forum, You will suddenly see where you would like to be heading and you will have made your own valued decision.


Phil

 

[websterz]

Belt drive and power feed on the mill definitely!! Best improvements I have made so far. With a lathe and mill you have the equipment to build both yourself and save a ton of money. That's what I did. ;D

After that a QCTP for the lathe would be my next suggestion. Again, build it yourself and save the cash for tooling and consumables you can't make at home.

 

[deadin]

I like tel’s suggestion of “No.7 all of the above”. Now if I could just afford it.
I’ve found myself leaning toward the power feed as I seem to be doing a lot of facing cuts on the mill and manually cranking the axis gets old.
What is the advantage of the belt drive other than I won’t have any down time when the gears blow out? (I understand it’s not a matter of “if” but of “when”)
I also could always use a little more room over the table……..
So far I haven’t done much threading, so I suppose the change gears can wait
Websterz, I like the idea of making my own mods. Where can I get plans? I’ve searched here and didn’t find anything.

 

[kf2qd]

A belt drive on the Mini-Mill is a HUGE improvement. I made mine using a sewing machine belt and modifying the pulley from a junk sewing machine for the spindle, and made the motor pulley out of aluminum. Seeing as how I have never reallly used the high speed setting on my mill I made it single speed. Works much smoother and quieter. Seems like it would have been a better system than the gears from the start, guess the gears are better from a liability standpoint...

 

[websterz]

I like tel’s suggestion of “No.7 all of the above”. Now if I could just afford it.
I’ve found myself leaning toward the power feed as I seem to be doing a lot of facing cuts on the mill and manually cranking the axis gets old.
What is the advantage of the belt drive other than I won’t have any down time when the gears blow out? (I understand it’s not a matter of “if” but of “when”)
I also could always use a little more room over the table……..
So far I haven’t done much threading, so I suppose the change gears can wait
Websterz, I like the idea of making my own mods. Where can I get plans? I’ve searched here and didn’t find anything.

These are the belt drive plans I used:

http://www.hossmachine.info/projects_6.html#belt


As for power feed I flew by the seat of my pants. Start off with a 14.4 volt cordless drill, they make excellent power feed units! It will be slightly underpowered by the 12 volt power supply but it's DC so it won't hurt it. Plus many cordless drills have a clutch assembly built in...makes a nice "limit switch" if you hit the end of the table travel. I just picked up 3 more drills, minus batteries and chargers, for under $10 delivered on Ebay. Future power feed units!


Here is the route I went for a power supply:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-an-ATX-Power-Supply-Into-a-Regular-DC-Powe/

Don't use a battery charger like I did the first time...it will blow up your motor control.


Here's the motor controller:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WYAN92/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Stay with the 30 amp model, the lesser unit can overheat and burn out a trace really easily. Not worth saving a couple of bucks. Just add a DPDT toggle switch ($3.00 at Radio Shack) between the controller and motor to reverse the feed. Radio Shack also sells aluminum project boxes that will fit the controller. I cut a hole in the side of mine, covered it with fiberglass window screen, and added a 12 volt PC case fan to help keep it cool.


I built my power feed unit for under $60.00 and can't imagine working without it now.

 

[websterz]

Mounted DROs?
Cover the apron gears on the lathe.
A partner?

Excellent suggestion zee!

 

[Troutsqueezer]

>Excellent suggestion zee!

Ditto.

When I first got my HF lathe, after removing the red grease and turning one small brass wheel to see how it performed, I pulled off the carriage gear assembly to see if Varmint Al was making a good point about putting some protection there. He was. It was filled with gold-colored confetti.

 

[websterz]

I had an old face shield laying around the shop that was too scratched up to use. It was excellent material for cutting an apron gear cover out of though. ;D I d/t'ed 4 6-32 holes into the rim of the apron for attaching it. Stays nice and clean now. Another "upgrade" I have made is to the half-nuts on my 7x12. Or should I say half-NUT. Seig added that nice little lead screw cover which does a good job of keeping the swarf off of the screw, but they traded the top half-nut for it. Check and see...if you have the cover I bet you only got the bottom half-nut. I started having power feed trouble up near the headstock and found that the half-nut was worn and not gripping the leadscrew very well. A replacement set cost me about $30.00 from LMS and I had to remove the cover to install both halves, but it is worth it. The biggest worry with chips on the leadscrew was having them pulled into the control box. Well, I pulled the box off of my lathe a long time ago and mounted it to the front of the workbench. That isolates it from vibrations that kept loosening up the connections inside. Dang...I have done a bunch of mods I guess. :big:

 

[Tin Falcon]

Here is my take I am probly repeating some:
Of course the question is what do you have what have you done
Mill
Belt drive
A height extender.

Lathe
qctp
Apron cover definitely I used a center drill and added an oil hole on the apron
a lever tail stock clamp (have not done this yet I have a 9" south bend lathe as well as the mini if all I had was the mini I think I would have done this one)
A live center if you do not have one

Use on both

You need some sort of dial indicator holder to regulate z axis movement can be used on lathe as well a simple magnetic one will o.
spring center tap guide
Tin