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Help! => Tooling Review => Topic started by: kellswaterri on November 05, 2015, 11:16:42 AM

Title: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: kellswaterri on November 05, 2015, 11:16:42 AM
Hi folks,  My Chester Conquest mill will soon be consigned to the scrap heap,...a more tempermental piece of ......equipment I have yet to see....hopefully I can obtain a decent , well designed manual machine that does not have a mind of its own...this unusual Mill will have to be located in Northern Ireland as I live in North East Antrim......I would appreciate a Heads up from anybody  who knows of such an item......
                                                                 All the best for now,
                                                                             John..(kellswaterri)
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Stuart on November 05, 2015, 01:15:00 PM
John a budget would be nice

new or old ?

i have had good service from the sx3 type
the only real fault was the spindle bearings the bottom one is a motorbike headstock bearing , but i replaced it with a SKF one and the top one as well cost for a replacement would be £15 but a SKF one was £50 , after that its been fine for a good number of years, the other mod was to replace the pully bearing ( there is only one not good for a ball race ) with two that cookout the slop and noise

go for a R8 spindle they eject easier than MT

i may sound negative listing the problems but it matters as much as just saying xyz mill

only cevat its a two plus person lift

Stuart
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Jo on November 05, 2015, 01:25:17 PM
If you had a very very short, strong bench this would be idea  >:D

Jo

P.S. This is not a two person lift  :lolb:
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Alyn Foundry on November 05, 2015, 02:01:27 PM
Hi folks,  My Chester Conquest mill will soon be consigned to the scrap heap,...a more tempermental piece of ......equipment I have yet to see....hopefully I can obtain a decent , well designed manual machine that does not have a mind of its own...this unusual Mill will have to be located in Northern Ireland as I live in North East Antrim......I would appreciate a Heads up from anybody  who knows of such an item......
                                                                 All the best for now,
                                                                             John..(kellswaterri)


Hello John.

I spent a few years working at Chester UK, I assume you are referring to the motor drive? I found the machine itself was pretty robust and more than capable of doing it's job considering it's small size.

As a high speed drilling machine the feel was excellent, in fact I brought one home for my two youngest sons to play with, they were a little too young to handle the Knight back then.

Depending on age the later machines had an upgraded control board and were almost " bulletproof " !!

I might be able to help you, if you can be more specific about your machine.

Kind regards Graham.

Edit. A photo of the inside of the control box would be a great help. ;)
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: smithdoor on November 05, 2015, 03:45:21 PM
Size the mill for your shop or smaller
I have been shop where they put a Bridgeport mill and had no room to work or part the wife car
R8 is good but MT 2 also works great too.

Dave
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: kellswaterri on November 05, 2015, 10:08:05 PM
Hi Folks......thank you for the rapid response to my questions on which mill to look at ......Stuart  I am currently looking at the Amadale range of mills   just need to find out a few things on design of a couple of the machines ...... Thanks for the offer on the Conquest ...it is having its funeral at the local dump...My real bone of contention was the horrific design that Chester used as the FINE feed also the nylon shear gear
All the best for now,
                  John.
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Stuart on November 06, 2015, 07:47:00 AM
John
i have no affiliation to Ark
but do have a look at there strip down pdf files they do let you look beneath the skin

anyway have fun and be safe
I hope you can make the decision that satisfies your wallet and needs

also its worth making a list
1 what i need
2 what i would like
3 will it fit
4 can my wallet fund it
Stuart
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Jo on November 06, 2015, 08:22:51 AM
the Conquest ...it is having its funeral at the local dump...

I hope you will be recycling as much of it as you can into your come in handy store :)

The co-ordinate table might be useful to someone for use under a drill

Jo
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: kellswaterri on November 08, 2015, 02:46:49 PM
Hi JO ...well it is not a Bridgport  It is ......AMAT25L  bench mill   long table with belt drive   crate 700x700x920
weight   165 kilo    from  Amadeal  ...life has just got very interesting!!!May have some adjustments to make as we go along...watch this SPACE.......
                                         John.
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Thor on November 08, 2015, 03:20:14 PM
Congratulations with the AMA25 John. I have an older milling machine that is very similar to yours, except mine has different paintwork and a brushed motor. I guess I should have waited a few years so I could get a brushless version. Mine has served me well though and is still working well.

Thor
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Jo on November 08, 2015, 05:55:20 PM
Hi JO ...well it is not a Bridgport

The picture I posted is not of a Bridgeport, its a lot more solidly built  ;) and as you can see comes with its own very very short bench  :lolb:

Good luck with the new toy I wish we all had a new mill to play with  :mischief:

Jo
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Niels Abildgaard on November 09, 2015, 06:28:21 AM
Hi JO ...well it is not a Bridgport  It is ......AMAT25L  bench mill   long table with belt drive   crate 700x700x920
weight   165 kilo    from  Amadeal  ...life has just got very interesting!!!May have some adjustments to make as we go along...watch this SPACE.......
                                         John.

Is there a spare parts list somewhere on web showing the belt drive?
I have bougth the former version with gears and cannot stand the noise.
3 phase,VFD and belts are comming
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: kellswaterri on November 09, 2015, 06:28:01 PM
Hi Niels,   there is a drawing and parts list +how it is done somewhere on this or another mod ...eng ... site ......I must have a look myself ,will give you a shout if I find it.......John.
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: kellswaterri on November 18, 2015, 09:42:51 PM
Hi Folks...son in law came down to give me a hand ...we wrestled the mill up to position on bench, then started to replace the head and as the law of Murphy one of the bolts managed to find its way down the vertical pillar...B****R  after a lot of fishing about we managed to retrieve the bolt only to find that the bevel gears for the vertical drive to head, would not let the bolt go into the hole wot it came out of    :cussing: :Mad:
Three and half hours later due to a partial strip down of the mill ,she was up and running.....oboy!!this is  a different league to the old one ...I will give it some work to do tomorrow to test it out...
                                                                             cheers................John.
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Admiral_dk on November 19, 2015, 08:14:15 PM
Murphy has a lot on his conscience - 45 Laws, and not one of them with a positive outcome  :censored:

Hope all is well with the tree of you (mill, son in law and you)  :)

Enjoy your new tool  :cartwheel:
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: Allen Smithee on November 19, 2015, 10:53:02 PM
45??

Somewhere I have a lost of Murphy's laws of combat that runs to well over 100 items - my favourites being "A sucking chest wound is nature's way of suggesting you might slow down a bit" and "The deadliest weapon available to your enemy is your own second Lt when he has a map and a compass", and possibly "All firefights take place at night, in the rain at the intersection of four map sheets".

But I also like Murphy's law of Economics: "To economists the real world is invariably a special case", and Murphy's law of Photography:"The best pictures are always lost when someone opens the door of the darkroom and all of the dark leaks out".

AS
Title: Re: A Bench Milling Machine...
Post by: kellswaterri on November 20, 2015, 05:36:33 PM
Murphy has a lot on his conscience - 45 Laws, and not one of them with a positive outcome  :censored: :ROFL: :lolb: :ROFL:

All firefights take place at night, in the rain at the intersection of four map sheets". :ROFL:

Hi folks  ...  i was using the mill on Thursday,  running well had set up the HP cylinder for doing the valve spindle holes bored them 1/8''...( drill reamer) Sort of found its way into my tool kit...then opened to 1/4''they finish at 3/8'' ,If I have read the drawing correctly.
Murphy (bless his heart) is becoming a right little SOD...the lead screw drive is ti ghtening up as the head is nearing the top of vertical axis ...a little further adjustment with a club hammer will  do the trick,
                               cheers,
                                            John.
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