Cheap DRO for the mill

Yeah I am defiantly going to figure out a way to keep the thing in the same position if I ever have to raise and lower it during the same project.
 
john0270 said:
Yeah I am defiantly going to figure out a way to keep the thing in the same position if I ever have to raise and lower it during the same project.
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You can find a few pages online about people who built some kind of rig for that. Sadly with the level of precision needed that's above my skill level. Maybe some dial indicator, not to restrict the movement but to re-zero the column after moving it?

Patrice
 
Yeah thats about as far as I got. I was thinking precision square clamped to the bed, and even just using a set of calipers to measure to the spindle, or other fixed object.
 
I have been thinking about screwing the rack down. That would keep it close and how often do you need to swing the head on the column, If I did I could always loosen up the rack.
 
But how tight is the fit in that slot?? I probably should have gone with the knee mill.... but where does it end lol. The knee mill actually looked somewhat less beefy(the $4100 one) than this one, the way's were allot narrower. I am only going to to basic milling anyway, anything past that I don't have the mental aptitude for it.... or It would take me day's to figure it out.
 
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I could always make a shim setup to tighten the head to rack fit. Then make some kind of reference.
 
John I agree about having to stop somewhere. I made the same decision. And up to now it hasn't been that much trouble. I just need to get some more collets to do the drilling with them instead of the drill chuck. That difference between that chuck and the collet or endmill holder is where the problem lies.

Patrice
 
Patrice Lemée;7928277 said:
John I agree about having to stop somewhere. I made the same decision. And up to now it hasn't been that much trouble. I just need to get some more collets to do the drilling with them instead of the drill chuck. That difference between that chuck and the collet or endmill holder is where the problem lies.

Patrice
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I think I found a solution to your problem. What about a 3 or 4" lathe chuck mounted on a r8 arbor?? Anyone see a problem with this setup? It shouldn't end up much farther from the spindle than the drill chuck, I actualy use something like this in my tail stock on my lathe. Man I just realized I could easy double the purchase price of my mill with just basic tooling.
 
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It would be max .003 anyway, and you could probably true it up easy enough. Your spindle when not locked probably has more movement than that???
 
I was looking on ebay and you should be able to get the unit for around $170 to your door. Depending on what sizes you want to drill I guess Do the collets cover everything from fractional, number and letter? I am not sure how much range they have in each size.
 
A full set of R8 collets will do it for almost any drill bit size.
As for the round column, I have one of those.
A knee mill would be nicer, but this one was free, except for all the tooling.
When moving the head up or down on the column, make note of the readings of the X & Y readouts, the after adjusting the head, use a center-finder to aid in adjusting the table so you are at the original coordinates.
There are a few sites that have some interesting mods for the mill-drills.
I'll have to go search them out again...
 
howiesatwork said:
A full set of R8 collets will do it for almost any drill bit size.
As for the round column, I have one of those.
A knee mill would be nicer, but this one was free, except for all the tooling.
When moving the head up or down on the column, make note of the readings of the X & Y readouts, the after adjusting the head, use a center-finder to aid in adjusting the table so you are at the original coordinates.
There are a few sites that have some interesting mods for the mill-drills.
I'll have to go search them out again...
Click to expand...


Yeah in 99% of the situations that should work. depends how odd shaped the piece is that your working on. So the collects do have some range of motion??

How do you like your mill/drill??? I went for the 650lb version instead of the 430lb.
 
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John I love mine. I did not see the need for the bigger one for what I wanted to do. If I would have went with bigger it would have been the knee mill. And I am glad cause even the the "light" 450lbs one was a pain to move around and get on the bench. :(

Patrice
 
Yeah they were side by side in the show room, I just like how much more beefy this one was(and it was only $125 more). I have to get mine into a basement workshop I am trying to setup in my new to me house. I moved a 1000lb lathe down there so I should be able to move this if I can get it into 2 or 3 pieces.

I am thinking of building a stand that I can make dead level(with a precision level.) Is this worth doing??
 
I was thinking again, To locate the column one could attach a laser gun sight, pointer ect to the head, bounce it off a mirror on your shop wall, and back onto a spot on your mill. If the mirror is strait it should hit the same spot on the mill weather moving it up or down. Accuracy should be close enough(0010-003??") for what one would be doing with one of these.
 
I was going to mention the laser. I have a laser level with a magnetic base on it that I put onto the head. It was reasonably accurate, but returning to a known spot somewhere on the workpiece, or a corner of a vise is more accurate.
I have one of the heavy 600+ lb ones. Sure was fun moving it from the bed of my pickup to a workbench by myself. I ended up putting a floor jack under the tow hitch receiver to match the height of the bench, and to also keep the truck from sagging when I slid the mill back.
 
I installed Igaging scales on my mill. These are inexpensive and can be bought from Grizzly. Here's the 12" version, but they have other lengths as well. The scale can be cut to whatever length you need. Wish I had pics of my setup but let me tell ya, I installed these on X,Y, and Z and they have been a welcome addition. You might get a bad one so if you can check the accuracy of the reader when you get it but mine arrived within spec....which is 0.0015" over 12". I'm not working for NASA so they've been good enough for me. :)
 
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