New to me BusyBee benchtop mill

So I have the new drawbar in place, lots more threads grabbing the holders. Works better, but was still not right in my mind. But then I have never milled before so what do I know.

I found that my gibs were not tight enough so I set them up again, this made it much better. But I still notice that the quill has some play vertically, so I started using the quill lock once I set my depth of cut.

I still think I don't have some things right because I am getting so much chatter and vibration. I know its only a benchtop and maybe my feed or rpm is not right, or the cutters are not the best or whatever. Need to keep plugging away and figure it out.

I was working with mild steel because I have a project in mind, but I think I'll switch to aluminium and just play around to get a feel for things.
 
Oh Schor- I didn't know you hadn't milled before ... That's a different story! I will write you a different kind of trouble shooting guide tomorrow. How exciting!

Starting with aluminum is a good idea. Shallow cut, high speed. Are you using an SFM chart yet? What type of endmill?


Bernie
 
I tried some aluminium and it was much easier to cut, go figure. I put the speed up too. I am using whatever I can get to determine cutting speeds and am still trying to determine true rpm of my mill. Right now my calcs are not in sync with the speed chart on the mill, need to verify if I am off or the chart is off.

itsme_Bernie said:
Oh Schor- I didn't know you hadn't milled before ... That's a different story! I will write you a different kind of trouble shooting guide tomorrow. How exciting!

Starting with aluminum is a good idea. Shallow cut, high speed. Are you using an SFM chart yet? What type of endmill?


Bernie
Click to expand...
 
Sounds Good Schor-

How many flutes on your endmill? I found two- flute mills more likely to vibrate...


Bernie
 
I have almost all 2 flute endmills. I have a 1/8" 2 flute and a 4 flute, I'll do a comparison between them. But at 1/8 I don't expect too much vibration.
 
My machinist friend dropped by to borrow my needle scaler and did a quick once over on my new mill. He's never worked on such a small mill but said even his big bridgeport at work will vibrate with a 2 flute endmill. He did a quick rough pass on some aluminium and then a finish cut and said it was really good for a machine that small. I got a few other tips about draw bars and how to setup the machine a bit better.

I will try to do some videos for what I end up doing to this toy.

First will be a new key block to lessen the rotational play in the column, the column keyway is .480 but the block I have is .458, way out in my view.

Next would be to add some igaging dro's to the x and y. I already bought the y 6" one to see how it is going to work, seems to be a bit complicated on this mill to get it setup, will need to build some new brackets.

Steve
 
The making of a drawbar.

[video=youtube;mmaqK4VtulY]
[/video]


schor said:
So I have the new drawbar in place, lots more threads grabbing the holders. Works better, but was still not right in my mind. But then I have never milled before so what do I know.

I found that my gibs were not tight enough so I set them up again, this made it much better. But I still notice that the quill has some play vertically, so I started using the quill lock once I set my depth of cut.

I still think I don't have some things right because I am getting so much chatter and vibration. I know its only a benchtop and maybe my feed or rpm is not right, or the cutters are not the best or whatever. Need to keep plugging away and figure it out.

I was working with mild steel because I have a project in mind, but I think I'll switch to aluminium and just play around to get a feel for things.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Schor! Steve!! Cool video! Love the time-lapse... Lots of operations when you see it that way


Bernie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top