Well, the day finally came, I placed my order.

S

Steve R

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After months of searching, asking, reading & looking at different brands and models (ACRA 1440TE & LCM50 was a very close second). It was tough decision but you either have to make a decision or you will still be in the same place as wondering what you should do 5 years later. I finally settled on what to get. I ended up going with the PM1440TL (With VFD converter, QCTP) and the PM949TS (With VFD converter). Was going to go with the PM1054TS but waited too long and it went "out of stock". Going with the Easson 12-C DRO on both.
I feel I have pretty good tool selection for the lathe at this time, but this is my first mill. I would like to know what are some of the your "gotta have" milling tooling, or even for the lathe. Will be working with aluminum, steel & stainless steel.
 
I have a Jet 9x49 mill I bought used. Came with a cheap import vice. Didn't take long to figure out I needed a good vice, bought a 6" Kurt. A dial test indicator, I bought HSS 2 flute end mills for AL and 4 flute for steel. I have some carbide also. A simple edge finder, deburring tool, bracket to mount a dial indicator to the spindle, set of strap clamps, I have two sets of parallels, one is thin for when I need to clear a through hole. A drawbar wrench and brass hammer combi, drill chuck, an inserted shell mill, fly cutters, boring head and a decent set of boring bars (not the cheap Chinese set!) A set of V blocks for the vice, 123 blocks, set of spindle collets, make or buy a collet rack, a small stop that clamps on the vice jaw, Make or buy a stop that mounts to the table or back of the vice, a set of screw machine drill bits, a set of Silver and Deming drill bits, spotting drills, make a couple of machinist jacks, a box of acid brushes, a needle oiler for cutting oil and one for WD40, Rapid Tap, a tap follower, a 90 degree angle plate, some "Can't twist" clamps, some tool makers clamps. I've probably missed some "necessities."

Other things I've added as the need/desire arose: 8" rotary table that I found out was too small and made an 11" dia. top plate with more T slots. A chuck for the RT, a tail stock for the RT, spin indexer (takes the same 5C collets as your lathe collet chuck,) square and hex 5C collet blocks, set of angle blocks, a 5" sine bar and set of gage blocks, a set of gage pins, a set of over and under chucking reamers, set of taps designed for power tapping, radius and chamfer end mills. . A centering indicator for the mill hasn't been as useful as I had thought, I just use the 1/2 function on the DRO. I got tired of cranking the knee up & down and put a power feed on it, a luxury item, but also used for drilling deep holes.

It is possible to make an internal keyway w/o broaches but it is way faster and probably more accurate with the broaches, but expensive. Lots of things fall in this category. So as you can see, the machine was the cheap part. Most of my stuff is Chinese or Indian, most works but some is junk.
 
Steve R said:
I feel I have pretty good tool selection for the lathe at this time, but this is my first mill. I would like to know what are some of the your "gotta have" milling tooling, or even for the lathe.
Click to expand...

You came to the right place ! We love to spend other people's $$$$ . :encourage:
 
What I have on order for mill. PM's Ultra precision collet set, power feeds for x y & z, power drawbar, high precision 1/8 - 5/8 chuck, 52pc clamp set, BS-1 dividing head, 2 & 4 flute end mills.
Already have outside mic set up to 6" and several indicators including a test indicator, angle blocks 30-60-90 & 45-45-90, brass, aluminum & plastic head hammers (mechanic by trade).
Have on order Kurt DX6 vise and a set of soft jaws, set of 123 blocks, 1/8"x6" thin parallel set, 2" boring head (.0005), 4 pc set wiggler edge finder.
 
This link may help you with the power feeder installs. In my shop I work mostly with stainless and aluminum, and I've standardized on a few things that keep the mill tooling sorted: 2-flute end mills are always HSS or Cobolt, 3-flute are carbide but reserved for aluminum, and 4+-flute are for steel and stainless. I have found it less expensive in the long run to buy name brand quality end mills - Lakeshore Carbide is a great source although there are plenty of others I could recommend. The stuff from China I avoid like Covid-19. There are excellent end mills coming out of Japan and Israel too.

If you haven't worked with stainless before, you're in for an education. The stuff is gummy, so the tools need to be sharp with positive rake, and the feeds & speeds are really important - you have to keep the tool cutting at recommended removal rates or you will work-harden the stainless (too wimpy) or burn up the cutter (too aggressive). For drilling stainless I use only 135-degree cobalt drill bits.

On the lathe, I use indexable tools with carbide inserts, and generally have three different insert geometries (although not every geometry/grade in stock for every tool): positive rake honed sharp for aluminum, positive rake stainless grade for SS, and neutral rake for everything else. If you want insert tool suggestions for the lathe let me know - I have just about all of them thanks to suggestions from users here on this forum. Lots of people have difficulty parting (including me when I started), so spend some time perfecting that aspect. I'm attaching my suggestions on parting operations and the "best" practices I have learned the hard way.

Good luck with your new equipment.
 

Attachments

  • Parting on the Lathe - Good Practices.pdf
    4.4 MB · Views: 247
I did order 2 sets of the PM's BXA master turning/boring set and 2 of their threading sets. I have 10 of the 250-301 & 5 of the 250-302 tools holders coming. Will probably end up ordering more a little later on. Want to get one setup steel and one for aluminum. I have been lookingat/researching cutters for doing surface work but have not ordered anything for that yet. Haven't decided on a tool for doing tram indication yet. I have seen were people have made theirs using a long arm to get out closer to the ends of the table and the short dual indicator units. Need a precision level yet, I have read were the black box type are too sensitve or won't hold a zero, looking at the Starrett 98 in either 8 or 10 inch. Would like some advice from hands on users on these items that I still need to get.
 
I have a ERL-1340, and the BXA is a bit small on it. You might check with QMT, but I would probably go with a CXA on the 1440TL. On the level, the Starrett 98 is not accurate enough for leveling the lathe, precision level, one in the range of graduated 10-second accuracy; one division equals 1/2 thousandth (0.0005) of an inch per foot, or 0.04mm per meter.
 
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