Mini Mill?

You may be able to make one.. but you would be hating life.

If you were to go that route, I would think about the mini-mill at harbor freight for not much more. Not that I would recommend that either since I don't have any experience with them. I'm sure there's plenty of information about the mini-mills from members of this forum.

Which is, I guess, how you started this thread. You've come full circle.
 
herbet999 said:
You may be able to make one.. but you would be hating life.

If you were to go that route, I would think about the mini-mill at harbor freight for not much more. Not that I would recommend that either since I don't have any experience with them. I'm sure there's plenty of information about the mini-mills from members of this forum.

Which is, I guess, how you started this thread. You've come full circle.
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If I go with HF mini mill how much more stuff do I have to buy to get started? A 4" vise and bits? Anything else?
 
I would think you might be better off to have a couple built for you and see if there is going to be a market. If you can make money selling them I would definitely buy the right tool for the job. A drill press milling in aluminum will look like a beaver chewed out the recess
 
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mnm99 said:
Hello,
This is my second post so don't be too hard on me. I've been doing a bunch of reading on Mini Mills, but still don't know if it will do what I need and what cost I'm getting into. As of right now I'm looking to mill some under water light housings for my boat. The housings could be made out of Aluminum or Bronze. What I'm looking to do is mill a pocked 1/4" deep out of a 4"x1" round puck. The machines I'm looking at start at around $500 from Harbor Freight then I'm reading that I need like $500 worth of add ons?? What if the cheapest route I can go to get a job like this done? where should I start looking? There are a ton of different bits ect... What tools would I need to complete this project? If I'm looking at big $$$ I may just have to hold off.
Thank You
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I hate to discourage anyone from buying machine tools but the cheapest way to get that job done is to pay a machine shop to do it for you.

But once you've got a mill and a lathe and a bandsaw and a grinder and a thousand dollars worth of tooling you'll think of lots of things to do with it.
 
mnm99 said:
If I go with HF mini mill how much more stuff do I have to buy to get started? A 4" vise and bits? Anything else?
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I would do way more research than just listen to my suggestions. But you really only absolutely need two additional things. A way to clamp the raw piece to the mill's table and a tool to cut the aluminum (an end mill).

You could use a vise to hold the piece or you could clamp it to the table using t-bolts and clamps.

The end mill you could stick in the drill chuck (not the best solution) or you could buy a collet to hold the end mill. Looks like the HF mini-mill has an R8 spindle. You can buy an R8 collet all day long on ebay.

one thing you want to be sure of is that any tool you buy is big enough to hold the 4" part. For example, make sure you buy a vice that opens to 4 inches and not just has 4 inch wide jaws. Also, the table on the HF mill is less than 4 inches. So you have to make sure you can position the piece on the table and still be able to mill the area you want to mill out.

There's gobs of information out there about mini-mills. Do a lot of research
 
I think John Hassler is right regarding contracting the job out locally. Have you checked with any of the local machine shops?

Vlad
 
If you came here to ask us how much it will cost to get outfitted with machine tools to do the job, you're asking a bunch of folks who would probably not want to face how much they've actually spent. :jester:

That being said, often the mini mill appears attractive at first, then the G0704, then the RF-45, then the knee mill. A lathe with a milling attachment (not the same as the combo milling head on lathe) may be able to make the parts as well. I'd venture to say you'll be in this for $1500-2000 with the basic tooling on any of the paths forward.

The cheapest route will be to get a machine shop to make your parts. If you want to take up machining as a hobby, spend a little more time thinking about your budget and what other projects you can take on and try to spend the funds on the biggest machine you can afford with a good setup of tooling. My tooling is about on part with my machine cost.

The hobby is really limitless - there are a number of members on this forum who have turned out some amazing projects.

Don't hesitate to ask questions, we're the friendly group :)

Also, I found out recently the Shars 4" 440V vise is now a 4" width and 6" opening!
 
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