Dug Up My Old Drill Mill

[planeflyer21]

Covered in cosmoline...and black widow egg sacks?! What are those little white spheres?

 

[hardwarz]

White spheres is styrofoam.

 

[Bill C.]

I like your bench design. I watched "This Old House" on one of their shows they glued two pieces of 1/2" plywood to form a strong bench top.

 

[hardwarz]

The black bolt is the metric (M10-1.50 mm) drawbar.

The all thread (3/8"-16) rod is the new drawbar I'll be using.

 

[hardwarz]

So, I made some assumptions when buying tooling online. I assumed that all mills used 1/2 slots.

I was using/referencing the Harbor Freight manual for the 42976 drill mill even though my drill mill is a Homier. They are similar, but there are differences, like the drawbar and apparently the slots. The slots on my drill mill is 7/16", not 1/2"

So, now I am the owner of both 7/16" clamping set and a 1/2" clamping set. At least the steps are identical between the sets.

On a side note, I think I need to buy a second 7/16" clamping set.

(I still have to bolt the drill mill to the bench.)

 

[turnitupper]

Hardwarz,
That machine looks more robust than my X2 mill. If you have room, a coupling nut instead if the normal nut on your drawbar is better as after a few whacks, the mushroom makes it hard to fit a spanner whereas with a longer nut you can use the lower part until you need to grind it back. That fine feed looks like a good plan and if you get too much play, a gas strut to hold the head up is one idea. Regarding the clamping set, can't you mill down the tee nuts to fit your table or make/buy some and use all thread for the bolts. They do'nt have to be super strong in this table. I use coach bolts with ground down heads sometimes. Waiting for your 4 axis CNC conversion.
John.

 

[SEK_22Hornet]

I got bit on a clamping set with my first mill - I bought a Grizzly G0704 and the manual said it had 1/2 T slots. Turned out to be 12mm, so I had to replace the 1/2 nuts with 7/16 nuts like these - http://www.grizzly.com/products/T-Slot-Nuts-pk-of-4-7-16-Slot-3-8-16/G9511 from Grizzly -

 

[hardwarz]

I ended up buying a 7/16" clamping set. I thought I'd sell the 5/8" set, but I've actually been using it. The step blocks are the same milling, so holding a larger plate is easier.