Milling machine help

[John Hill]

The manual says it has a MT3 taper and mentions undoing the drawbar in the instructions.

http://www.topmaq.co.nz/images/item_manuals/MEMI1200-MAN1.pdf

That could be worth looking at!

John

[Nicolas]

The manual says it has a MT3 taper and mentions undoing the drawbar in the instructions.

http://www.topmaq.co.nz/images/item_manuals/MEMI1200-MAN1.pdf

That could be worth looking at!

John

I have used one very similar to that one and wasn't really impressed. It's fine for rougher work but not really ideal for precision. Lots of runout etc. I think I would take the SX1 over that

[Nicolas]

The Sherline lathe I have has a brass bed!  It is one of the early ones made in Australia.

When did you buy yours? was there a Sherline dealer back then in New Zealand or did you have to import it?

[Nicolas]

Ally doesn't seem to be the right stuff for making a milling table.  Mass and internal damping are your friends when machining, ally doesn't really have those properties.

Thanks for the reply Rod

It must be good because I have never heard any complaints about vibrations on the sherline and Taig mills

Nicolas

[Ian S C]

Nicolas,  I had a suspicion about the quality of the vertical mill after looking at the mini lathe.
 Been looking around the web, this site might be worth looking at,
www.sieg-machines.co.nz 
                                                 Ian S C                                   

[Arbalest]

Iron would have to be cast then machined.  The ally table could be made from bar stock or even bought as an extrusion.  Ally doesn't seem to be the right stuff for making a milling table.  Mass and internal damping are your friends when machining, ally doesn't really have those properties.

Rod

Yes, quite right. 99% of machine tools are made from cast iron and steel for it's strength, rigidity and damping. Extruded Aluminium Alloy is just cheaper to produce.

[ttrikalin]

Iron would have to be cast then machined.  The ally table could be made from bar stock or even bought as an extrusion.  Ally doesn't seem to be the right stuff for making a milling table.  Mass and internal damping are your friends when machining, ally doesn't really have those properties.

Yes, quite right. 99% of machine tools are made from cast iron and steel for it's strength, rigidity and damping. Extruded Aluminium Alloy is just cheaper to produce.

You are both correct -- however, the issue is that the taig and sherline machines are not meant to take hogging cuts. I own a Sherline mill and two shoreline lathes (one is a brass bed!) and have produced really nice stuff, within half a thou of tolerance, and excellent finish.

Indeed, were the machines out of cast iron rather than aluminum they would be able to take somewhat bigger cuts.

However the depth of the cut is not what I care about; I do not do production work; most (of my) machining time costs have to do with design and setup, and not cutting per se. So I do not mind taking a few more and lighter cuts, and this does not result in appreciable delays compared to a stiffer machine of the same envelop. 

What *I* care about is the parallelness of the table to ways, the squareness of the axis, and the flatness and mating of the sliding and bearing surfaces of the machine, and so on.  The static geometry, and its performance in tests with light cuts. 

The bearing and sliding surfaces are a tad crude on the Sherline and Taig machines, which are precision milled, but not precision ground or hand-scraped (only the lathe ways/mill Z axis ways are ground). However, they are good for most work, including for some micro-machining. For example, my well used CNC Sherline mill table has parallel dovetails within 0.0005" over its length (i set up a replacement gib and leadscrew last night and measured with my dovetail measuring gizmo). This is pretty good for a milled table produced on the cheap; that has been run tight quite a bit on an aluminum saddle; and is itself made of aluminium (well a stronger version that the 6061, but aluminium nevertheless) 

The Sherline and Taig are much better in that respect (in my humble opinion and in my limited experience with HF versions of Sieg minilathes) than many Sieg and so on machines. The latter are milled crudely (you can see the ridge of the face mill tracks being very prominent), are often not parallel. Some surfaces appear as if they were machined on a sand belt...

So, you get what you pay for. And perhaps different people value different things in a machine. I learned to value the items above.

just my 2 cents.

tom in MA

[Arbalest]

Whilst I may be able to tolerate small cuts on CNC mill like your Sherline Tom, where the machine is effectively doing all the donkey work (once it's set up) I'd find it a whole lot more frustrating on a manual milling machine. Depending on the material I regularly take cuts several mm deep on my VMC and still sometimes wish I could take more. I've never checked the accuracy of my mill, only the parts produced on it and the only time they aren't up to spec is down to operator error! 

I suppose it's horses for courses, if you only want to make small stuff in relatively soft materials I guess a small lightweight machine is fine. Having said that most of the cheaper machines where I used to work that had extruded Aluminium work tables (bandsaw, router table, etc) were a lot noisier in operation than the older machines with cast iron tables.

I procrastinated for a long time before buying my milling machine and very nearly bought an X3, the only reason I bought a VMC in the end was because I thought I'd prefer a knee mill (because that's all I'd ever used before) and I thought the X3 was far too light weight! Luckily for me I've never regretted my purchase, I just once in a while wish it was a bit bigger but I soon get over it!  Perhaps folks say it too often, but you can make small stuff on a big machine but you can't make big stuff on a small one. Just a clever way I know of saying make sure you buy big enough! Only the OP can decide that one. 

[John Hill]

Nicolas,  my brass Sherline lathe came from TradeMe  and I have another brass Sherline bed from the same source but I have not headstock for it.  Maybe I will make one!

[Nicolas]

Nicolas,  my brass Sherline lathe came from TradeMe  and I have another brass Sherline bed from the same source but I have not headstock for it.  Maybe I will make one!

Did you see the one on TradeMe a few weeks ago, I think that might have been a brass bed

[Nicolas]

Whilst I may be able to tolerate small cuts on CNC mill like your Sherline Tom, where the machine is effectively doing all the donkey work (once it's set up) I'd find it a whole lot more frustrating on a manual milling machine. Depending on the material I regularly take cuts several mm deep on my VMC and still sometimes wish I could take more. I've never checked the accuracy of my mill, only the parts produced on it and the only time they aren't up to spec is down to operator error! 

I suppose it's horses for courses, if you only want to make small stuff in relatively soft materials I guess a small lightweight machine is fine. Having said that most of the cheaper machines where I used to work that had extruded Aluminium work tables (bandsaw, router table, etc) were a lot noisier in operation than the older machines with cast iron tables.

I procrastinated for a long time before buying my milling machine and very nearly bought an X3, the only reason I bought a VMC in the end was because I thought I'd prefer a knee mill (because that's all I'd ever used before) and I thought the X3 was far too light weight! Luckily for me I've never regretted my purchase, I just once in a while wish it was a bit bigger but I soon get over it!  Perhaps folks say it too often, but you can make small stuff on a big machine but you can't make big stuff on a small one. Just a clever way I know of saying make sure you buy big enough! Only the OP can decide that one. 

Thanks for the reply really appreciate your iput

I don't mind taking smaller cuts, but that of course can change.....

I had a look on Dean Williams site and he took a .175" (3.175mm) cut in aluminium without a problem using the Taig (that it using one of those roughing cutters). I plan on 99% brass and aluminum work, that's why I'm thinking the Taig or sherline would be good for me.

I wish I could actually see the Sherline, Taig and X3 in the flesh before buying one.

Thanks again

Nicolas

[Nicolas]

What *I* care about is the parallelness of the table to ways, the squareness of the axis, and the flatness and mating of the sliding and bearing surfaces of the machine, and so on.  The static geometry, and its performance in tests with light cuts. 

Thanks for the reply, Tom

I am the same. For me, precision is much more important than the depth of cut that I can take (which really isn't too bad on the Taig and Sherline mills)

That is why I have stayed away from the X3. I have seen and used an X2 and I just can't quite imagine that the X3 is so much better. Yes, the design is better but when you get into the details it is still a bit rough (that is what I have seen from photos)

Also not forgetting that the X3 isn't exactly cheap anymore.......

Nicolas

[mklotz]

I plan on 99% brass and aluminum work, that's why I'm thinking the Taig or sherline would be good for me.

Keep in mind that, in many cases, the project will dictate the choice of materials.  For example, a brass crankshaft is highly unlikely, aluminum is out of the question.