What Mill Tooling is Needed?

[wm460]

The budget is going to be difficult but hopefully $800 or so
I have a DRO on my lathe so to me that is a necessary item but will have to wait.
I have some things like angle plate, end mills etc I bought when I tried to make an milling attachment for my lathe.

 

[lensman57]

The budget is going to be difficult but hopefully $800 or so
I have a DRO on my lathe so to me that is a necessary item but will have to wait.
I have some things like angle plate, end mills etc I bought when I tried to make an milling attachment for my lathe.

Hi mark,

That is about £600.00 give or take a few buck or quid. That is enough for a new but bare bone Super X2 mill with Dc motor and belt drive over here in the UK. You either need to up the budget or have to look at the used market, that much money should get you a good deal. As for tooling my only suggestion is that if possible find a mill with the same sort of tooling as your lathe, you can save a lot of money by not duplicating collets, collet chucks, arbours, boring head, etc.

Regards,

A.G

 

[wm460]

Hi A.G,

I should have been a bit more specific about the budget, the $800 is for the tooling, a Super X3 mill here is aprox $2200

 

[rodw]

Mark, I finally got my SX3 (and a new AL320G lathe) into the shed today and before I got home from dropping off the engine hoist I hired, we had a blackout at about 1:00. It is 9:00pm and we still have no power. Anyway, got the gennie running and wireless Internet so my wife is watching TV and I am on the net using my iPad!

My Honda eu20i runs the Seig SX3 but won't start the lathe motor!

I really did not use the mill on my 3-in-1 much and am still accumulating mill tooling but I think you need to get:

a clamping set with M10 threads
A set of ER 32 collets and MT3 chuck with M12 drawbar thread (and a way of storing them where they are accessible) Ystool or CTC
A set of end mills. I got mine from Grays on line and they sent me imperial, not the metric I ordered so I have a small metric set as well.
A set of parallels. Mine are from Ozmetoolstore on eBay
A milling vice. I have a 4" Vertex from H&F and it is a good size for the Seig
A face mill ( still to get)
A boring head (still to get)
A slitting saw arbour and blades (still to get)
A set of angle blocks (still to get)
Set of reamers, don't get adjustable ones. Mine are from Harry in the UK
Edge finder
A keyless chuck
And you have to get a plunge dial indicator with 10mm travel and magnetic stand. Don't get the cheap kit, spend a bit more or you will buy it again. I recently spent $70 on one (dial only) and it leaves my cheap one for dead! . You also need to get one of the lever types with 1 mm travel which I got from ystool

eBay is your friend, Ystool, Harry in the UK, osmetoolstore, and my recent one is ctc tools web site.

The other things on my wish list are:
transfer punches McJing tools in Australia.
Transfer screws, little machine shop US.

If you buy wisely, you should be pretty well set up for $800 I think. Get the basics, maintain a wish list and tick items off the list as you find them for a good price.

 

[Omnimill]

Make your own angle plates as you need them Rod, I do.

https://sites.google.com/site/lagadoacademy/machining---lathes-mills-etc/angle-plate

I'd use steel though.