Correct way to hold end mill?

9t8z28 said:
Royesses you have got all kinds of nice mods done to this mill. Nice job! Do the read heads ride in any sort of a slot or groove on the scale or do they just float?

So Sieg has a new powerfeed that you have as well. I don’t know how I haven’t been able to keep track of all of this new stuff. How do you like the power feed? Does it have enough power? Sorry for all of the questions but you’ve got a lot of neat mods done to your machine
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind comments. I am happy to answer any questions and share with the forum members.
The edges of the aluminum scale holder creates a small channel on top of the stainless steel cover, sort of a shallow u channel you can see on the photo of the scale with the end removed in post #27. The reader is able to fit inside this channel. The reader is set up to not touch the scale while the wipers do touch the scale. I place a thin business card between the reader head and scale while pressing the wiper bracket and reader into the scale and tighten the screws. Then remove the card and there is a small gap between the reader and scale. The gap is not very critical as I have held the reader an 1/8" away from the scale and it still worked. It has been very stable and repeatable. The reader should be centered on the scale face and the scale should travel as parallel as possible to the axis of the moving parts.

I replaced an old power feed with the new one. I really like the new feed and especially the clutch. It is faster than the old and has 2 limit plungers and a limit switch assembly to stop it before the table runs into the base. While the LMS/Sieg stuff is expensive it is well designed and works well. I really like the power feed. It seems to be more powerful than the old style. As with all this mini mill stuff you need fix minor things that seem to apply your machine. The grub screw on the power feed connector bushing was scraping the mill base when at the end of the righ travel. I raised the end plates up level with the table and readjusted the lead screw nut but I still needed to file the grub screw flush. I mounted the limit switch and plungers on the front of the table because the dro reader and scale were already mounted on the back side of the table. I had to make a new limit switch bracket and flip the two micro switches inside the case since they were wired for a backside table mounting. I have only good things to say about The Little Machine Shop and their service and support. I am very happy with the DRO and Power feed and would do it all over again.

Roy
 
Thank you Roy. Now I understand how these scales work. I’ll definitely be going this route if I ever have issues wth my iGagings.
LMS is great to deal with. I have the solid column and larger table that I got from them to upgrade my Harbor Freight 44991 mill and I also swapped out the stock motor for a treadmill motor. I feel that I have dumped so much money into my mill that I cant justify buying a powerfeed. I still havent sold the original table and column to recoup the cost of upgrades. I decided Instead of buying one I am gonna make one from a wiper motor. Just curious, what did you do with the old Sieg powerfeed?
royesses said:
Thank you for the kind comments. I am happy to answer any questions and share with the forum members.
The edges of the aluminum scale holder creates a small channel on top of the stainless steel cover, sort of a shallow u channel you can see on the photo of the scale with the end removed in post #27. The reader is able to fit inside this channel. The reader is set up to not touch the scale while the wipers do touch the scale. I place a thin business card between the reader head and scale while pressing the wiper bracket and reader into the scale and tighten the screws. Then remove the card and there is a small gap between the reader and scale. The gap is not very critical as I have held the reader an 1/8" away from the scale and it still worked. It has been very stable and repeatable. The reader should be centered on the scale face and the scale should travel as parallel as possible to the axis of the moving parts.

I replaced an old power feed with the new one. I really like the new feed and especially the clutch. It is faster than the old and has 2 limit plungers and a limit switch assembly to stop it before the table runs into the base. While the LMS/Sieg stuff is expensive it is well designed and works well. I really like the power feed. It seems to be more powerful than the old style. As with all this mini mill stuff you need fix minor things that seem to apply your machine. The grub screw on the power feed connector bushing was scraping the mill base when at the end of the righ travel. I raised the end plates up level with the table and readjusted the lead screw nut but I still needed to file the grub screw flush. I mounted the limit switch and plungers on the front of the table because the dro reader and scale were already mounted on the back side of the table. I had to make a new limit switch bracket and flip the two micro switches inside the case since they were wired for a backside table mounting. I have only good things to say about The Little Machine Shop and their service and support. I am very happy with the DRO and Power feed and would do it all over again.

Roy
Click to expand...
 
Thank you Roy. Now I understand how these scales work. I’ll definitely be going this route if I ever have issues wth my iGagings.
LMS is great to deal with. I have the solid column and larger table that I got from them to upgrade my Harbor Freight 44991 mill and I also swapped out the stock motor for a treadmill motor. I feel that I have dumped so much money into my mill that I cant justify buying a powerfeed. I still havent sold the original table and column to recoup the cost of upgrades. I decided Instead of buying one I am gonna make one from a wiper motor. Just curious, what did you do with the old Sieg powerfeed?
royesses said:
Thank you for the kind comments. I am happy to answer any questions and share with the forum members.
The edges of the aluminum scale holder creates a small channel on top of the stainless steel cover, sort of a shallow u channel you can see on the photo of the scale with the end removed in post #27. The reader is able to fit inside this channel. The reader is set up to not touch the scale while the wipers do touch the scale. I place a thin business card between the reader head and scale while pressing the wiper bracket and reader into the scale and tighten the screws. Then remove the card and there is a small gap between the reader and scale. The gap is not very critical as I have held the reader an 1/8" away from the scale and it still worked. It has been very stable and repeatable. The reader should be centered on the scale face and the scale should travel as parallel as possible to the axis of the moving parts.

I replaced an old power feed with the new one. I really like the new feed and especially the clutch. It is faster than the old and has 2 limit plungers and a limit switch assembly to stop it before the table runs into the base. While the LMS/Sieg stuff is expensive it is well designed and works well. I really like the power feed. It seems to be more powerful than the old style. As with all this mini mill stuff you need fix minor things that seem to apply your machine. The grub screw on the power feed connector bushing was scraping the mill base when at the end of the righ travel. I raised the end plates up level with the table and readjusted the lead screw nut but I still needed to file the grub screw flush. I mounted the limit switch and plungers on the front of the table because the dro reader and scale were already mounted on the back side of the table. I had to make a new limit switch bracket and flip the two micro switches inside the case since they were wired for a backside table mounting. I have only good things to say about The Little Machine Shop and their service and support. I am very happy with the DRO and Power feed and would do it all over again.

Roy
Click to expand...
 
I still have the old Sieg power feed. I was going to make a clutch for it but found the new system on LMS and decided to go with it. Sounds like you have also made a lot of upgrades to your mini mill. They do get expensive but if you don't have room for a larger mill they are the only option.

Roy
 
royesses said:
Also you can see the new style x axis power feed with clutch. I really like both products.
Click to expand...


Thank you Roy for updating us on the new powerfeed, I am seriously considering it for my mini mill, any type will be better than no powerfeed , turning that wheel back and forth gets to me after doing it a few times.
I'm sure the clutch makes a huge difference .
 
I just checked LMS price, it has a $57.45 tariff surcharge:eek 2:
 
Surcharge now shows $59.87 US. This is absurd. Total cost is $379.82 US for the mini mill standard version, the large table hi torque mini mill version is $2.40 cheaper. I paid - #5111 Power Feed, Mini Mill $299.95 on 03/17/2018 so there has been a price increase too. Hopefully the tariff war will be resolved soon and pricing will come back down.

Roy

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