good mini mill?

[dat2zip]

Well, I can't take it anymore. Thinking of getting a mini mill.

The Homier for $399.00 looks good. I don't see any problems offhand with that model.

Does the base unit come with any collets or does it just come with the chuck?

What else do I need to get started?

I think I need:

Clamp kit
a milling vice
parallels
some end mills

I'm looking at the starter kit from LMS.

Anything else?

What type of vice?

Thanks in advance,

Wayne

 

[XtremePyro]

Dat,
I have the Homier mini-mill. It works pretty good. Better than I had thought. It dosnt come with any collets, but does come with the chuck, drawbar, and all the wrenches needed to adjust it. The clamping kit and milling vice are a must. You have to get rather creative when trying to figure out how to hold flashlight parts. Parallels are very handy in many ways. Theres nothing worse than working hard on a flashlight body
only to end up milling flats on it that are tapered( not what i wanted). End mills, well you gotta have some, otherwise you just have a very nice drill press(which is very handy sometimes). There are many different types of end mills, single end, double end, 2,3,or 4 flute center cutting,non center cutting, roughing, etc...
Basically it depends on the milling operation at hand what mill to use. For reference look at any of the large tool sellers websites, like Enco or wholesale tools, they tell you what the various kinds are used for.

Basically the Homier will handle just about anything you want to do regarding flashlights(unless your making something really really big) and just about any other small to mid sized milling job you have.

Hope this helps some.

Tim M.

 

[dat2zip]

Great, I'm ready to move forward.

That brings me to the question on end mills.

I have seen the catalogs. Can someone shed some light on two flute, 4 flute, and others. Which one do I use and why?

I'm sure they are each work best on certain operations vs others, but, I haven't the foggiest clue what that might be.

Thanks,

Wayne

 

[MoonRise]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

In general, the more flutes there are, the finer the finish and the slower the feed rate, all else being equal (and all else is rarely equal /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ). For hobby use in aluminum, there wouldn't be much difference. Production shops have different agendas. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gif

Whatever you buy, buy good stuff. It always costs less than cheaper stuff in the long run. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

End mills are made to cut with the end (hence the name /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ). If you need to do a plunge cut, then you'll need center cutting end mills. If you don't need the plunge capability, then non-center cutting end mills will work better (they have a chip relief in the center of the tool tip). In the smaller sizes for hobbyists, most may be center cutting only. Don't sweat it.

 

[unnerv]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

Hey Wayne, I am no expert with the mill, as I have only made three cuts with it so far, but if you ever have a project that you wanna try, or just wanna get more familiar with the capabilities you are more than welcome to come use mine. So far, I have all the clamping kit, some 2 and 4 flute mills, a vice, and a 1/4" ball end mill for teardrops. I still need to get a rotary table, but I think I have enough to do the basics.

 

[unnerv]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

Oh just one note about the homier, I had originally planned to get that one too because of the price, but because it is an oversized item, it came out to about the same price as buying it locally from harborfreight for the $499 price. I ended up catching it on sale from the newark store, for $400 and really came out ahead. I think the shipping was close to $150 from homier.

 

[alanz]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

I wound up getting a good buy (minor cosmetic issue due to shipping) on my MicroMark Mini Mill. It cost me $399 instead of the regular $520. It's worth calling MicroMark, as they get these every once in a while.

Here's some photos of mine, with a ruler showing dimensions: Mini Mill web page

 

[unnerv]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

The only thing that turned me off from getting the MicroMark mini mill was that it used MT collets instead of the more standard R8. The MT collets are a little harder to find, and more expensive.

 

[alanz]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

Ah, but the MT collets for the mill also fit my MicroMark lathe <s>

 

[unnerv]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

Very true, I think all the minilathes are MT so that is definately a plus.

 

[DSpeck]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

LMS has conversion kits, so if you want to go from the MT3 to the R8 spindle, you can do that. I have the Homier Minimill, which is the R8 version. The problem with it is that it uses 1/16" pitch screws, rather than 1/20 pitch screws. That means one turn of the X or Y handles moves the table .0625", not .050" as the Micromark ones do. It's pain in the tuchas. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Another excellent minimill to look at is the Taig. I had a chance to see and play a bit on one at the Canadian Home Workshop Show a couple of weeks ago, and find it is excellent. The Z travel beats the Sieg mills all hollow (that's the Homier, Grizzly, and Micromark mills), and the X and Y travels are much smoother. If I'd had the money at the time, I'd have gone for the Taig...

Doug.

 

[dat2zip]

Re: # of flutes on end mills

Just ordered the micromark 82573.

The compelling reasons were two. One the dials are 20/inch or 0.050 per turn. Much nicer than 1/16" per turn. Even tho the 1/16" per turn ticks are 0.001 I decided that all my computations and drawings show decimal based numbers. So 50 thous is easier to count off than a fractional based system.

Second. MT3. The HF takes MT3. This will reduce the number of accessories I need to stock.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Lastly, I'm in a hurry. I have a zillion things I need to make and the sooner I get it the sooner I start making fixtures and tooling. Something that is sorely needed to speed up the assemby of the modules.