How to "Correct" nicks in a milling table?

HMF

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Many people have opinions but what is the best way to deal with nicks in your milling table?

Do you:

Take a fine sharpening stone, like a 2" x 6 ", and rub it gently across the table in several directions to rub off any raised burrs, so that the table is flat again?

Have it reground?

Rough up the holes and fill them with Devcon liquid steel, pouring it on fairly thick and letting it settle and become mostly dry. Then hand scrape the devcon down level with the table, then stone it?

Use a scraper to remove the high spots left, and not worried about the 2 or 3 holes?

Weld the table and then use a flycutter on it?

Use a dead lathe file and draw file the table surface to remove the high spots. That is all that you should do?

What is your opinion please?

Thanks,


Nelson
 
Nelson

I agree with dalee, do not under any circumstance hit the table with any heat source like welding or brazing. The resulting distortion will make anything that is left of the machine and turn it into scrap iron.

Divots in the table are generaly nothing to worry about. They do little if anything to detract from the usefullness of the machine. Avoid clamping something so that it could dip is the main thing to watch for. Nicks on lathe and mill ways act as oil pockets. Unfortuantely you can tell if a machine was used by somebody who just didn't give a " " when you see drill holes etc in a table or vise.

Raised burrs on the other hand can cause problems and should be carefully stoned out. Coat the area around them with sharpie felt pen and stone till it starts to blend into the surrounding table.

Walter
 
I agree with all of the above. That said, I have used J-B Weld epoxy to fill drill boogers in machine vise ways strictly to keep chips from getting under the moving jaw and tearing things up. Ok, and so I don't have to stare at my stupid every time I use the mill. Degrease everything well, build the epoxy up a little higher than the surface, let it harden, then carefully dress it down to the original surface. I use a dead flat extra fine file, cleaning it often, and stop the moment the file touches the original metal. Stoning could also work, but any significant amount of epoxy removal would probably plug up and ruin the stone.
I have never epoxied a machine table, and would do so only if the marks somehow interfered with using the machine. I just stone the table as needed, and feel smug that none of the big boogers are my doing (so far).
 
Well, I keep a 3/16" steel pin punch with a ground and polished radius of about 4" on the end and will carefully peen the proud material back down in the direction of the ding. When I am satisfied that it is back as flat as I can get it, then and only then do I stone the few, small high spots. Most dents and dings pretty much disappear.
 
I bought my mill new, and have been ever-so-careful not to nick the table. So instead, after five or so years, I drilled a #7 hole right into it when I was working on a part and miscalculated depth.

Sheesh, I didn't want to look at that one again, so I went ahead and drilled the hole deeper, tapped it to 1/4-20 and drove a screw in with some red Loctite. Then I cut it off about 1/8" above the surface, and smacked the screw really hard with a big hammer, to deform the threads at the top of the hole and fill the gaps at the surface a bit better. I finished the job by milling within .001" and stoning it level. You can just detect a small crescent shaped void, but it's not the kind of thing that draws your eye to it.
 
Frank, I thought you were supposed to stamp OIL beside the hole. :)
 
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