Well I have wanted to buy a small harbor freight mill to make flanges but....

First , I hear they are too weak to cut steel flanges(anyone confirm this)

Second, I dont have the money for that right now...

So i am considerring making my own mill. (not an electric one that hooks up to a computer but a manual one)

All i wanna do is make flanges out of steel and small custom parts out of aluminum.
just so i can finish my turbo setup and upgrade it in the future.

now what i want to know is has anyone here done this before and have any advice?
Any recomendations as to what motor to use to power the mill bit?
Thats my only question really cause i can construct the rest myself no problem.

but what electric motor that is powerful enough to cut steel is beyond me right now...

 

does anyone have the harbor freight 400$ mill? can it cut flanges?

 

We made a miniature mill in machining class at the UW, and there is a lot of things that go into it. You might as well buy the cheap HF mill and beef it up. But then again, it is too small to make a head flange.

 

well.. like i said i want a manual mill not a computer controlled mill.

I know the HF mill is small but i just plan on moving the piece as i work on it.

 

I would highly reccomend against trying to make a HF mill cut steel. It's too weak. It may cut, but your precision and quality of cut is going to suck. Not to mention, the table chattering will destroy your tool bits.

Your best bet is a regular bridgeport style manual mill. Look on eBay for a used one. I got my manual mill for $600 4 years ago and it will cut anything I throw on it. It's leaps and bounds better than the entire HF building!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2kjettaguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would highly reccomend against trying to make a HF mill cut steel. It's too weak. It may cut, but your precision and quality of cut is going to suck. Not to mention, the table chattering will destroy your tool bits.

Your best bet is a regular bridgeport style manual mill. Look on eBay for a used one. I got my manual mill for $600 4 years ago and it will cut anything I throw on it. It's leaps and bounds better than the entire HF building! </TD></TR></TABLE>

2kjettaguy,
Would you mind posting up some pics of your mill? I'm very new to mills and am trying to get a handle of what type is capable of milling flanges and small parts, brackets, etc.

I'd like to know what general type and what options I'm looking for incase I see one at an auction around here.

Thanks!
Fred

 

well your going to need a large mill to build a small mill and......

and you can't machine flanges with a small mill so.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2kjettaguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would highly reccomend against trying to make a HF mill cut steel. It's too weak. It may cut, but your precision and quality of cut is going to suck. Not to mention, the table chattering will destroy your tool bits.

Your best bet is a regular bridgeport style manual mill. Look on eBay for a used one. I got my manual mill for $600 4 years ago and it will cut anything I throw on it. It's leaps and bounds better than the entire HF building! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Hey thanks a lot I will defitnatly consider getting one of these... i just need to come up with more money then.... i looked on ebay right now the cheapest one was 2800 but i dont mind spending1-2000 as long as i know it can handle any job i throw at it.... thats awesome to know thanks a lot!

Its not like ill use it a ton. I am not buy a mill to start a business. just to work on my cars and my kit car im building.

 

i'll see if I have any pics on the computer tonight... quick lunch break right now. I need to get all the pics of my shop uploaded.

Anyways, you're in Cali so I would look into this company called Reliable Tool. I've bought tons of stuff from them and had it shipped truck freight.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfg...tools

(search "milling")

For instance, this machine looks like it would be a great one for a starter:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NICE-SUPER...wItem

It's an import, so it will sell for less than a USA machine. It's plenty big, 2HP, X power feed for surfacing, and a DRO (digital read out). a DRO is key to making flanges. You can zero up on the corner of your stock, lay out a bolt pattern, drill it, and it's 100% accurate. You can surface the work to make it flat. You can cut out the outer contour, but you won't be doing any outer circles or arcs with an XY manual mill unless you're very clever. R8 spindle is perfect, you can get any tool you want in R8 for alot less than a more rare collet.

BTW, that Teledyne Gurley DRO looks to be like a couple years newer than mine. They are the best. I broke my X slide and bought a whole new DRO just for kicks. Installed it and tweaked it for weeks. The day I made a bunch of bad parts I trashed it, bought the repair parts for my Gurley DRO and will never look back. A good DRO costs more than $1500.

 

i picked up a used mill similar to the ones sold at ENCO for next to nothing. even new, the table top style is quite cheap and can do much more than the mini stuff at harbor freight.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/IN...LMK32

mine weighs about 600 #'s

watch for a local machine auction (and be prepared to be creative to get the thing home and unloaded). i unloaded mine with my engine hoist.

tom

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tom91ita &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i picked up a used mill similar to the ones sold at ENCO for next to nothing. even new, the table top style is quite cheap and can do much more than the mini stuff at harbor freight.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/IN...LMK32

mine weighs about 600 #'s

watch for a local machine auction (and be prepared to be creative to get the thing home and unloaded). i unloaded mine with my engine hoist.

tom</TD></TR></TABLE>

tom,
Sorry for the newb questions but what is a machine like that capable of? As a beginner I'm trying to find out what these smaller machines can and can't do so I know what I really ought to buy.
I mainly need to make flanges and small parts.

thanks,
Fred