My first custom made piece with the Mill

[mike96]

All things considered I don’t think it turned out to bad... I got the mill back from the machine shop a few weeks; I had to have the ways scraped down a little bit. When I picked up the mill it had been used so much in the middle of the X/Y axis that when you changed directions on the X axis the table would shift almost an 8th of an inch in the Y axis. If you tried to tighten up the slop in the middle to get a decent cut without the table moving all over the place, you couldn’t move it out toward the ends of that axis because it tightened up so much you had to have arms like Arnold to move the table. So basically of the 7”x20” X/Y movement the mill originally came with I could only use about 5”x5” of it... It is now about 1000X better than it was but could still be a little better, it is at least usable. The mill motor had crapped out on me some time ago and I had started doing a DC conversion using a treadmill motor a few months back before I took it to the machine shop, I finally finished the conversion last week. All I have left is to get some good tool holders, and end mills, and a clamp set, and a good Vice, and a fly cutter, and a quick change tool post, and...

I really need to win the lottery


I am getting there slowly with the tools. Obviously I have an OK assortment that can “at the moment” get the job done. Now that I have a better understanding of how to hold things in place while I run the mill I can start making so decent parts. That’s kind of what this whole project was about. Learning the mill, as time goes by the better I will get.

Couple of pics of the mill as it was going back together.

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The custom coil plate I made for the EVO8 coil install

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[delta448]

Very cool! If you don't mind saying, how much did that machine set you back?

 

[mike96]

Very cool! If you don't mind saying, how much did that machine set you back?

You really didn't want to ask that question....

Actually this was one of my few (and I do mean few) in the right place at the right time purchases. The machine cost me a whopping $50 only because the guy I bought it from got it for free from the paint ball shop owner he use to work for when the shop owner upgraded to a bigger one. Then needed to get rid of it so he him self could make room for his "in the right place at the right time" purchase. He ended up with a full size Bridgeport mill and 48" lathe for the cost of shipping. All I can say about that is that divorce can be a bi***.

As it sits with the new motor/speed control and having to have had it taken to the shop for some work I have about $400 in it now, just to make it usable, and I have at least another $600 or so worth of accessories to purchase in order to really be able to take advantage of what it is capable of. And that wont even get close to being able to take full advantage of the machine... the manufacture that sells this one is pretty good all things considered. It is a Chinese made machine but they started back in the early 80s and they are still in business today. A new one with all the bells and whistles cost around $7500. but that includes variable speed motors, Digital read outs, and CNC... I want one...

 

[Arthris]

Very nice. Very nice. You can make it a cnc if you want. The basic is having two motors one for length and one for width that are a high trq low speed but with a built in motor speed sensor and then a logic board to control the motors and know there place. It can be done. Back in HS my shop teacher was working on a small vertical mill that he was converting to a cnc. With some research and some work it can be done. But that is a hell of a find and I myself wish that one day I can get something like that. May not use it much but when you do need it you have it.

 

[Gamble97]

Not bad, but I think you just down graded your ignition. STOCK dsm ignition is good for TONS of power. Way more than the stock evo setup.

 

[mike96]

Very nice. Very nice. You can make it a cnc if you want. The basic is having two motors one for length and one for width that are a high trq low speed but with a built in motor speed sensor and then a logic board to control the motors and know there place. It can be done. Back in HS my shop teacher was working on a small vertical mill that he was converting to a cnc. With some research and some work it can be done. But that is a hell of a find and I myself wish that one day I can get something like that. May not use it much but when you do need it you have it.

There is a kit available and I have looked at piecing a CNC together for. But the machine isn’t quite ready for that yet, and I won’t be ready to drop the $700 plus on the price of the CNC drivers/motor/controller for at least another year. That and if I were to look into CNC I would want to upgrade from the ACME screw setup to ball screw to eliminate as much of the backlash as possible and to make it little easier for the motors to move the table. The ball screw upgrade for the old machine is a $grand$..

Not bad, but I think you just down graded your ignition. STOCK dsm ignition is good for TONS of power. Way more than the stock evo setup.

Only when the coils are working corectly... Actually I couldn’t beat the price I paid for the coils (basically was paid to take them) and I had one of my stock coils crap out on me about 2 months ago... That combined with the fact I am running an EVO8 ECU in the car it kind of made since... The EVO8 coils may be a downgrade in power but I did notice a slight increase in how smooth the engine runs. I had a slight hesitation at idle with the DSM coils (about once every 10-20 seconds), now with the EVO coils the hesitation is there it just doesn’t happen as often (maybe once every 1-1.5 minutes).