Milling machine and mag chuck question

[SteelSlaver]

I have made a few folders and want to make more. My shop is pretty full and room for a surface grinder would be tuff. I need to thin up stock and parts at times and I was wondering if a mag chuck would hold parts for light passes of a end mill and what would be the disadvantage of using a mill for thinning stock. I have used it to reduce 1/4" to 1/8" and the like for a bit of material not at hand.

Also
Has any one made an attachment that allows a small mag chuck to be attached to a small cross feed and bolted to a kmg for a mini surface grinder. I have been thinking about making such a device. Jim

 

[Fellhoelter]

Kinda depends on how good the magnet is, how small the cuts are, etc...
I have done it a few times at a place I used to work, and it was pretty sketchy.

I saw some stuff from Mitee-Bite at a trade show this year though that just might be the ticket.
Look up Mitee-Grip at their website.

It's a heat-set resin on a paper or mesh carrier. The mesh, or paper maintains the parallelism of the part, while the resin holds it.
Re-heat, and off comes the part.

 

[jlmetcalf]

I think you'll find that the mag chuck is not going to hold thin pieces well enough on a milling machine. Plus the mill can't really relpace the SG for folder work. It is not very easy to take off .0005" at will on a mill. Also, the SG has no problems with hardened material. Just my $.02

Jim

 

[Bruce Bump]

You can thin stock on a mill with a good vice and proper height paralells. The real advantage of the surface grinder is to make irregular shapes thin and exact. I dont think a magnet will hold the part down solid enough to mill them. Sometimes parts will fly out of a surface grinder if I take too much steel off (more than .001")

forgot to mention the hardness of the steel is very important for milling. Surface grinders work for all hardnesses.