# First chips!



## 6530 (Jul 25, 2014)

I bought this Grizzly Minimil in 2011 and spent the last 3 years slowly accumulating some tooling, scrap metal, & doing as much reading & watching videos as I could stand. 

I finally got around to setting it up over the last couple of weeks.  I trammed it today, along with the vise.  I just surfaced some scrap aluminum and milled a slot but it's my first time using it & I'm pretty excited.

I think my first project will be a set of aluminum vise jaw pads & a set of brass ones too, if I can find some scrap to use.

K


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## zmotorsports (Jul 25, 2014)

Nice.  Welcome to the forum.  WOW!!  I can't believe it took you three years to get it set up and making chips.

Anyways, welcome aboard.  Great group of people here.

Mike.


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## 6530 (Jul 25, 2014)

zmotorsports said:


> Nice.  Welcome to the forum.  WOW!!  I can't believe it took you three years to get it set up and making chips.
> 
> Anyways, welcome aboard.  Great group of people here.
> 
> Mike.


I have three young kids & a more-than-full-time job, plus I traveled extensively for work from just after I bought it until late last year.  Life gets in the way, you know what I mean?  Better late than never...


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## zmotorsports (Jul 25, 2014)

I understand, life definitely gets busy.  Nice looking anyways and again, welcome to the forum.

Mike.


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## chuckorlando (Jul 25, 2014)

Man oh man thats a wait for sure. Now your gonna be sick with it. Like waiting till your married ahahahahahaha

Nice work


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## Henrymac (Jul 26, 2014)

That is really cool. I just got mine a couple weeks ago and am in about the same boat as you were. Maybe in the next couple months I'll have everything together. What model mill did you get? It looks like a decent size. Cheers.:victory:


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## Vladymere (Jul 26, 2014)

It took you three years to make chips?  I can understand that.

In december 2008 I purchased a Southbend 10L and a Bridgeport mill from a widow.  I left these items at her location for a year befor moving them into storage.  Five years ago I started building a shop behind the house.  I now have the equipment moved into place along with another lathe but have only wired up the new lathe, a Cincinnaty Tray-Top.  I am now unemployed and have applied for disability.  Ample time to be in my shop but for the last six weeks I have been in a cast on my ankle.  No weight bearing on that leg.  Looks like another six weeks before I get out of the cast and into a walking boot.

Three years?  Your quick.

Vlad


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## Ulma Doctor (Jul 26, 2014)

it doesn't matter how long it took ya to set up.
what is important is that you did set it up!!
nice work.


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## 6530 (Jul 26, 2014)

Henrymac said:


> That is really cool. I just got mine a couple weeks ago and am in about the same boat as you were. Maybe in the next couple months I'll have everything together. What model mill did you get? It looks like a decent size. Cheers.:victory:


I got the Grizzly G8689 (MT3) & it came with a Grizzly G9002 vise.  The vise needed a lot of work to get square, so I'd say if you don't have a vise yet spring for the $100 LMS precision milling vise.

I did learn a few lessons already while working on the vise to get the jaws parallel to each other & square to the spindle.  It took more than just tramming since the fixed jaw of the vise wasn't even close to square with the vise axis.  With some slow hand filling I got it right.

Also make sure you tram both the table & any vise you mount.  It makes a huge difference in the quality of your work.  I learned that in a day.


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## 6530 (Jul 26, 2014)

Vladymere said:


> It took you three years to make chips?  I can understand that.
> 
> In december 2008 I purchased a Southbend 10L and a Bridgeport mill from a widow.  I left these items at her location for a year befor moving them into storage.  Five years ago I started building a shop behind the house.  I now have the equipment moved into place along with another lathe but have only wired up the new lathe, a Cincinnaty Tray-Top.  I am now unemployed and have applied for disability.  Ample time to be in my shop but for the last six weeks I have been in a cast on my ankle.  No weight bearing on that leg.  Looks like another six weeks before I get out of the cast and into a walking boot.
> 
> ...


Wow, sorry for your troubles.  Hope you're back on your feet soon.

I'm quick... haha that there's funny.


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## 6530 (Jul 28, 2014)

OK, so yesterday I got down to business & fabricated a set of aluminum jaw pads for one of my vises.  I started out with 1.25x.75 bar stock & will insert a couple of neodymium super-strong magnets to hold the pads to the jaws.

I cut & milled a single piece of stock then cut it in half to form the two pads.

I didn't take any photos early in the process but here they are milled, cut,  marked & bored for the magnets, which  I'm going to epoxy in place.  I made the hole depth .020 deeper than the magnet thickness to allow for the epoxy.







Test fit.




Done with last hole, after I cleaned up the chips.




Cleaned up & ready for epoxy.




This is obviously a very simple project but is the first metalworking I've ever done from raw material through finished product.  I'm pretty excited about it, as you can probably tell.


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## drs23 (Jul 28, 2014)

Very good job and will be functional too. We've all got to start somewhere!


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## Vladymere (Jul 28, 2014)

6530,

Your work looks good.

Vlad


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## Mark in Indiana (Jul 28, 2014)

Great work. You'll have a lot of fun. Welcome to the group.


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## countryguy (Jul 28, 2014)

Congrats!  Every time you vise-it-up, you'll know that you made that.  Very cool feeling huh!   infectious.  So what's next?


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