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I got a milling machine :)

ItsNemo

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Nothing too fancy, a Craftex CX601 bench top mill but it sure is nice to now have the two main machine shop tools (lathe and mill) in the garage!

It was bought used but is in pretty good shape and is a clone of the Grizzly G0704, Precision Matthews PM-30MV, or King KC-20 mills. All of them have slight variations on each other (the PM probably being the nicest) but this one is pretty close.

Anyway, here's the entire process I went through to get it home and setup and cutting:
 
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cannuck

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That seems like a very nice and is a VERY clean machine. Nice find. I have one much smaller than that and one a little larger. I had done dozens of little aluminum jobs on my tiny VFD mill but knew enough not to ask it to do anything serious. Once I got the dovetail column mill set up and running, though, I could only think of all the work I have done over the years in drill press and with a milling vise I made for my 14 x 40 lathe and how much easier and better it would have been if I had just bought the darn thing 30 years ago.
 
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ItsNemo

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That seems like a very nice and is a VERY clean machine. Nice find. I have one much smaller than that and one a little larger. I had done dozens of little aluminum jobs on my tiny VFD mill but knew enough not to ask it to do anything serious. Once I got the dovetail column mill set up and running, though, I could only think of all the work I have done over the years in drill press and with a milling vise I made for my 14 x 40 lathe and how much easier and better it would have been if I had just bought the darn thing 30 years ago.

For sure, I'm excited for even just accurate hole drilling on this thing. It's not a big machine but it is in decent shape and should serve the purpose, I just wish I had a bigger garage so I could have got a knee mill instead.
 

cannuck

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For sure, I'm excited for even just accurate hole drilling on this thing. It's not a big machine but it is in decent shape and should serve the purpose, I just wish I had a bigger garage so I could have got a knee mill instead.
About 5 years ago, my wife bought me a new Milwaukee mag drill (my old one was an ancient B&D Industrial 3/4" machine weighing in near 100 lbs!) so kids bought me a range of annular cutters up to 2". I had bought an MT3 quill mandrel for them to use in my drill press, and it sort of worked not bad. When I got the mill, of course I got the matching mandrel and HOLY SHEEP **** BATMAN - does this tooling EVER work nicely in the mill! Quite a thrill to poke a 2" hole in a piece of 1" steel with a dead clean on center bore in really short time
 
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ItsNemo

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About 5 years ago, my wife bought me a new Milwaukee mag drill (my old one was an ancient B&D Industrial 3/4" machine weighing in near 100 lbs!) so kids bought me a range of annular cutters up to 2". I had bought an MT3 quill mandrel for them to use in my drill press, and it sort of worked not bad. When I got the mill, of course I got the matching mandrel and HOLY SHEEP **** BATMAN - does this tooling EVER work nicely in the mill! Quite a thrill to poke a 2" hole in a piece of 1" steel with a dead clean on center bore in really short time

I definitely need to try that at some point :)

Even just going from a hand drill to a drill press was eye opening when you could make proper curls in steel...the mill should be even better.
 

RoninB4

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Congratulations on your purchase. As a suggestion, check the spindle drive under that black plate (easy to do) for a plastic intermediate gear. The plastic gears sometimes have a disturbing tendency to explode for no real reason. The motors on some of the makes in that size machine also burn up under normal use well before they should. You may also want to check the tram-to-table before committing to a critical operation. Most of those can be adjusted for tram in the "x" axis but not in the "y" axis (nod). YMMV.
 
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ItsNemo

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Congratulations on your purchase. As a suggestion, check the spindle drive under that black plate (easy to do) for a plastic intermediate gear. The plastic gears sometimes have a disturbing tendency to explode for no real reason. The motors on some of the makes in that size machine also burn up under normal use well before they should. You may also want to check the tram-to-table before committing to a critical operation. Most of those can be adjusted for tram in the "x" axis but not in the "y" axis (nod). YMMV.

Yup, this has plastic gears...yup, they might blow at some point, at which time I'll replace them.

Yup, motor might burn up....yup, will replace it when it goes.

Can tram x yes, but y you have to shim the column.
 

BTL-A4

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The plastic gears sometimes have a disturbing tendency to explode for no real reason.
It is my understanding that that gear is meant to explode so the rest of the machine does not if the bit gets hung up/stops. In other words, it's a fail-safe. If you replace it with metal, it will not break if the mill gets hung up and might damage the mill.
 
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oldmachinenut

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It is my understanding that that gear is meant to explode so the rest of the machine does not if the bit gets hung up/stops. In other words, it's a fail-safe. If you replace it with metal, it will not break if the mill gets hung up and might damage the mill.
The one gear in the Servo 140 power feed on my Bridgeport is plastic(nylon) for just this reason.
 
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ItsNemo

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It is my understanding that that gear is meant to explode so the rest of the machine does not if the bit gets hung up/stops. In other words, it's a fail-safe. If you replace it with metal, it will not break if the mill gets hung up and might damage the mill.
This is what I've heard...consider it a fuseable link.
 

RoninB4

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It is my understanding that that gear is meant to explode so the rest of the machine does not if the bit gets hung up/stops. In other words, it's a fail-safe. If you replace it with metal, it will not break if the mill gets hung up and might damage the mill.
Plastic gears in an axis feed are one thing, avoiding damage to a feed screw/nut is a good thing. The plastic gear in the spindle drive for some of Chi-Wan mills wasn't a good choice. Not much is going to happen to a decently made motor if it momentarily stalls, happens a lot with real milling machines (CNC and manual). Worst thing that will happen is the cutter will break. No it's not good for this to happen but when cutting force exceeds the integrity of the cutter (material hardness, dull cutter, too big a cut, etc.) this happens a lot when pushing the envelope. I shattered the original plastic gear on my Chi-Wan mill, ordered two more, and promptly shattered a new replacement on a .020 step over, 1/2 DOC, with a fairly sharp end mill in aluminum. I was trying to be careful, had the locks on drag, and it still shattered. Using a plastic gear isn't a horrible design choice, it was a horrible gear because of poor material integrity. I ordered a steel gear and never had any more trouble. You can think whatever you want, that's your choice and your Chi-Wan machinery.

I've been a toolmaker for 30-40 years, built/rebuilt a lot of industrial grade machinery and I know when a component isn't worth a sh*t. If the gear compound has been changed, I'm glad they did. All I stated was my personal experience and the experiences that many many others had 15 years ago. Whatever you "heard" does not fit the parameters of a fuseable link if it shatters under light duty use that's well within what the machine should be capable of. Draw your own conclusions, my suggestions are based on experience not hearsay. Ganbatte.
 
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cannuck

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Using a plastic gear isn't a horrible design choice, it was a horrible gear because of poor material integrity. I ordered a steel gear and never had any more trouble. You can think whatever you want, that's your choice and your Chi-Wan machinery.
Ganbatte.
Where are you getting your parts for generic Taiwanese or Chinese mills? They have different brand names but seem to all share castings and components from same sources. Need a hand wheel or two.
 

RoninB4

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Where are you getting your parts for generic Taiwanese or Chinese mills? They have different brand names but seem to all share castings and components from same sources. Need a hand wheel or two.
Don't recall my sources because I re-purchased industrial grade machinery about 10 years ago and only use the Chi-Wan machinery for quick secondary operations so it isn't used very often or for very long. For any components that need replacement or upgrading (motors) I try to source from industrial suppliers like Carr-Lane that are known for supplying components in building machine tools. When I contracted to Denso they exclusively used Misumi for everything, the catalog is extensive and the products were very decent quality. For almost everything I try to read about the product materials used to determine if it's just cheap **** or not.

Anything not readily available I either make the whole thing or modify an existing one. It's important to understand what you're asking for, like a gear for example, so you can specify exactly what you want from a variety of suppliers. Very little is made that someone else isn't already making. A simple spur gear hasn't been re-invented for machine applications, a readily available design is used but the material is often changed to lower costs at the expense of durability. If you can measure things, how they're supposed to be measured, and learn the nomenclature (pressure angle, pitch, in the gear example) you don't have to rely on a factory replacement that wasn't made worth a sh*t to begin with. Companies often rely on less informed consumers for repeat business.

For hand wheels do you need a graduated wheel or just something to crank the axis? Either can be made if you have a lathe, mill, and a rotary table (or dividing head). I've made several for machinery the company made and it's not difficult, just unfamiliar if you've never done this. Whatever you do need I'd suggest you look up an industrial supply house for better made components. The Chinese are very capable of making good quality things but most of them don't seem to reach the outside markets. Unless under strict contractual obligation and on-site supervision you never really know what you're going to get, most stuff available to the average consumer from China (and their sources) is just cheap **** that will fail sooner than it should.

Different brands do often share the same castings but the machining of said castings is varying levels of workmanship. If you ever have to disassemble a Chi-Wan machine you'll readily see what I mean. Mating surfaces might only be machined to 65% clean up, surface finishes are often rough, excessive play in the gibs just to get the slide to even function, perpendicular/parallel surfaces aren't, poor material integrity, porous castings, etc. The price you pay often dictates the level of quality/integrity to expect. Smaller items/components for the same distributor might be from 4-5 small shops under the same contract but different levels of workmanship. I worked for Denso (Japanese) buying plastic injection molds around the world and an internal company directive was to make sure an industrial liaison was present during all phases of mold construction to ensure cheaper materials weren't switched, and short-cuts weren't taken. The Japanese apparently didn't trust the Chinese either and for good reason. This is a big reason I still make/modify things myself, far too many shoddy goods on the market because far too many think that all things are equal except the price. They most certainly are NOT equal. I think I've bored everybody enough for now so I'll go sit down in the back row. Ganbatte.
 
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theoldwizard1

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Not a fan of tilting head mills. After you spend the time to tram it in, do you really want to mess it up.
 
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ItsNemo

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Not a fan of tilting head mills. After you spend the time to tram it in, do you really want to mess it up.
You know you spend more time on setup than cutting no matter what kind of machine you have right? I think if you can't handle a bit of tramming or leveling, you probably don't want to be a machinist in the first place.
 

Meleon

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I bought replacement steel gears for my craftex machine from aliexpress back in April. after it broke I 3d printed a replacement but when I seen it was going to be a bit of a pain to change I decided to order a steel one. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32630042899.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.107a18023q0Zb1
the plastic gear lasted over ten years as near as I can tell. I bought it used and it didn't look like it was ever touched before.
 

cruzer75

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Nice little Mill! I love having a mill in my shop. Nice video and clean shop!
 
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