Black Friday Burning a hole in my pocket.. Decisions, Decisions

[stevezero]

My Sherline mill is mounted to a plywood base and lives on top of a 26" US General tool chest. The Micromeark is about 2x the weight but I doubt that is a problem.

I have the same box. I was going to purchase a second and bolt one of my workbench tops to them, and make a mega bench, but they didn't have one in stock for a 90 mile radius. for what gas prices are, I would have bought the 44 inch box if they had it in stock at my local store on Sunday. hahaha

 

[Aaron_W]

I have the same box. I was going to purchase a second and bolt one of my workbench tops to them, and make a mega bench, but they didn't have one in stock for a 90 mile radius. for what gas prices are, I would have bought the 44 inch box if they had it in stock at my local store on Sunday. hahaha

My Sherline lathe lives on a matching 44" USG box. They make a nice base for small machines.

 

[homebrewed]

I mounted my Micromark on a potting bench I bought from HF. It has a 2x4 top so pretty hefty. A trestle design, it's a little wobbly so I reinforced it with a cross piece across the back. The shelf on the bottom gives me a fair amount of storage space. I mounted an outlet strip on one of the legs to provide power for the mill and other accessories. I wouldn't recommend placing an outlet strip on the benchtop due to the possibility of swarf getting into the sockets. That could get "interesting".

The X and Y axis handwheels were a little too close to the benchtop for me, so I elevated the mill on a square of 3/4" plywood. When you mount the mill, keep in mind that the table (and handwheels) move, so you don't want to inadvertently limit your already limited range of motion.

Have fun with your new mill!

 

[Road_Clam]

I have the same box. I was going to purchase a second and bolt one of my workbench tops to them, and make a mega bench, but they didn't have one in stock for a 90 mile radius. for what gas prices are, I would have bought the 44 inch box if they had it in stock at my local store on Sunday. hahaha

A big mistake I initially made was mounting my mill on a heavy duty steel indistrial bench. The problem I quickly learned was transferring harmonic vibrations. Yes my bench could support 2000# but the thick guage all metal construction was literally a tuning fork as far as vibration and noise. I added a 2X6 wood deck and that was the end of all the vibrations and noise. So it's really necessary to fab a wood base to absorb vibrations of any benchtop lathe / mill .

 

[homebrewed]

A big mistake I initially made was mounting my mill on a heavy duty steel indistrial bench. The problem I quickly learned was transferring harmonic vibrations. Yes my bench could support 2000# but the thick guage all metal construction was literally a tuning fork as far as vibration and noise. I added a 2X6 wood deck and that was the end of all the vibrations and noise. So it's really necessary to fab a wood base to absorb vibrations of any benchtop lathe / mill .

I wouldn't have guessed that! Thanks for the benefit of your experience.....