Mini mill and tooling 
Mini mill and tooling
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From: Rockville, MD
I'm going to have to agree here. You've only got a 1" face mill capacity and I don't think there's enough X or Y travel to do a set of heads. With some work and tweaking the machine can be pretty accurate, but don't expect too much out of the box. I've got a Shoptask and an X1, so I've got some experience with the Chinese stuff. So far I've spent more time adjusting and tweaking than making chips, but I think that's just as much fun! Here's a couple pics of my set-up.
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From: Rockville, MD
I'm going to have to agree here. You've only got a 1" face mill capacity and I don't think there's enough X or Y travel to do a set of heads. With some work and tweaking the machine can be pretty accurate, but don't expect too much out of the box. I've got a Shoptask and an X1, so I've got some experience with the Chinese stuff. So far I've spent more time adjusting and tweaking than making chips, but I think that's just as much fun! Here's a couple pics of my set-up.
ill try it on a head i dont need first and ill go from there. dont to do anything more than clean up the deck.
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FWIW, I have seen heads done on a surface grinder...
Actually, if you're just looking to clean up the surface finish of the heads you can spread some lapping compound onto a surface plate and work the head's deck surface around on it for an hour or so and that'll clean it up pretty nice. If you're real careful you can do it on a piece of glass as well. Of course, the best finish will come from the surface grinder, but the smoothest finish is not always the best for gasket sealing. If you contact your gasket manufacturer they can tell you which surface finish is best. You can use a surface finish comparator or an electronic surface finish gage to measure the finish. The comparator is fairly cheap, but the electronic gage is into the $1000 plus range.
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in stock form, yes. in stock form it has too much vibration in the head stock and too much deflection. ill try and post up the base build im going to do and ill get some junk heads off here or ebay or something and do a before and after. if the machine proves me wrong then so be it, but i want to try it anyways.
in stock form, yes. in stock form it has too much vibration in the head stock and too much deflection. ill try and post up the base build im going to do and ill get some junk heads off here or ebay or something and do a before and after. if the machine proves me wrong then so be it, but i want to try it anyways.
Tweaking and modding these machines is a hobby unto itself, so I'm certainly all for modding away. I'm also all for trying to cut every piece of metal you can find in the garage just to see what the machine will do, but to have expectations that some of this stuff might actually come out nice is a little far fetched. The machine can do nice work, but to ask it to go far beyond its capacity is just setting yourself up for disappointment.
Your biggest problem is going to be the lack of XY travel, even more so than chatter and vibration. In stock form the mill only has 8.7" of X travel and 3.9" of Y travel. Even with the LMS expanded base you're only going to have 11.8" X and 5.1" Y travel. The mill is simply not big enough to perform this task in 1 set up and I'm not sure what the column to spindle distance is of this machine, but I'm going to venture to say you may not even be able to reach the center of the head to take a cut at all.
Your biggest problem is going to be the lack of XY travel, even more so than chatter and vibration. In stock form the mill only has 8.7" of X travel and 3.9" of Y travel. Even with the LMS expanded base you're only going to have 11.8" X and 5.1" Y travel. The mill is simply not big enough to perform this task in 1 set up and I'm not sure what the column to spindle distance is of this machine, but I'm going to venture to say you may not even be able to reach the center of the head to take a cut at all.
Last edited by fast01; Jan 7, 2010 at 03:36 PM.
I was poking around the net today and found this machine http://www.grizzly.com/products/Dril...th-Stand/G0704
If you're looking to do bigger work, you might be happier with this. Just a thought. I know you already placed the order and this is a bit more money, but it's a much nicer machine and I think you'll be happier in the long run. Also, the tooling you ordered will work with this machine as well.
If you're looking to do bigger work, you might be happier with this. Just a thought. I know you already placed the order and this is a bit more money, but it's a much nicer machine and I think you'll be happier in the long run. Also, the tooling you ordered will work with this machine as well.
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From: Rockville, MD
I was poking around the net today and found this machine http://www.grizzly.com/products/Dril...th-Stand/G0704
If you're looking to do bigger work, you might be happier with this. Just a thought. I know you already placed the order and this is a bit more money, but it's a much nicer machine and I think you'll be happier in the long run. Also, the tooling you ordered will work with this machine as well.
If you're looking to do bigger work, you might be happier with this. Just a thought. I know you already placed the order and this is a bit more money, but it's a much nicer machine and I think you'll be happier in the long run. Also, the tooling you ordered will work with this machine as well.
Last edited by Wnts2Go10O; Jan 7, 2010 at 09:53 PM.
