[Newbie] G0704 Mill Ordered - Help with Tooling

H

Henryrifle

Registered
Registered
Joined
Jul 21, 2020
Messages
11
Good morning all:

I have been chambering and fitting barrels for the past few years exclusively for myself for F-T/R competition rifles. I had no prior machine shop experience but I was lucky to find a mentor who taught me how to run a lathe for barrel making.

Like so many here, I am a meticulous guy with a long history of mechanical endeavors from building models as a kid, to R/C planes and helicopters, rebuilding auto engines and transmissions & etc. In short, a lot of measurement, tool usage and a good mix of precision and non precision requirements.

The first project I want to accomplish with the mill is rifle stock inletting. I have searched but not found what I am looking for. Is there a guide that lays out -- maybe not specifically -- how a mill holds different tools like end mills, router bits & etc? As with he lathe, I imagine, necessity will make me seek out existing solutions to the jobs at hand--just need a starting point. I have an idea of some of the bits I'll need like compression bits and core box cutter bits but little idea about how those are held by the mill.

Thank you for your help,
Hank
 
Usually collets. The G0704 spindle uses R8 collets. When using a drill chuck, boring head, fly cutter etc, they will need to have a integral R8 shank or a R8 arbor.
 
Youmight want to start with this:

It's for a mini-mill, which is somewhat smaller than the G0704. But the basic principles are the same. R-8 collets come in specific sizes, and are designed to exactly fit the shank of the cutter. You can definitely use router bits. You'd just need 1/4" and/or 1/2" collets. R-8 collets are usually available in sets, going from about 1/8" to about 3/4" in 1/16" increments. Shars (https://www.shars.com) and Little Machine Shop are pretty good sources.

The LMS guide mentions end mill holders. Unless you're doing heavy milling on ferrous metals, they're probably not worth while. The Morse taper mentioned in the guide is an alternative to R-8, but seldom used here in the US. Collets and end mill holders are available in both R-8 and Morse, so don't be confused by the fact that the only collet in the photos is R-8 and the only end mill holder is Morse.

DO NOT use a drill chuck to hold anything except drill bit. Such chucks (and their Jacobs tapers) are not designed for side loads.

Probably one of the biggest challenges you'll have is in securely holding the stocks without marring them. Mill vises come with steel jaws, and "soft" aluminum jaws are available. But you'll probably have to come up with wooden inserts to fit between the vise jaws and the stocks ... or maybe even some kind of wooden replacement jaws for the vise. In any case, it looks like you're about to start on a whole new adventure. Enjoy!
 
Thank you @KevinM and @hman. I have spent a few hours reading today and am beginning to understand what I'll need to start practicing. I will be very interested to know how others are holding stocks. That is going to be tricky to do so correctly without damaging the item.

Thank you both again,
Hank
 
I'm in Alpharetta daily, live just over the line in Roswell.
 
Im in Gwinnett if you ever need any help.

If you ever need a tool or something let me know I’ll do my best to help you out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top