New mill Wells-Index 745

[Papa Charlie]

I have just gone through your entire project here. I am very impressed with the quality of work and your approach to the project. I am still looking for my mill. I know what I want, but that may not be the most logical. So I keep looking. I am on a restricted budget like so many here. If I had my choice, I would probably go for a K&T Horizontal Vertical milling machine. The ability to change over from one to the other by moving the head out of the way on its own davit seems very appealing to me.

Thank you very much for sharing this.

One tool you may want to get is a set of precision ground stones. They will ensure that your mounting surfaces are clean and free of anything that will through your mountings or readings off. When you first look at the price, like I did, you are taken back but according to many machinists on YouTube and a couple of tool and die makers that I know at Boeing, they are as important as you test indicator.

I haven't purchased mine yet, but will making the purchase shortly. I will be purchasing from Shark River Machine. I will be placing my order for the 6"x2"x1" stones. He produces 3 different sizes.

Here is a clip from his email on my inquiry.

"The first is 4”x 1 ¾: x 5/8” ground on 4 sides Made in the USA they run $125.00 per pair shipped in the USA. The second size is the size that I sent to Adam. They are 6”x2”x1” and run $160.00 per pair shipped in the USA. The third size is new offering. They are 4” round x 1” thick and they run $180.00 per pair. I have all sizes ready to ship. If you are interested send me your mailing address and a Paypal email address and I will send an invoice."

Again, amazing work. I will be interested to see if you get any unwanted vibration with your mill on the cart.

 

[dmittz]

I have just gone through your entire project here. I am very impressed with the quality of work and your approach to the project. I am still looking for my mill. I know what I want, but that may not be the most logical. So I keep looking. I am on a restricted budget like so many here. If I had my choice, I would probably go for a K&T Horizontal Vertical milling machine. The ability to change over from one to the other by moving the head out of the way on its own davit seems very appealing to me.

Thank you very much for sharing this.

One tool you may want to get is a set of precision ground stones. They will ensure that your mounting surfaces are clean and free of anything that will through your mountings or readings off. When you first look at the price, like I did, you are taken back but according to many machinists on YouTube and a couple of tool and die makers that I know at Boeing, they are as important as you test indicator.

I haven't purchased mine yet, but will making the purchase shortly. I will be purchasing from Shark River Machine. I will be placing my order for the 6"x2"x1" stones. He produces 3 different sizes.

Here is a clip from his email on my inquiry.

"The first is 4”x 1 ¾: x 5/8” ground on 4 sides Made in the USA they run $125.00 per pair shipped in the USA. The second size is the size that I sent to Adam. They are 6”x2”x1” and run $160.00 per pair shipped in the USA. The third size is new offering. They are 4” round x 1” thick and they run $180.00 per pair. I have all sizes ready to ship. If you are interested send me your mailing address and a Paypal email address and I will send an invoice."

Again, amazing work. I will be interested to see if you get any unwanted vibration with your mill on the cart.

That is great advise, I will add stones to the list of tooling I need to buy in the future.

YES, we will for sure see how the rolling cart works out. It is super handy to be able to move the mill by myself but vibrations are possible I guess. I do have the 4 'feet' screwed down so they are taking quite a bit of weight but certainly not the whole 2100lbs, but enough that I can not move it at all regardless how hard I push or pull on it... when I need to move it I just use a rachet and screw the feet up. I suspect that with the light hobby use this mill will be getting it will be OK, but I guess we will see.

 

[dmittz]

[Take the swivel base of your vise off. You may find the vise is closer than you think..
[/QUOTE]

Ya that's a good suggestion, I may give that a try and see, although I could see myself using the swivel base quite a bit.

 

[dmittz]

My Vison worx 2.0 spindle light arrived today. I was quite excited to see it go on the mill. Here's lots of pictures in case anyone is considering buying one.


So the 86 LED light ring is fully sealed and water proof and is inlayed in anodized aluminum housing. The magnets on the back side provide 40lbs holding force, so it will never fall off.

The 2.0 fits around the spindle just perfectly...





For me the lighting level seems perfect, nice and bright but not so much that it causes glare or is uncomfortable to look at.


The on/off switch is held on my a magnet, I mounted it at the front of the ram on the RH side where its easy for me to reach. There is also a magnet hook that the coiled cord hooks to that I mounted on the underside of the belt guard, the coiled cord allows the light to move up and down no problem.

A couple more beauty shots...

 

[Papa Charlie]

That provides some excellent light and where you need it.

 

[pontiac428]

Nice work, time for some chips! Your Index is good and ready!

That Vision-Worx light really seems to make it easy. I just looked them up, and needed CPR after seeing their price. Yow!

I would seriously consider removing the rotary base from the vise. At some point in the future, you'll be doing something mundane and miss your dimensions because of it. There is too much going on in keeping a rotary base accurate in plane with your table, and Nostradamus predicts the frustrations will force you to remove it.

 

[dmittz]

Nice work, time for some chips! Your Index is good and ready!

That Vision-Worx light really seems to make it easy. I just looked them up, and needed CPR after seeing their price. Yow!

I would seriously consider removing the rotary base from the vise. At some point in the future, you'll be doing something mundane and miss your dimensions because of it. There is too much going on in keeping a rotary base accurate in plane with your table, and Nostradamus predicts the frustrations will force you to remove it.

Yes, its getting real close to being a functional mill. Still waiting for one more 5/8 Lyndex endmill holder to come from Japan and frustratingly the push style oil gun, I don't want to use it to much until I can tube the ways. So hopefully the oil gun shows up soon.

On a positive note 2 more of my Lyndex endmill holders arrived from KBC today. These ones are 3/8 and 3/4, they seem very nice.



I'll keep that in mind about the swivel base vise if I am doing anything where much precision is required.

 

[Papa Charlie]

What is this push type oiler? Is it one of the units that you push down on a pump handle and it presurizes the lines so that there is a slow feed of oil while the pump handle slowly returns to the starting point?

 

[dmittz]

What is this push type oiler? Is it one of the units that you push down on a pump handle and it presurizes the lines so that there is a slow feed of oil while the pump handle slowly returns to the starting point?

Nothing that fancy unfortunatley, its just a small oil gun that you can use to lubricate each of the Zirk fittings with. Looks kind of like a multi-bit screw driver. Here's a link to the one I bought and am waiting for:

https://www.machinerypartsdepot.com/product/12PB20

One day I'd really like to setup a nice one-shot lube system. But I want to get the mill fully functional first and aquire a bit more tooling before I dive into that project.

 

[Buffalo21]

Nice work, time for some chips! Your Index is good and ready!

That Vision-Worx light really seems to make it easy. I just looked them up, and needed CPR after seeing their price. Yow!

I would seriously consider removing the rotary base from the vise. At some point in the future, you'll be doing something mundane and miss your dimensions because of it. There is too much going on in keeping a rotary base accurate in plane with your table, and Nostradamus predicts the frustrations will force you to remove it.

I also looked up the light, as I love to buy 2 or 3, but DAMN!!, I’ve bought full licensable, road worthy cars for less than the cost of one of those light. I still want them, its just as Ponitac428 said, ithe cost is CPR inducing.