All,
I figured I might as well join in on the fun of posting about my new mill. It hasn't seen much use yet due to my work schedule, but that is about to change. Anyway, a few months ago, I purchased a PM-45-PDF. It arrived in good time, and I managed to get it unboxed and inspected. Everything looks great. I ran the motor for a few hours through each of the speeds to break in the gearbox. Since I needed to be able to move it around, I started designing a rolling stand for it. I did a lot of internet research looking at what others had done. I finally decided to design my own using some of the best features of what I had seen on the net. I am also going to add a powered head lift, and I am actively working on that mod at this time.
I purchased a powered cross feed for the x axis, and went to install it. Unfortunately the mounting bracket was approx. .030 too small and would not fit over the edge of the table. No problem, I indexed the vice, and clamped the bracket in it and took a hair over .015 off of the inside of both side of the bracket. It now fits as if it was made for it!
The rolling stand is made out of 2x2x3/16 square steel tubing. It is designed for the stand that came with the mill to sit inside the base and only raise the overall height by approx. 5". The leveling feet are positioned at 36" OAL for stability. I was deathly afraid of how top heavy this mill could be with the head all the way up. A friend does auto body work, and filled in the weld seams on the top, the ends, and painted it for me. He did a very nice job! I was just going to squirt some paint on it and call it good! The blue color was matched by the local auto paint supply and is called Fleet Blue. It matched almost perfectly!
I have also been building a fog buster type of coolant system. It is also almost finished. Just need to machine out the combining block and mount it up. The mill still has the flood coolant system, but I do not plan on using it at this time.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of what I have done so far.
Mitch
I figured I might as well join in on the fun of posting about my new mill. It hasn't seen much use yet due to my work schedule, but that is about to change. Anyway, a few months ago, I purchased a PM-45-PDF. It arrived in good time, and I managed to get it unboxed and inspected. Everything looks great. I ran the motor for a few hours through each of the speeds to break in the gearbox. Since I needed to be able to move it around, I started designing a rolling stand for it. I did a lot of internet research looking at what others had done. I finally decided to design my own using some of the best features of what I had seen on the net. I am also going to add a powered head lift, and I am actively working on that mod at this time.
I purchased a powered cross feed for the x axis, and went to install it. Unfortunately the mounting bracket was approx. .030 too small and would not fit over the edge of the table. No problem, I indexed the vice, and clamped the bracket in it and took a hair over .015 off of the inside of both side of the bracket. It now fits as if it was made for it!
The rolling stand is made out of 2x2x3/16 square steel tubing. It is designed for the stand that came with the mill to sit inside the base and only raise the overall height by approx. 5". The leveling feet are positioned at 36" OAL for stability. I was deathly afraid of how top heavy this mill could be with the head all the way up. A friend does auto body work, and filled in the weld seams on the top, the ends, and painted it for me. He did a very nice job! I was just going to squirt some paint on it and call it good! The blue color was matched by the local auto paint supply and is called Fleet Blue. It matched almost perfectly!
I have also been building a fog buster type of coolant system. It is also almost finished. Just need to machine out the combining block and mount it up. The mill still has the flood coolant system, but I do not plan on using it at this time.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of what I have done so far.
Mitch
