re:Re: Sub miniature milling machine

Steve,

(snips, inserts below)

>Ooh! Wish I'd seen this before I bought the mill/drill XY table.
>Maybe this could have been my Christmas present. $250 is very low, I
>wonder what the quality is like.

Quality is fine, but the size will fool you. It's tiny! The TABLE is
only 6 inches long! You'll probably be glad you got the M/D table,
IMO.

>Ironic, the vertical travel is more than the X or Y travel. 3.75" x
>2.5" is a bit too small for many of the things<s>

On vertical machining centers (big boys) z travel is often equal to,
or more than xy. This is so that the wide variation in tooling length
and part thickness can be accomodated.

One important distinction to remember is the difference
between 'travel' and USEFUL travel. Especially you "cute pcb drill
thinking" people. The USEFUL y travel is less than stated. Although
the TABLE will moved the spec'd amount, the distance you can
cut 'single direction' will be less, because of the position of the
spindle... This headstock has a 2.5" swing! Your pcb/part will be
hitting the column before you're anywhere near the 'full y travel'...

This is something to keep in mind when designing "column supported
spindle" machines. For FULL useful travel, the spindle C/L needs to
at least the 'full Y travel distance' from the column. This is also
why the sherline "spindle riser block" is one of the most useful
accesories when converting a sherline mill to cnc. And why the
bridgeports have 'rams'. When you need the FULL travel, you 'pull
out' the ram (and live with the reduced rigidity).

>However, the spindle speed is pretty low. Not hard to stick a dremel
>on there, though.

The Dremel may tip the whole thing over! :-)

Hope this helps.

Ballendo (who DOES think it's REALLY cute!)