Hi to everyone!
First I apologise for my poor english, i can read with no problmes, but redact is a little more complicated to me..
well, a little of me, Im a electrical engineer student here in chile, I begin making guitar effects and valve amps for fun and for won a little money, but with time i start to get interested in metalworking and model making, searching info in the net i found this forum, and when saw the photos of your workshops and models, especially the images in the work in progress forum, well, i decided to get full in metalworking and engine models.
so i started to save money for over a year and bought a used lathe for a good price (+/- $1600 dolars) a 13"x 40" gear-head floor lathe in good condition and get some basic tooling..
six month later i borrow money and buy a Einhell mini-mill (is identical to the sieg x2 with some minor details, i believe that the table is just a little bit longer that the sieg), not even working on the mill, only just playing with "the new toy" i broke the inner gear jaja, so i made mi own belt-drive convertion (but i had to import the belt, was impossible to find any belt that is not a car belt here in chile..), after that i made the air spring mod with a car door air spring and worked very well.
again had to wait until get some money to buy some basic tooling from grizzly, here in chile the only items yo can find of metalworkin are large and amazing expensives, here a regular hss 1/2" end mill cost like $20 dolars!!! in the grizzly catalog the same cost only $4.95..
here is impossible to find any tooling smaller that 6", so for my mini-mill the only posibility is to buy from Grizzly o LMS, and pay expensives shipping and taxation. :'(
now im planing to get a screwless milling vise and some parallels..
after that I'm going to make a rotary table, a tilt table and the rest of the necesary tooling items i need to start to build engine models
like im a student i have very little money, has been very hard to get all this very expensives tools and machines, but soon with te arrival my new milling vise and stuff i hope to get full start on engine models, and i will gonna need a lot of help from you guys jeje
this is a great forum!! i read almost every day especially the machine modifications, tools and work in progress sub-forums
im a beginer in this, and i hope you guys accept me and all my future questions and doubts, i will try to help in any thing i can jeje
here i show you some photos of my machines, hope you enjoy
This is the mini-mill, i have a very hard time trying to tram the damn thing, in the Y axis (not the tilting column axis) got some out-tram that i still trying to fix, besides that, all the rest work well, i got some problem with some ball bearing heat but i have change the bottom bearing and seems to be fixed, I'm thinking in build some flood colant system and put a back plate for the column flex... and made a decent bench for the mill.
got a computer fan in the top of the motor for cooling, with a improvised mount
this is my lathe, very big, I can not it put inside the house, my parents do not want that thing inside, so this out, slowly gaining metal oxide...
and this is so far my proyects, the university don´t let me much time to work, at this time i´m build a QCTP, I only got finished one of four tool holders, much work to be done
the other is a slitting saw arbor.
well, thats all for now, I hope to got more proyects to show you soon
que esten bien!
Saludos desde Chile!
First I apologise for my poor english, i can read with no problmes, but redact is a little more complicated to me..
well, a little of me, Im a electrical engineer student here in chile, I begin making guitar effects and valve amps for fun and for won a little money, but with time i start to get interested in metalworking and model making, searching info in the net i found this forum, and when saw the photos of your workshops and models, especially the images in the work in progress forum, well, i decided to get full in metalworking and engine models.
so i started to save money for over a year and bought a used lathe for a good price (+/- $1600 dolars) a 13"x 40" gear-head floor lathe in good condition and get some basic tooling..
six month later i borrow money and buy a Einhell mini-mill (is identical to the sieg x2 with some minor details, i believe that the table is just a little bit longer that the sieg), not even working on the mill, only just playing with "the new toy" i broke the inner gear jaja, so i made mi own belt-drive convertion (but i had to import the belt, was impossible to find any belt that is not a car belt here in chile..), after that i made the air spring mod with a car door air spring and worked very well.
again had to wait until get some money to buy some basic tooling from grizzly, here in chile the only items yo can find of metalworkin are large and amazing expensives, here a regular hss 1/2" end mill cost like $20 dolars!!! in the grizzly catalog the same cost only $4.95..
here is impossible to find any tooling smaller that 6", so for my mini-mill the only posibility is to buy from Grizzly o LMS, and pay expensives shipping and taxation. :'(
now im planing to get a screwless milling vise and some parallels..
after that I'm going to make a rotary table, a tilt table and the rest of the necesary tooling items i need to start to build engine models
like im a student i have very little money, has been very hard to get all this very expensives tools and machines, but soon with te arrival my new milling vise and stuff i hope to get full start on engine models, and i will gonna need a lot of help from you guys jeje
this is a great forum!! i read almost every day especially the machine modifications, tools and work in progress sub-forums
im a beginer in this, and i hope you guys accept me and all my future questions and doubts, i will try to help in any thing i can jeje
here i show you some photos of my machines, hope you enjoy
This is the mini-mill, i have a very hard time trying to tram the damn thing, in the Y axis (not the tilting column axis) got some out-tram that i still trying to fix, besides that, all the rest work well, i got some problem with some ball bearing heat but i have change the bottom bearing and seems to be fixed, I'm thinking in build some flood colant system and put a back plate for the column flex... and made a decent bench for the mill.
got a computer fan in the top of the motor for cooling, with a improvised mount
this is my lathe, very big, I can not it put inside the house, my parents do not want that thing inside, so this out, slowly gaining metal oxide...
and this is so far my proyects, the university don´t let me much time to work, at this time i´m build a QCTP, I only got finished one of four tool holders, much work to be done
the other is a slitting saw arbor.
well, thats all for now, I hope to got more proyects to show you soon
que esten bien!
Saludos desde Chile!
