Setup and Continuing Saga of the Charter Oak 12Z

[coolidge]

I ordered the Bridgeport kit. FYI...

Thanks Bill that puts my mind at ease.

 

[coolidge]

I will be installing the one-shot oiling system soon and will run Vactra 2 in it. I will probably use a good quality grease on the screws though.

No way I'd go with grease on the screws Bill, the X axis screw is particularly exposed to chips don't ask me how they get up in there from underneath but they do. I added that plexiglass shield over Y on my old mill.

 

[wrmiller]

Looking good Bill, I am glad you are making a lot of progress with your mill, mine is stopped. Hope this weekend will continue with it. I like your stand, you can use that space. To me it will be the same, will have to walk all the way to the older milling machine where all my tools and accessories are, guess some idea will come with the time.

Regarding the X and Y axis as you say they will be OK for what you do. Will see how mine is when the time comes.

A friend of mine who is handy with woodworking tools suggested we put a couple of dovetailed drawers in that open space in my stand with a shelf at the bottom for the heavier stuff.

 

[wrmiller]

Hey Bill, which one do you have or could you post a pic of it? I just received mine a couple of days ago but I have not used it yet so not sure what to expect.

I honestly don't remember where I got it. Probably Griz. I bought it for the PM25 but @ 90 deg it's almost too much for that mill in steel at any doc. I bought it to be my poor man's face mill, but a 45 deg would have been better (if such a thing exists), and I will be getting one of those 45 deg face mills later from Glacern when they go on sale.

It takes a bit to push this thing so I thought I'd give it a try on El Hefe to see how he handled it. I couldn't even hear a pitch change in this 3hp motor. Chewed it right up. I think the 45 will leave a better finish though.

 

[dave2176]

A friend of mine who is handy with woodworking tools suggested we put a couple of dovetailed drawers in that open space in my stand with a shelf at the bottom for the heavier stuff.

I think you should make them through dovetails with contrasting woods so it looks really cool.
On my Gr rf45 I've made .7 DOC by .4 wide using a 1/2 tin coated HSS cutter. You'll have no problem pushing it.


Dave

 

[darkzero]

I honestly don't remember where I got it. Probably Griz. I bought it for the PM25 but @ 90 deg it's almost too much for that mill in steel at any doc. I bought it to be my poor man's face mill, but a 45 deg would have been better (if such a thing exists), and I will be getting one of those 45 deg face mills later from Glacern when they go on sale.

It takes a bit to push this thing so I thought I'd give it a try on El Hefe to see how he handled it. I couldn't even hear a pitch change in this 3hp motor. Chewed it right up. I think the 45 will leave a better finish though.

Thanks Bill, although I do have 45deg FM I wanted an indexable EM to be able to mill up to a shoulder which the 45s can't do.I know 1" is overkill for my mill but I kept reading anything smaller than 3/4" for indexables suck. 5/8" & smaller I will stick to good old endmills of course & I don't plan on getting anything in between 5/8" & 1". I think I'm good on size range now, until I read about something else I don't have. :lmao:

How many flutes does yours have & what type of inserts? I went with APKT since they are cheap now. Hopefully it wasn't a waste of money.

 

[wrmiller]

Mine is a two-flute, and I think a three would be better (again, if one exists). The inserts are those flat (no chip break) triangle types.

I agree a EM would be nice to have for milling up to a shoulder. My only concern with EMs is the interrupted cut and what that will do to the inserts. I will keep looking for a better one. I'll check Glacern but I'll probably get sticker shock if they have one.

 

[darkzero]

Yup, 3 flute is what I see recommended for 1". I looked at the Glacern EM90s & they are 2 flute also & use APKT inserts. Curtis from latheinserts.com offers the TMX ones with 3 flutes which is what I was going to buy but I ended up going with a German made one that is a 4 flute. I'm concerned that I should have gone with a 3 flute but the 4 flute with a pack of inserts was a very good price. But those guys who say to get a 3 flute are production CNC guys so there's no way I'm going to break mine. Korloy makes some nicely priced ones in kit form but they use 11mm inserts. I went with the 10mm inserts cause they're more readily available & cheaper.

BTW, Glacern's Halloween deals are up now but unfortunately no sales on the FM45s.

 

[wrmiller]

Well, I received my DroPros 3-axis last night and was looking at how I'm going to mount this thing. Regardless of how I mount the x-axis scale (front or back) I'll be covering one of the ball oilers. I 'assume' that the one-shot oiling system will use different ports, so I thought I'd give CO a call to ask how they configure things when installing both the oiling system and a DRO.

Talked to Paul this morning and found out that the original info I was given about upgrading to the oiling system was not 'entirely accurate'. (I was told that all I had to do was drill and tap a few holes)

Come to find out that I'll have to remove the table and mill in the galleys and drill the oil passages. They have to do this on both the manuals w/oiling system and the CNC machines. I don't know if my PM25 will hold the mill table of the 12Z (Paul estimates it somewhere between 120 and 130 lbs.). Anyone have a weight rating for the PM25 handy? If I can't do it that way, I'll have to do the old Dremel and 1/8" carbide round-nosed burr to lay out the oil galleys. He also recommended a couple of saw horses to hold the table.

So it looks like I should do the oiling system first, then the DRO install. Paul was saying they 'almost have the install video ready, but he didn't give me a timeframe for when it will be done. He is sending the rough video so I can get an idea of what I'm in for with this even though the kit isn't quite ready yet. It looks like it will be a bit before I'm fully operational.

 

[coolidge]

Agree that you should install the one shot oiler before installing the DRO. What is your reason for installing a one shot oiler in the first place though? I ask only because I have run one of these mills for hours on end in CNC mode machining 3D molds without one. I used a paint brush to apply a thin even coat of oil on Z, same brush for the two screws, hit the oil ports on X and Y and it was good to go. I was running flood coolant which had some lubricating properties of its own. As for milling/grinding the Z pattern in the ways to distribute the oil I'm wondering if oil is the only thing that's going to get trapped in that groove. :think1:

On the DRO here's a tip...I installed the DroPros EL400 with the magnetic scales on my lathe. If you don't have a nice machined flat surface don't be afraid to mount the scale on some thick aluminum then mount that to the mill, I'm thinking Z here. Yes these DRO kits have the leveling screws I call FAIL on them. The scales are too flexible so if the mounting surface is just slightly out of flatness it can distort the scale significantly, an uneven cast iron surface filled with bondo and thick paint, it can be maddening trying to get the scale installed flat and true. After hours of frustration I purchased a length of 3/4" thick x 3" wide aluminum bar to mount my long scale on, that made it super easy.