New Charter Oak 12Z on the way

That reminds me, I can actually use a 3" face mill now. Any recommendations? I have to surface some iron and steel for my new cross slide and compound I'm going to make.

I was told that 2.5" is just about max for a BP mill & R8 taper unless only taking light cuts. Stalling the motor is one thing for low HP but the R8 taper is not designed to handle it & you may have chatter issues. I never used a large FM on a BP so I don't know & just listened.

I went with a 2.5" 45° FM from Glacern. Got a great deal on it from a member of another forum who converted his PM45 to CNC & changed the spindle. And it was the integral shank model that I had my eye on, no separate shell arbor. It cuts like butter but makes a hell of mess in my garage, I've never stalled my motor with it. I just ordered a Dorian 2" FM, hopefully it shows up soon as I'm really curious how it will perform.

IH used to offer an ISO30 taper spindle for these style mills & is what that other member converted his too, I was there the day he received it. Not sure about now. Similar taper as an R8 but much longer.
 
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Still no chips? Drop and give me 20! Belt drive update, the good news is CO's price for the belt drive is the 2 speed belt drive featured on ArizonVideo's youtube videos. The bad news is they are only getting 2 of the expected 3 units and both are already spoken for so its hurry up and wait.
 
I was told that 2.5" is just about max for a BP mill & R8 taper unless only taking light cuts. Stalling the motor is one thing for low HP but the R8 taper is not designed to handle it & you may have chatter issues. I never used a large FM on a BP so I don't know & just listened.

I went with a 2.5" 45° FM from Glacern. Got a great deal on it from a member of another forum who converted his PM45 to CNC & changed the spindle. And it was the integral shank model that I had my eye on, no separate shell arbor. It cuts like butter but makes a hell of mess in my garage, I've never stalled my motor with it. I just ordered a Dorian 2" FM, hopefully it shows up soon as I'm really curious how it will perform.

IH used to offer an ISO30 taper spindle for these style mills & is what that other member converted his too, I was there the day he received it. Not sure about now. Similar taper as an R8 but much longer.

Thanks Will,

My friend used to use a 3" on his BP clone, but with very light cuts, and he had the same HP as me (3HP). I have looked at the FM45, and liked what I saw, but will have to save up for it.

The ISO30 is an upgrade available to me, but in researching it the only holders I could find started at 1/2" and went up to 1.5". And they are a bit more pricey than R8 collets. Not sure I'll ever run a 1" end mill, but then I also said I'd never own a mill this large. :)

I will look at getting a 2.5". Thanks.
 
Still no chips? Drop and give me 20! Belt drive update, the good news is CO's price for the belt drive is the 2 speed belt drive featured on ArizonVideo's youtube videos. The bad news is they are only getting 2 of the expected 3 units and both are already spoken for so its hurry up and wait.

Is that the one that spins to 5k? That would be cool. In my last conversation with Paul, he was saying that even with the belt drive conversion there is still a lot of torque at slower speeds. I guess I'll have to get on the waiting list, but for now the 3hp VFD should give me more than enough range to start playing with.

EDIT: So...you said two of the expected three are already spoken for. Are you talking to CO about a mill? Hmmm? ;)
 
Thanks Will,

My friend used to use a 3" on his BP clone, but with very light cuts, and he had the same HP as me (3HP). I have looked at the FM45, and liked what I saw, but will have to save up for it.

The ISO30 is an upgrade available to me, but in researching it the only holders I could find started at 1/2" and went up to 1.5". And they are a bit more pricey than R8 collets. Not sure I'll ever run a 1" end mill, but then I also said I'd never own a mill this large. :)

I will look at getting a 2.5". Thanks.

No problem Bill. When I was ready to buy a FM & was told that, I thought, sure I can live with taking light cuts. But the more I thought about it taking very light cuts all the time would suck. Of course on alumn it might not be so bad but I didn't want to take the chance & I'm glad I went with the 2.5" 45°. IIRC the the Glacern FM45 2.5" integral shank goes on sale for $129. They should have a sale coming up during Halloween & Thanksgiving. At least that's when I purchased my vise & other stuff from them.

I too heard ISO30 tooling costs more but when I looked it up they really don't cost much more at all, plus a lot more tooling manufacturers offer stuff in ISO30 & not much for R8. I had thought about the ISO30 conversion at the time too but decided I'll be fine with R8 while I have my current mill. I don't use R8 collets often though, mostly just for setup. I use ER16 & ER40 for milling.
 
No problem Bill. When I was ready to buy a FM & was told that, I thought, sure I can live with taking light cuts. But the more I thought about it taking very light cuts all the time would suck. Of course on alumn it might not be so bad but I didn't want to take the chance & I'm glad I went with the 2.5" 45°. IIRC the the Glacern FM45 2.5" integral shank goes on sale for $129. They should have a sale coming up during Halloween & Thanksgiving. At least that's when I purchased my vise & other stuff from them.

I too heard ISO30 tooling costs more but when I looked it up they really don't cost much more at all, plus a lot more tooling manufacturers offer stuff in ISO30 & not much for R8. I had thought about the ISO30 conversion at the time too but decided I'll be fine with R8 while I have my current mill. I don't use R8 collets often though, mostly just for setup. I use ER16 & ER40 for milling.

Correction: Charter Oak offers a NT30 spindle upgrade. Different I think.
 
Correction: Charter Oak offers a NT30 spindle upgrade. Different I think.

I'm not for sure but I believe NT30 & ISO30 have the same taper, it's just the drawbar thread that is different. NT30 tooling has imperial threads & ISO30 tooling has metric threads. So I assume the spindle doesn't matter, just the tooling & drawbar. One of them is more popular than the other, I think ISO30 is more popular, well amongst Asian machines as I often see the R8/ISO30 option with mill manufacturers.

EDIT: Just looked it up, looks like the difference is only the drawbar thread so the spindle should be able to accept both. Of the 2, not sure which is actually more popular. Doesn't matter, we have R8 anyway. And I have too much tooling in R8 now for me to change to ISO30 & start over. Even if/when I get a knee mill (maybe), I'll probably just stick to R8 so I don't have to buy tooling all over again.
 
IIRC the the Glacern FM45 2.5" integral shank goes on sale for $129. They should have a sale coming up during Halloween & Thanksgiving.

Thanks Will. I have been eyeballing that one for when it goes on sale. I'll have to keep checking.
 
Is that the one that spins to 5k? That would be cool. In my last conversation with Paul, he was saying that even with the belt drive conversion there is still a lot of torque at slower speeds. I guess I'll have to get on the waiting list, but for now the 3hp VFD should give me more than enough range to start playing with.

EDIT: So...you said two of the expected three are already spoken for. Are you talking to CO about a mill? Hmmm? ;)

Yes that's the 5k version. I asked Paul about torque with the belt drive, one of their mills has the two speed belt drive installed and they have no problem drilling and tapping using the lower speed. I also exchanged email with ArizonaVideo who makes the kits and I got the feeling from him the 2 speed was the way to go.

Look here, my CO mill is INBOUND and if I make chips before you I'm going to mock you without mercy! :rofl:
 
I'm not for sure but I believe NT30 & ISO30 have the same taper, it's just the drawbar thread that is different. NT30 tooling has imperial threads & ISO30 tooling has metric threads. So I assume the spindle doesn't matter, just the tooling & drawbar. One of them is more popular than the other, I think ISO30 is more popular, well amongst Asian machines as I often see the R8/ISO30 option with mill manufacturers.

EDIT: Just looked it up, looks like the difference is only the drawbar thread so the spindle should be able to accept both. Of the 2, not sure which is actually more popular. Doesn't matter, we have R8 anyway. And I have too much tooling in R8 now for me to change to ISO30 & start over. Even if/when I get a knee mill (maybe), I'll probably just stick to R8 so I don't have to buy tooling all over again.

Well, I'm not sure what to do. I need to buy collets for the new machine and am not sure if I want to buy more R8 collets or maybe go ER. Thoughts?
 
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