Birmingham Mills?

[Janderso]

Well, the drive home ended up being an adventure. The plastic pallet I used (rated for 9k lbs on a flat surface :/) started to bend/break on the drive home. I ended up stopping frequently to tighten the ratchet straps to make sure it didn't move!ade it back fine, just an adventure! Now I gotta figure out how to unload it!

My original plan was a pallet jack, then wiggle it off the pallet into place. However, the pallet is now too crushed to make that work.

Reminds me of my adventure when we moved the Micromaster.
Every full size machine tool move is an event.
So happy for you. You have a great mill there for a fair price!

 

[ErichKeane]

Went to a local welding shop where they have a forklift and had them put the mill on a plate, and sell me some round bar. After that, a come along was enough to get it onto the floor!

The guy who is going to help me put it in place (and take the old one!) is coming next Saturday, so I am without a mill for a little while until I can get this all set up!

 

[Just for fun]

By looking at the pallet, it looks like you were luckly to make it home with it.

What is your plan for getting it off of the plate?

Tim

 

[ErichKeane]

By looking at the pallet, it looks like you were luckly to make it home with it.

What is your plan for getting it off of the plate?

Tim

Thats a next weekend problem I suspect I can just slide the machine on the plate a little at a time with a bar from the front, but we'll see what works. At the moment, I'm just glad to have got it off the trailer!

The way the pallet went, the 'center' was stable and fine, just the 'bridge' parts broke out. I think I had it well strapped enough with straps in tension against eachother left/right that I was just balancing it over the center. I ended up stopping every about 20 minutes or os to ratchet the straps down more and test it out, so a little paranoia and a ton of luck got it home safe

 

[Just for fun]

Good job, it's a good looking mill. Patanoia paid off!

 

[Beckerkumm]

Now you know why I prefer 4x6. Dave

 

[ErichKeane]

Hrm.... so I went to put a collet in last night and discovered that the R8 'alignment' pin doesn't seem to be there! I was able to tighten my collet anyway to tram my head in, but I was quite surprised! I suspect I could live without it (and it might make my thoughts on a power-drawbar easier...) but I might try to replace it anyway.

 

[mksj]

Almost always recommended to remove them, and always if using a power drawbar. Issue often, is that some arbors the threads are not deep enough, when you tighten the arbor, the drawbar stops at the end of the threads, the pin will shear and damage your spindle. It is only there to prevent rotation of the arbor/collet when initially threading drawbar but not as a position lock when tightening the drawbar. I almost sheared mine off on my knee mill and fortunately it only ruined the arbor before I tossed it. Also there is no standards for the alignment pin/channel, so often some collets/arbors may not fit w/o adjustment of the pin.

 

[ErichKeane]

Almost always recommended to remove them, and always if using a power drawbar. Issue often, is that some arbors the threads are not deep enough, when you tighten the arbor, the drawbar stops at the end of the threads, the pin will shear and damage your spindle. It is only there to prevent rotation of the arbor/collet when initially threading drawbar but not as a position lock when tightening the drawbar. I almost sheared mine off on my knee mill and fortunately it only ruined the arbor before I tossed it. Also there is no standards for the alignment pin/channel, so often some collets/arbors may not fit w/o adjustment of the pin.

Thats all good to know!

I don't want to bring compressed air into my shop at the moment, so am hoping to find some mechanism to do a power-drawbar with electric. With the new machine I need a step-stool to reach the drawbar For that, I am considering 2 plans:

1- the traditional impact-wrench version, just with some sort of electric impact gun. There don't seem to be any good butterfly-style electric impacts unfortunately, so I'm not sure what I could use/fab up. This ALSO requires a different drawbar from what I read too?

2- Use a Belleville washer system with some sort of linear actuator to push on the top of the drawbar for release (or perhaps something manual?). The 'downside' to this is removing the drawbar thanks to the pin. However, if I leave the pin out, I think I can just hand-screw it into place from the bottom (with the drawbar pushed 'down' by the actuator), then release the handle to make it go back 'up'.

 

[ErichKeane]

Got it into place! Found a couple of things that need some slight repair (the knee extension and handle are bent funny, and a broken locking handle), but in place, running, and vise mounted! I'm amazed how small my DX6 looks on it

Going through most of the stuff that came with it, so have a decent haul for Papa Charlie when he can stop by