I am a bit concerned about the vise being tall enough to reach the quill. Someone mentioned a riser block for the vise but I have not been able to find any for sale.
This would probably be something you'd make yourself. As a preliminary step, remove the chuck from the mill spindle and run the spindle down as far as it will go. Now assume the bottom of the workpiece will be elevated about an inch or so by the vise. Manually hold one of your milling cutters part way up inside the quill (about where it would be when held by a collet). This should give you an indication of how thick a riser block you'll want. You can then purchase a piece of aluminum of whatever (stock) thickness is available that's a bit thicker than what you came up with. Tooling plate, if available, is nicely flat and parallel. But even extruded stock will probably be flat enough to get you a start. If you really want to economize (especially to get started quickly/cheaply, and get a feel for machining), you might even get away with a thickness or two of good, smooth 3/4" plywood. Whatever you get, you'll have to cut it to size to fit under your vise.
Also. I bought a set of end mills and no an realizing that I need a set of end mill holders or collets. Are the necessary? Also what about parallels and mounting kits. I just don't want to buy a bunch of stuff that I don't need right now.
Thanks
A chuck should never be used for milling. Chucks can not take side loads. So you'll have to buy some collets or mill holders. By the way ... because mill holders extend out of the spindle, you might not need a riser block for the vise. Of course, you'll have to start by determining what kind of internal taper your mill spindle has. The common ones are R8 and MT3. Look at the arbor on your chuck. If it's one long continuous conical surface, it's probably MT3. If it's conical near the chuck and cylindrical at the other end, it's probably R8. See photo. MT3 is on top.
As for the hold-downs, I'd suggest starting with a small handful of t-slot nuts from CDCO.
http://www.cdcotools.com/ Search for "t slot nut". The ones you'll want are
probably the 7/16" size, but check your table slots. These nuts are just $2 apiece. You can get by with lengths of 3/8" all-thread, some washers, and 3/8" nuts. If you get vise hold-downs along with the vise, you're on your way. Given the size of your mill table, I doubt you'd ever need a full set of hold-downs, so you can start small and gradually build up your stock. Lengths of 3/8"(or 1/2") x 1" steel bar can be used to hold work pieces down on the table, and many different things, even various thicknesses of plywood, can be used to support the "other end" of the hold-down.
Parallels are good to have, but again, you can get by for a while with pieces of cold rolled or aluminum bar stock. If you want "real" ones, I'd suggest LMS part numbers 1893 or 2924, both of which are 3" long and will fit your vise.
As you gain experience with the mill, you'll soon figure out what else you need or what would be handy. And of course, it's always good to get quality stuff that you can use if/when you upgrade to larger machine tools. I've tried to suggest the most inexpensive alternatives in this post, but the sky's the limit. As I mentioned in my previous post, it can easily become an addiction (though legal).
Best wishes!
