Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Expectations, bridgeport

Hi John:
Did you know that tooling for a big mill costs a LOT!!?
You can kill your budget very quickly at $600.00 for a vise, $500.00 for a
collet chuck and collets, $500.00 for a turntable etc, etc, etc.
You also need to consider the cost of power, and coolant, and chip disposal.
Getting into a big machine can be frightfully expensive, and it is usually
the hidden costs that really hurt.
Next problem; you've now got this big machine that can hold a 500 lb block
on the table.
Have you considered how you are even going to hump that block up onto the
machine???
How do you propose to chop off your lump of steel to roughly the right size?
Now you need a saw!
Any machine shop owner can tell you, that the machine is the least of what
you will have to face in order to work with any efficiency at all.
For a guy starting out, I would recommend a mill about the size that Myford
sells.
It's big enough that you can actually make something more than a teeny model
on it, but it's small enough that you can still pack it in a spare corner
and plug it into the wall socket.
I owned one of these mills ( a Taiwanese model with a 7" x 30" table) for
many years, and it did a lot of excellent work for me.
I ended up moving up to CNC when I started doing this full-time for a living
again; I'm having to spend more these days for coolant management than I did
for the whole kneemill.
My recommendation to you is not to saddle yourself with a giant klunker for
the sake of one possible job that you might do at some indeterminate time in
the future; you'll get a lot more fun out of having a more compact,
comprehensive setup than you will out of one giant boatanchor.
Get a nice lathe and a nice mill and start playing.
When you know what kind of stuff you like to make, you can always trade up.
Cheers

Marcus
-----Original Message-----
From: info.host@... <info.host@...>
To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2001 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Expectations, bridgeport

>> Out of curiosity, what do you plan to use the mill for?
>
>I looked at Sherlines for a long time and it'd be great because it'd use up
>no room at all, I could have it in my bedroom where the spare computer is.
>But then I started to find things I didn't like about it like the good but
>not brilliant accuracy of the mills and the transverse sizes. They're cheap
>but once you add on all the extra bits and then the CNC control it's not
>that cheap anymore, not considering what else you can get. I have no

serious

>demand for a mill at all right now, I'd just like to learn how to use one
>and have the ability to do what can be done on one. I doubt there are many
>on here who actually _need_ a mill, they simply have one because it's

useful

>for what they enjoy doing and interesting to use. I have lots of ideas of
>what I'd like to make on one, like a small steam engine perhaps or a model
>turbine. A Sherline could do that easily but I for a few hundred I can also
>have a really heavy mill that would take whatever I could think of and

more.

>The most immediate thing that springs to mind is building the Gingerly

lathe

>and cheating with the mill. I can envisage a time when I may want to

produce

>a number of copies of things all at once so the large transverse on a knee
>mill would be very useful, I wouldn't have to keep putting bits under it. I
>could set it and leave it for a few hours. We have an art gallery nearby
>that has a sort of crafts shop joining onto it that attracts just the kind
>of people who might be interested in little working steam engines, making

up

>a number all at once might be a way to earn some money to pay for other
>things. Besides, I've touched a knee mill now so I must own one some day.
>However much I look at the desktop things and people saying they can do
>whatever you want them to I still feel a bigger mill would have a lot more
>ability. I've lost nothing so long as I've learnt, as this group has taught
>me.
>
>John
>
>
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