[Newbie] Hi all, have questions about a mill.

AS to the question of tuning up the ways on your mill. There are 2 schools of thought here. One group takes there mill apart and uses lapping compound on the ways to smooth them some. There is very little control using this method. The other group and this is the group I am in is to take the mill apart and then check all the ways for fit and finish. once that is done and you know where and how much metal needs to be removed to get the fit and finish you would like to have you then hand scrape the ways to get that fit and finish. Metal scraping is both art and science. You will need at least 1 carbide scraper and a way to sharpen it and hone the cutting edges to a mirror finish. You will also need a surface plate big enough for the biggest mill part you need to check. You will need some spotting blue for checking for high and low spots on the ways as you scrape them.
Scraping can be done by any body it just takes practice. Richard King has a good video on scraping and worth the money he sells it for . There are some other videos out there and a ton of Utube videos.

The most important thing is knowing what is wrong with the ways on your machine and what to do to correct it

Dave
 
I also have a MT2 spindle on my mill, and you don't need to tighten the drawbar very tight for it to hold. I do a lot of work using an end mill holder. It makes quick changes of tools a lot easier, and in theory will hold an end mill more securely. However, even then I didn't like hitting my mill with a hammer, so I came up with this: http://benchtopmachineshop.blogspot.com/2013/06/mill-mt3-spindle-release.html.
 
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