My little mill

[niget2002]

Went and picked this up today. Needs a little cleaning, but everything works.

I'll unload it and move it into the shop later this week when I have some help lined up.

Paid $1500 for it.

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[Downwindtracker 2]

It's almost St Pats, I'ld fit in, I'm green right now.

 

[pepi]

Use a mill before or this is a new adventure?

 

[macgee]

Its so little, it's almost tiny!


Nice job on the purchase. Look forward to seeing pics of it up and running.

 

[txvwnut]

Bring it over here I’ve got a forklift.

 

[jmarkwolf]

Be sure and post pics of the rest of the adventure.

 

[niget2002]

Use a mill before or this is a new adventure?

New adventure. The original plan was to get a smaller benchtop unit. But when good fortune smiles on you, you smile back.

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[blacksuit99]

Man I am jealous! I bet you will have all kinds of fun with that!

 

[JoshR77]

Such a great purchase! Nice job

 

[pepi]

New adventure. The original plan was to get a smaller benchtop unit. But when good fortune smiles on you, you smile back.

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LOL time will tell, to early to count the chickens, enjoy mill is a great machine.

 

[macgee]

By the way Turn-Pro was Enco's top of the line model of mills, Taiwan built with Meehanite casting. Many have bought much worse.

They have a good reputation. Do you know the history of it? Any known issues or wear? Any other tooling than the two vises and Jacobs chuck?

If this one a first time mill, I may suggest getting a pro in there checking it out and setting it up and helping you tram it, I know that sounds like cheating but it will save you a massive amount of time and remove second guessing making it worth it.

 

[Michael_in_DE]

AvE says be a man and unload it yourself solo. (not recommended)

 

[niget2002]

By the way Turn-Pro was Enco's top of the line model of mills, Taiwan built with Meehanite casting. Many have bought much worse.

They have a good reputation. Do you know the history of it? Any known issues or wear? Any other tooling than the two vises and Jacobs chuck?

If this one a first time mill, I may suggest getting a pro in there checking it out and setting it up and helping you tram it, I know that sounds like cheating but it will save you a massive amount of time and remove second guessing making it worth it.

Yup. I know the full history of the mill. Besides not being kept clean, the mill itself is in good condition. The guy I bought it from bought it from a place he used to work for. He was there the day it was unloaded from the truck and helped set it up in the shop. That company liquidated a bunch of assets and he bought the mill from them. It's been in his shop for a few years now. It's collected a lot of dust as he owns a woodworking business and mostly does that.

The cooling system needs to be cleaned out and flushed, but other than that the rest of the unit all works well.

Another friend of mine has a mill and lathe in his garage shop and does a lot with both of them. He's offered to come over and help with initial setup and show me a few things.

Tooling-wise, it came with a set of collets, all the handles, two vices and the jacobs chuck.

I'll need to save up a bit for a phase converter. While I'm saving I'll have lots of time to practice setting the tram and nod. I'll also spend that time cleaning it up and greasing/oiling all the fittings per the manual (which he also provided).

 

[DocsMachine]

I hate to tell you this, but the head's on upside-down.

Trust me when I say it's not easy to get a good surface finish that way.



Doc.

 

[Lassen Forge]

That's for when you have your work suspended from the chain hoist on the ceiling... Decking that block hanging upside down from the cherry picker, etc.



Seriously nicely done!

 

[mybigwarwagon]

I hate to tell you this, but the head's on upside-down.

Trust me when I say it's not easy to get a good surface finish that way.



Doc.

It is set up for highly specialized aerial milling.

 

[macgee]

Yup. I know the full history of the mill. Besides not being kept clean, the mill itself is in good condition. now. It's collected a lot of dust as he owns a woodworking business and mostly does that.

Another friend of mine has a mill and lathe in his garage shop and does a lot with both of them. He's offered to come over and help with initial setup and show me a few things.


"I'll need to save up a bit for a phase converter. "


`

Very nice, sounds like you've done your homework and found a good mill.

Have you thought about using a VFD instead of a traditional phase convertor?

I suggest checking out Teco VFD's, they're very good and could be a much cheaper & smaller footprint solution than a traditional phase convertor for your mill. I think your mill should have a 3HP motor. Practical Machinist has a lot of very good threads about this topic.

Here's a thread on the topic showing GJ vfd's in use:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320064

and a very recent GJ thread talking about it:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474902


PS> Don't listen to DocsMachine, he's just trying to rain on your parade, it works fine like that, just use a good ladder, control your breathing to help avoid movement while holding the piece while milling in that position.

 

[darkzero]

I say mount helicopter blades in the spindle & see if you can get it to lift off!

Nice score BTW!

 

[MushCreek]

A VFD is a cheaper way to go. To me, it depends upon whether you think you'll acquire any more 3ph equipment. I started with a VFD on my mill, but didn't like it because I do a lot of power tapping, and it didn't reverse fast enough for my liking. I'm up to four 3ph machines, so I went with a rotary phase convertor. I bought an American Rotary panel, and picked up a 10 hp 3ph idler motor at auction for $25. I wired a 3ph panel and a number of drops in the shop for the 3ph equipment. I'm a retired tool maker, so I know what I want, and knew what direction I would be headed in.

Congrats on the mill, and have fun making chips (and be careful)

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice score. Turn Pro's are nice quality machines. Is the table a 9x49?

 

[niget2002]

A VFD is a cheaper way to go. To me, it depends upon whether you think you'll acquire any more 3ph equipment. I started with a VFD on my mill, but didn't like it because I do a lot of power tapping, and it didn't reverse fast enough for my liking. I'm up to four 3ph machines, so I went with a rotary phase convertor. I bought an American Rotary panel, and picked up a 10 hp 3ph idler motor at auction for $25. I wired a 3ph panel and a number of drops in the shop for the 3ph equipment. I'm a retired tool maker, so I know what I want, and knew what direction I would be headed in.

Congrats on the mill, and have fun making chips (and be careful)

I know I'll be adding a lathe at some point, which is why I want to go the phase converter route. Plus this machine has all the forward/reverse/spindle speed built in already. My understanding is most of those are benefits to the VFD.

The guy I bought the mill from may sell me his phase converter. The only other tool he has using it is a large bandsaw and he's considering converting that to VFD.

Nice score. Turn Pro's are nice quality machines. Is the table a 9x49?

Yes it is.

 

[niget2002]

I ordered the phase converter this morning. It'll be a few weeks before it comes in.

The gantry showed up yesterday. I got it unpacked and moved into the shop. I'm going to try to get out there and get started on getting it put together this evening.

Once the gantry is put together, I'll call some friends over to get the mill off of the trailer and into the shop.

 

[BigMike782]

I hate to tell you this, but the head's on upside-down.

Trust me when I say it's not easy to get a good surface finish that way.



Doc.

That's so the propeller can be mounted to move it.

 

[mowkep]

Very nice pick up. Enco...man I miss those days

 

[darkzero]

Very nice pick up. Enco...man I miss those days

Me too!

 

[macgee]

Very nice pick up. Enco...man I miss those days

+2, Me too

 

[niget2002]

Got her off the trailer today. I missread the dimensions on the gantry so it wouldn't fit over the wheels on the trailer.

We used a crowbar, plywood and ice to scoot it to the back of the trailer where we could get the gantry over it.

That's not me in the picture.

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[niget2002]

It was freezing outside, but with the shop heater on, I got a little bit of clean up done on the mill.

I got the head spun around the correct way and started familiarizing myself with all the levers on the head and what they do (using the manual).

I pulled the two vices off of the bed and saw that the bed will take a bit of clean up. There was quite a bit of gunk built up on it.

I also discovered that my shop vac is getting worse and worse. I'll probably be replacing it soon.

 

[niget2002]

Got more cleaning done today.

Then the FedEx guy dropped off the phase converter. He was kind enough to leave it sitting in the slush.

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[Mgdoug3]

I dread whenever I see something will be shipped by FedEx. I know it won't be on time and the driver never puts the package in the same spot twice.

 

[macgee]

He was kind enough to leave it sitting in the slush.

Oh, I would be pissed. Leaving it out in the wet elements like that and in plain open site is not cool. Imagine if you hadn't seen it that afternoon and left it out there over night without you knowing, the porch was only feet away but I guess the waist deep snow was too much for him.

Hope the convertor and contents is ok?

 

[niget2002]

This was just the motor. To give him some credit... it was extremely heavy. I'm assuming the guy slipped earlier in the day, busted his **** on someone else's icy porch, and didn't want to risk doing it again.

The converter itself showed up last Monday. I spent the week off and on building out the phase converter. I drilled a hole on Thursday night in aluminum. The wife's comment was, "That's all it does?"... to which I promptly replied, "nope, that's just all I've figured out."

This weekend was spent trying to make my first part. The first iteration did not go well. I scraped the part and started over today. I have a thread elsewhere on the site talking about giving up in the shop when nothing is going right.

Today's version of the part went a whole lot better. I flipped the part upside down to get better clamping force and I didn't have any issues with the part coming loose in the vice like I had yesterday.

Here's some pictures of the part in process and a final picture of the part next to the design I started with.

 

[Southern83]

I dread whenever I see something will be shipped by FedEx. I know it won't be on time and the driver never puts the package in the same spot twice.

Same here. I have payed extra just to have another company deliver packages to our house.

 

[niget2002]

Got some paint on my bracket. Then drilled some holes.



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[pepi]

Got more cleaning done today.

Then the FedEx guy dropped off the phase converter. He was kind enough to leave it sitting in the slush.

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What did it hurt?

 

[niget2002]

What did it hurt?

Nothing. It was just the motor which ships on a 3/4" piece of OSB. The box got soggy, but I saw it and brought it inside before any damage could be done.

Today's fun :

I ordered a fine feed hand wheel for a Bridgeport machine. It came in. The wheel fit the shaft perfectly, buy the pin on the back did not line up with the hole on the machine.

I drilled a new hole in the correct location and sunk a new pin in it. Then I ground down the bad one. Works perfect.

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[txvwnut]

A word of caution when buying pieces and parts for the Enco machines is a lot of the Bridgeport parts will not fit. I have an older Enco and the only Bridgeport parts I found that fit without modification is the bushing in the vari-speed pulley on the motor and the drive belt, which I just replaced today in mine.

 

[Farmall450]

Good looking mill. That would suit me perfectly

 

[Mgdoug3]

My fine adjust handle was cracked so I ended up making a new one out of aluminum.

 

[niget2002]

Looks good. I thought about 3d printing one, but then found this one.

That's some good information about Bridgeport parts. I'll keep that in mind.

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