Newbie Question: G 704/759 Mill Base-to-table Dimension

[furqueron]

Hi all,

Howdy and a quick intro:

First post and new to milling...so warning up front!!

Been on a spending spree today and after much fretting ended up with a 759 on its way to our door.

My 17yr old son and I will be using it primarily to mill renshape to make positive masters for silicon molds. The subject material: 25-52mm wargaming pieces. While we have an ultra-high rez DLP 3d-Printer, its limited on size of pieces and speed/cost of printing come into play, so a mill seems like a great fit.

While I've done hobbiest woodwork and welding for 30+ years and he's been scratch building scale models for competition for 6 years, this is our first venture into milling. Been doing every type of convoluted cut on tablesaw/bandsaw/jigsaw/handsaw/Foredom you can image. Looking to the mill to bring more accuracy and safety to the picture.Likely we'll be asking a few questions along the way! I'll go ahead and say "thank you" ahead of time in case I ever forget to tell someone thanks along the way...old-timers disease sets in from time to time ;-)

Noticed the base for the 759 looks...mmmmm...shall we saw "underwhelming". While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I'm designing a new base for it, a variation based on what I saw on russstuff youtube channel. Key differences will be slightly taller (my son and I are both 6'+....and I dislike bending over for long periods anymore), wider (I plan to add three drawers underneath, no wet area as russtuff had since renshape vs steel, more likely a vacuum attachment), and plan to have lengthened 2x6 outriggers to running across bottom front and back...outside the corner legs I'll have the leveling bolts for ease of access and also plan to put 3-4" casters....a rule of my shop is everything has to be on wheels.

So now that I'm sure that's clear as mud, this particular question

Q) what is the dimension from the bottom of the mill base to the top of the table? From pics I'm guessing its about 8"??

If so, following russtuffs dimensions looks like it'd put the top of the table around 38.5"ish (36 legs + 1.5" top + 8" for table height)..given he stated he's about 5'10".. for us, I'd add 3-4 inches to that to get a table height of around 41"ish range.

TIA,

Jesse/Jon-Luc

 

[ch2co]

First and foremost, WELCOME to the group.
This is a really great group (and my first use of a moving emoticon that I'm not so sure of ). I'm sure that you will find this the friendliest and most
helpful machining group out there. It's filled with experts and those of us with less (much less in my case) experience in the machining world.
Have a question? Even a "stupid" one?( that there is no such thing as), ask it!

As to your height question, Im and old cuss who doesn't like bending over any more than I have to. I usually stand at my lathe and mini mill.
My minimill table is 44" off the floor and I love it.I'm 5'9" tall and I custom built the base to make it that height after a couple of weeks of messing around with
it shortly after getting it. I didn't really buy my mill, it came as a package along with my lathe and tons of tooling etc. I thought I'd probably
get rid of it. Its a G8689 and I can't believe how much I love the little guy. IF I were to go out and get another mill it would be the G0759.
If I have the need, and the cash one will arrive at my door soon after. Its big enough for me, and it has most importantly a lot more table space, which is my
biggest gripe about my current mill. If you can find a manual and parts list on line, that might give you a better indication of the table to base height.

Best of luck and we need pictures!

CHuck the grumpy old guy

and now I'm sure, no more moving emoticons for me.

 

[GSWayne]

On my G0704 the table is 6.06" above the base. I added DROs to my 0704, they didn't offer the 759 when I bought it, having them built in is nice. I have my mill on a roll around tool chest so I have 6 drawers for storage instead of the fairly useless cabinet that the G0704 came with. I'm sure some people will consider my roll around tool chest an insufficiently rigid base, but it seems to work fine for me. I did add a 1.3" thick MDF board to stiffen up the top surface of the cabinet.

 

[furqueron]

Thanks Chuck, your comment on the height you're using is leading me to rethink the overall height, I'll probably add a couple of inches.

GSW thanks for confirming the table height at 6.06"!

I'm kinda a-rententive regarding vibration...overbuilt the table for our 3D printer as well. Since part of reason we're getting the mill is we're looking for as good a finish from the mill as possible, that's why I'm "jesse-fying" it as a friend calls it

Just got back from getting lumber for the base, I'll start on it tomorrow now that I have that 6.06 measurement.

Thanks again guys!

 

[kd4gij]

I have had my G0704 for about 6 years. I am 6 foot. And fine the height perfect for sitting on a stool. Of cores The first thing I did was ad power feed to the x axes.

 

[furqueron]

Some progress photos and some equipment questions Photos at bottom...

Got a couple of three hours late yesterday after "Saturday errands" to put in on the stand. Got the four legs done. Plans for today: decide on the rail dimensions and bore out the holes for the leg levelers and mount the wheels. Will be later in the week till I get to the drawers.

Ended up with the legs at 37.75". Allowing a 1"ish leveling distance, 37.75" legs, 2.25" ish thick plywood sandwich top and 6.06" for the table, should be at about 46" table height +/- a bit. with putting a Glacern 5" vice (2.5" bed height) and looking at a Vertex 6" (looking at 8 at well) rotary...looks like about 3" tall...should put overall work surface at about 48-49" range.

Already ordered the 5" vice and still deciding between Grizzly rotary and Vertex...but leaning towards Vertex w/dividers in case we ever need 'em.



Biggest unforeseen consequence...due to space and where I want to locate the mill...my attic ladder will need to move. Will do that later in the week. On the plus side, as I'm not putting a large benchtop in place for the mill...I might be able to sneak a mini-lathe (and I do mini-thinking Sherline into the same area....don't chuckle too much...looks like it'll do what we need for turning scale model gun barrels etc. For the size of work and price point...haven't found another make, but very open to ideas

From some quick "mockups" we did (e.g. cardboard boxes on the kitchen counter), this should work pretty well for me and my son, given we're in the 6'2"-6'3" range. My shop stool will work for this height as well

Had been reading and seems that RenShape and similar materials do well with a carbide bull mill for "roughing" and a square mill for finish.

Planning to get the last few remaining items ordered today or tomorrow: rotary table, angle vice, end mills, R8 collets.

Q1) Anyone have thoughts on Kodiak bits? Seems they might be a good compromise on American-made and price, if they leave a great finish cut.

Q2) Who makes a decent quality R8 collets? Seems as this is the main interface for the mill and mill cutters I'd want to find a fairly decent manufacturer for these?

Q3) Since we'll be doing a lot of facet cuts on angle (think sloping armor) looking for a angle vice as well. Don't plan to rotate the head for these types of cuts. Looking at a 4" Wilton, appreciate any feedback on that as well.

TIA,

Jesse/Jon-Luc

 

[stupoty]

For small decorative turning you might find a watch maker's lathe quite good, they occasionally pop up cheaply on ebay.

The wilton tilting vices look a lot better than the basic ones with flat metal supports at the raised end which I found to flexible to be very useful. I've been using a tilting table but that has it's own issues too.

any example of the scenery your making ? Any excuse to go looking at pretty dioramas

Stuart

 

[rock_breaker]

Welcome to the group +1,
It looks like you are going for "stout" which IMO is great. Anti sway bracing or components are again IMO a must. The wooden bench my father built for the Clausing 100 MK3 that I inherited is much more useful than the cabinet stand that came with my Enco 1340. Drawers under the MK3 lathe are really handy (just be sure to close them when working).
Enjoy your machines and have a good day!
Ray

 

[furqueron]

Here's a few handy samples.

I'm attaching some of the diorama photos of some of his competition models (Wonderfest and IPMS) below. The two dios are 1/350. All the rest (walker and two ships) are 1:22.5

The long airship (Dragonfly) ship wasn't finished in time for last years competitions, he's still working on it. He did a "quick" 4 week mid-section version that he called a weapons test platform, its the light yellow model with all the weapons and controls. It started as a prototype to figure out how to do the hull plating. Each plate is individually cut and fitted. All rivets (some 6k in all for all these models shown so far) are each hand made, drilled and glued in place. The wooden decking, each plank has about 15-18 finishing steps and are individually made. The "nails" are each pins that have been cut and finished. The finishing is done in three variations to add detail and then randomly mixed and installed. The ship hulls are being built plank-on-frame. etc etc.

Steampunk StormWalker build blog, done in 1:22.5

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=214389&highlight=furqueron

Ship started two years ago, and planning to be finished this year. Need to update blog with latest pics...got a bit sidetracked with the 3D printer and mill:

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=225612&highlight=furqueron

These were all done with hand tools (foredom, files,, files, carving tools) and Jim Byrnes tablesaw n thickness sander, fill size drill press (30 yr old Delta, my first woodworking tool), full size bandsaw, delta lathe, delta fullsize tablesaw, and the tool that got us into some partial automation..a Silverbullet die cutting machine. All of his designs are sketched/handrawn and then translated to Rhino 3D as needed. With Rhino he can generate cutting files for the Silverbullet.

We just got the Solud 3D printer and hope to have that going this week. It'll be driven by models from Rhino and Zbrush.

Can't afford a CNC mill in the size we want and besides, this way we learn how to really use it

He's done more, but these are the most documented builds.

 

[ch2co]

Your base is looking good. I also recommend some sort of cross bracing. Well affixed side panels work well or even better that angle braces.
I really think that building your own bench is far superior to the stand that comes with the mill.

CHuck the grumpy old guy