Tooling for a new BP Series 1 owner

Long center drills and good quality stub length drill bits in 1/2", 3/8", and 1/4" are handy because they fit your favorite collets. This saves daylight and time...
+1 on shortening the 1/2" chuck arbor... there's no value in it being any longer than the clamping part of the R-8.

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You want an assortment of endmills in both HSS and carbide. The number of flutes is a tradeoff between chip clearance, cutting speed and surface finish- usually 2 flute works best for deep cuts in aluminum or steel. Rougher bits are good for hogging a lot of material when the finish isn't critical.
3 and 4 flutes are good for finishing cuts and give a very nice finish, almost like spot polished. For plunge cutting you need center cutting types; some endmills cannot plunge cut to the very center of the cutting tip and are made to cut sideways only, like a flycutter.
Starting out I saved a ton of money by buying estate sale lots on ebay. I got a great selection of new and nearly new endmills for about 10% of new cost, all good USA brands like Putnam, DoAll and Morse. Avoid the import cheapies.
-Mark
 
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Standard length drill bits are sometimes called "jobber." Shorter versions are known as "screw machine" or "stub" length (see @Weldingrod1's post). Center drills or "combination center drill and countersink" are good for locating and starting holes, especially if you're using a long or thin drill bit, which can try to wander.
Try http://www.cdcotools.com and search for center drills
-or-
www.shars.com

#1-5 60 degree M42 Cobalt Center Drill Combined Drill & Countersink 5pcs Set

www.shars.com www.shars.com
www.shars.com

#1-5 82 degree HSS Center Drill Combined Drill & Countersink 5pcs Set

www.shars.com www.shars.com
-or-
littlemachineshop.com

Center Drills, Cobalt, Set of 5 (Numbers 1-5) 4859

Drills 4859 Combined drill and countersink; Sizes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5; M42 (8% cobalt) high speed steel; 60° included angle; Right hand cutting direction;...
littlemachineshop.com littlemachineshop.com
(also item numbers 2990 and 1230)
 
Did anyone mention a good milling machine vise? Not a drill press vise.
A work pallet you can fasten to your vise to clamp parts to for machining.
Clamps other than t nut kits. Like Kant twist clamps for example.
We can come up with more......
 
I haven't read through all of the responses in detail, probably lots of repeaters here.

Vise for work holding. My BP has a Kurt vise on it with steel jaws. I also have sets of aluminum jaws with a milled step about 1/8" deep by 0.200" wide on the jaws.
Parallels. I have 1/8" thick, 1/32" thick, adjustable and wavy parallels. Use the 1/8" thick ones 99.9% of the time. Also have some magnetic parallel keepers to keep them from tipping over. Guys will use styrofoam, or a piece of steel banding strap bent in a "V" set between the parallels to keep them upright.
Edge finder to establish your coordinate system.
Z-AXIS POWER FEED ON THE KNEE!!!! I think mine cost around $300 from All Industrial Tool in CA.
DRO's are VERY nice. My BP has an Anilam CNC controller on it which allows for manual milling, the display is my DRO for X and Y. I have a separate single axis scale for the Z.
Indicol type dial test indicator for finding the center of a boss or hole. It can also be used to tram in the head of your mill. I use a new brake rotor just for that purpose, or 1-2-3 blocks.
T-nut clamping kit.
Drill chuck.
R-8 collets. I have an ER-32 collet chuck on my BP and frankly never use the R-8's though I have a set.
End mills in various diameters, 2 and 4 flute.
Chip brush
Cutting fluid
For tapping of holes, I usually power tap with a chucked tap. I also use tap wrenches with a sliding arbor on the back. There's a name for them that escapes me, but it's basically a rod that slides in/out of the wrench on the center axis. Chuck up the rod and the tap is on center, free to turn and extend.
I primarily use stubby drills on my mills. Jobbers work okay since I have the power feed on the Z.
I use 120 deg. spotting drilling for starting holes, center drills will work also (tips are usually 120 deg.).
I've got a flycutter some place, but use a 2" head for surfacing.
Have a 2" boring head that takes 1/2" diameter boring bars.
Chip shield is nice too. Mine is a piece of 1/8" thick plexiglass about a foot long by 8" tall. It's sandwiched between some 1/4" aluminum bar stock with magnets Loctite'd in one of the bars.
Dedicated 3/4" ratcheting box end combo wrench.
Machinist jacks can come in handy if your work is hanging outside of the vise.

Depending on the complexity of your projects, rotary table and dividing head are handy. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff that others will mention.

Bruce
 
Since I'm having fun spending YOUR money, I ran out to my shop to look over my tooling to help you spend some more!

Nice tool box to store your tooling (I use a HF 26" x 22" roller base and upper chest).
A lot of my projects involve using 5-C collet blocks. They're handy for knocking 2, 3, 4, 6 sides on a round.
Machinist clamps and kant-twist clamps
Mist coolant with mag base. I've had good luck with my <$20 import that is a siphon type. Drop the pick up in a milk jug of coolant, hook up the compressor and spray away.
Rags to clean up the aforementioned coolant :)
Machinery's Handbook
Quick reference drill/hole size guide. Mine is a file off the web that has sizes of numbered drills, letter, fractional and metric. Also frequently reference a page that has tap drill sizes for various class threads (highlighter run over the 75% common ones) and clearance holes (obvious on fractional sizes, not so much to me on numbered sizes).
Over-under reamer set - mine goes from 1/8" up to 1/2" by 1/32"'s. Sizes are over/under the target by 0.001". Handy for press in tight dowels or loose fit.
For edge finders, they are handy to have in 1/2" and 3/8" shanks. Saves a collet change in a lot of cases.
I use a wiggler with a point end for finding center punched holes.
Blake co-ax indicator. Used for quickly finding the center of a hole or boss. Mine also has a spring-loaded center for finding a center-punched hole.
Depth stop on the quill can be handy.
For more edge finding, I also have a Borite electronic (ferrous metals only), and a couple of SDA laser center/edge finders. I've got one with crosshairs and one with concentric circles. The circles one is nice for a quick find on a drilled hole. I'm usually accurate within 0.010" or better.
I've also got a centering scope though I can't recall ever using it. It has a microscope-like eyepiece and a cross hair to find a feature on a part.
Slitting saw arbor and slitting saws.
Corner-rounding end mills.
Vise jaw work stop
Miscellaneous cutters that are job-specific like tapered end mills, dovetail end mills, key cutters, etc.
End mill holders with set screws. I tend to be pretty conservative on my cuts and haven't experienced tool pull-out with end mills in collets. These holders have a better mechanical lock than collets.
1-2-3 blocks.
T-slot cleaning tool
Magnetic pick-up tool
V-blocks
Micrometers, dial calipers, depth mics, angle blocks, machinist squares.
Toe clamps for work holding
More of a luxury than anything, but I also have a Quillmaster with the QRA head. Also, a right angle attachment.
Angle plates

I've got photos of my mess(organization) if you'd like. They'd give you an idea of how to store 200 gallons of crap in a 5-gallon bucket.

Bruce
 
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BGHansen said:
Since I'm having fun spending YOUR money, I ran out to my shop to look over my tooling to help you spend some more!

Nice tool box to store your tooling (I use a HF 26" x 22" roller base and upper chest).
A lot of my projects involve using 5-C collet blocks. They're handy for knocking 2, 3, 4, 6 sides on a round.
Machinist clamps and kant-twist clamps
Mist coolant with mag base. I've had good luck with my <$20 import that is a siphon type. Drop the pick up in a milk jug of coolant, hook up the compressor and spray away.
Rags to clean up the aforementioned coolant :)
Machinery's Handbook
Quick reference drill/hole size guide. Mine is a file off the web that has sizes of numbered drills, letter, fractional and metric. Also frequently reference a page that has tap drill sizes for various class threads (highlighter run over the 75% common ones) and clearance holes (obvious on fractional sizes, not so much to me on numbered sizes).
Over-under reamer set - mine goes from 1/8" up to 1/2" by 1/32"'s. Sizes are over/under the target by 0.001". Handy for press in tight dowels or loose fit.
For edge finders, they are handy to have in 1/2" and 3/8" shanks. Saves a collet change in a lot of cases.
I use a wiggler with a point end for finding center punched holes.
Blake co-ax indicator. Used for quickly finding the center of a hole or boss. Mine also has a spring-loaded center for finder a center-punched hole.
Depth stop on the quill can be handy.
For more edge finding, I also have a Borite electronic (ferrous metals only), and a couple of SDA laser center/edge finders. I've got one with crosshairs and one with concentric circles. The circles one is nice for a quick find on a drilled hole. I'm usually accurate within 0.010" or better.
I've also got a centering scope though I can't recall ever using it. It has a microscope-like eyepiece and a cross hair to find a feature on a part.
Slitting saw arbor and slitting saws.
Corner-rounding end mills.
Vise jaw work stop
Miscellaneous cutters that are job-specific like tapered end mills, dovetail end mills, key cutters, etc.
End mill holders with set screws. I tend to be pretty conservative on my cuts and haven't experienced tool pull-out with end mills in collets. These holders have a better mechanical lock than collets.
1-2-3 blocks.
T-slot cleaning tool
Magnetic pick-up tool
V-blocks
Micrometers, dial calipers, depth mics, angle blocks, machinist squares.
Toe clamps for work holding
More of a luxury than anything, but I also have a Quillmaster with the QLR head. Also, a right angle attachment.
Angle plates

I've got photos of my mess(organization) if you'd like. They'd give you an idea of how to store 200 gallons of crap in a 5-gallon bucket.

Bruce
Click to expand...

No sidetracking here, I think this question in relevant.
Bruce, I recently acquired a square 5C collet holder, which is great, but I also would like kne that is a hex. Do you think that I should just mill the additional flats on it, or would I be better off to get another that is hexagonal?
 
Shootymacshootface said:
No sidetracking here, I think this question in relevant.
Bruce, I recently acquired a square 5C collet holder, which is great, but I also would like kne that is a hex. Do you think that I should just mill the additional flats on it, or would I be better off to get another that is hexagonal?
Click to expand...
I'd look for a hex, haven't put a file to my blocks but they are pretty hard. My set was only around $45 on eBay.

I wrote the width and center line dimensions on mine for quickly getting on center. Saves mic'ing the block every time I use it.

Bruce
 
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I have a 12 sided ER40 collet block, maybe you can find that in 5C. Check all listings for the best US made name brands on Ebay for NEW end mills. You will get tired of chipped ones quickly.
 
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