Lathe or Mill…I can't decide and I'm going nutz

Oh boy….you have a point there! I'll try to keep a low profile:bitingnails:

The bases for most keys are 4 x 6 inches or less. The ones I'm making now are 3x4. I would like the have the ability to hog out some channels on the bottom of the brass base so that I can run wires to the contact posts.

Looking at the Taig lathe milling attachment. Can you tell me how big a piece I can hold with that, and what would I do with that "tooling plate" that they show as an accessory?
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1956&category=

As far as using the drill press for an operation like that, I would imagine that I'd be ok with brass or aluminum, but not with anything harder.

Steve

Marco Bernardini said:
Steve, if the market for cw vintage style keys would be profitable now we'll be submerged by Chinese replicas :lmao:
Good luck for your XY table hunting!
Maybe you can post a request for it into the "Classified Ads" section of the forum, I'm sure it's read mainly by good machinists ;)
Click to expand...
 
CODEMAN said:
Oh boy….you have a point there! I'll try to keep a low profile:bitingnails:

The bases for most keys are 4 x 6 inches or less. The ones I'm making now are 3x4. I would like the have the ability to hog out some channels on the bottom of the brass base so that I can run wires to the contact posts.

Looking at the Taig lathe milling attachment. Can you tell me how big a piece I can hold with that, and what would I do with that "tooling plate" that they show as an accessory?
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1956&category=

As far as using the drill press for an operation like that, I would imagine that I'd be ok with brass or aluminum, but not with anything harder.

Steve
Click to expand...

The vise on the Taig milling attachment is not wide, just 2".
But if you plan to make your keys always the same size I think a good solution would be a dedicated tooling plate (a tooling plate basically is just a thick metal plate with some tapped holes), with holding clamps placed exactly where you need them, and maybe some pins to center the piece with precision.
This tooling plate can even be used as a "pallet" to move the piece from the drill press to an eventual mill or lathe, and a common angle plate, not too expensive, can be used to keep the tooling plate vertical if you need it, in the same way of the milling attachment.
Of course you still need the XY table, to move with precision the tooling plate…
 
CODEMAN said:
The bases for most keys are 4 x 6 inches or less. The ones I'm making now are 3x4. I would like the have the ability to hog out some channels on the bottom of the brass base so that I can run wires to the contact posts.

Looking at the Taig lathe milling attachment. Can you tell me how big a piece I can hold with that, and what would I do with that "tooling plate" that they show as an accessory?
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1956&category=

As far as using the drill press for an operation like that, I would imagine that I'd be ok with brass or aluminum, but not with anything harder.

Steve
Click to expand...

The Taig milling attachment not too bad. It is about the same as mounting your compound on an angle plate (hint, hint). It doesn't have that much travel (1.5") or capacity (around 2"). Now, it is not as bad as it seems. Usually, you would be using the t-slots rather than the vise jaws. If you are drilling on it, you just clamp the work on the table fairly close to the proper location for drilling and you are just going to use the vertical travel to fine tune the location. For milling, you will just orient the work so the slot will be parallel with the cross slide and again, the vertical travel is for fine adjustment unless it is a really short cut. The tooling plate is just a plate with an array of holes to clamp things. It is easy enough to make one yourself from a piece of aluminum plate.

You can cheat (work smarter) and plan your base around stock material sizes. That leaves only two edges to deal with. Alternatively, for a small fee, most metal suppliers will cut to size and you don't have to deal with it at all. For an example, OnlineMetals.com charges a $3.60 cut fee and they are not the cheapest by a long shot.

As to the milling slots for wires, why on earth would you cut it in the metal instead of that nice, easy to cut wood in the base?
 
CODEMAN, I just upgraded my X2 mill to the Little Machine Shop large table assembly, and am selling the stock table and base. I think it would work really well for your drill press. However, an issue would be I'm in Maryland and it looks like you're in Vermont and shipping could be expensive. Please PM me if you're interested.
 
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