Milling collet/tooling question

[David Schott]

Hello,
I am finally in the last stages before getting my mill and I had a few remaining questions:

-Collets. I will have an R8 spindle. Should I just get a set of them as many places offer?

-Starting tooling: What standard tooling should I get? I was thinking a set of endmills, a fly cutter (for nail nicks)....what else? I dont have anyplace I can shop in person so i'd prefer to just get a good assortment of stuff to begin with.

I will mainly be starting with simple tasks like slotting guards, recessing liners, cutting nail nicks and creating integral liners....

I will be getting a variant of the Sieg X3 mill...still need to figure out how the heck to get it to my house and up onto my bench

 

[SBuzek]

A set of collets,a set of parallels,a good vise,a good dialtest indicator,and you can't have too many endmlls.
Stan

 

[OkefenokeeKnives]

Hi
Msc has a pretty good selection of what you are looking .Try to shop the sale fliers, to get the stuff you need you will save a ton of money. For endmills try the m42 steel it holds up really well, dont forget some tapping fluid and water soluable coolant to keep your cutter cool.
Paul

 

[sunshadow]

I have found out the hard way that chinese made endmills are a waste of money. Niagara and Brubaker are good and cut well. Starrett and Browne and Sharpe micrometers and dial calipers are worth the money, get a Starrett combination square with the centering attachment and angle attachment. Get a good milling vise and a clamping kit, Dychem blue layout fluid is a must too! Oh yes, Starrett automatic centerpunch, scribers, and dividers

-Page

 

[Dan Pierson]

After using a fly cutter for a while, mostly to flatten/clean up knife scales, I listened to some people here and got: First, a small face mill with replaceable carbide inserts. Second, and most used, a 1 1/2" flat bottom carbide router blade for cleaning up the scales. Surprise A tool made for cutting wood actually does a better job on wood than one made for cutting metal. This is what I use for cleaning up my orders from WSSI, etc.