Thinking Of Getting A Facemill For My Fr45 Clone

[coolidge]

Dang you have a Miller Dynasty that's a nice machine. Wait, you dropped coin on a Dynasty but don't own a Buildpro table? I would keep clear of the Lincoln 210MP, mine works fine but talking to the LWS they have had some returns and repairs I'm guessing due to the pressure of high demand and clearing the backlog of orders. I got mine early, one of the first 200 units when they were probably checking them carefully. It worked flawless all during my building the mill stand.

The table they have on display is thinner, I thought 1/4 inch but it could have been 3/16. When I was researching these I did find a couple people who like I read about the thinner tables being warped so they bought the thicker one and it was also warped. If you go look at them you will understand why that is, the way they slot them, the design almost encourages the thing to warp.

If you can find a flat one and it doesn't warp when heated I guess that may be better than what you have. I wish you could join the Buildpro club, its massively thick, mine is flat to within .002, I smile every time I use it or look at it.

 

[tmarks11]

Probably early-adopters disease with the 210MP. Dynasty was like that for the first couple of year it was offered. Fortunately mine is a 2006, and it lays a sweet bead. Only problem I ever had was replacing the stupid cooling fan.
New fan: $16.
Disassembling the entire stinking machine to get at the cooling fan in the middle: 4 hours.
Machine works on reassembly: priceless.

I was sweating that I wouldn't get it back together again right. Had to disconnect a few handfuls of electrical and electronic connections. Not built for ease of maintenance. Didn't want to pay $300 to get a $16 muffin fan replaced.

 

[coolidge]

That's a brutal fan replacement, someone should smack the engineer who designed that.

 

[tmarks11]

yeah, I get that they mounted it in the middle so it had a heatsink on each side of it.

But the fact that they didn't just build a slot to stick the muffin fan in... I swear that they started with the muffin fan, and everything got bolted on it first. So taking it apart was sort of like unwrapping a present... disassembling the outer layers to get to the middle.

The fan was just weak. It would run if you spun it to start, but otherwise... nothing. This is a VERY common failure issue with the dynasty. Miller wanted $86 just for the fan. I found a fan with the same spec (air flow vs. static pressure drop voltage, 120x38mm, 24V, a Delta AFB1224SHE-FOO) for $16, and now it works great.

That card cage like thing in the lower right below has the muffin fan bolted to it (to the left, even though you can't see it in the picture). To get that card cage out, everything in it has to be removed so you can get at the bolts to the fan and to the other structural components of the welder that the card cage is bolted to. All those yellow and white wires have to get unplugged, etc.



I will probably end up with the Miller 211. I like that fact that it is manufactured in the US, don't see that much. I think Lincoln moved manufacturing to Mexico, and elsewhere (maybe a rumor, but the 210MG is definitely undercutting Miller's offers).

I have also thought the Miller Arcstation "X" took too big of a cut out of the table. The web left in the middle just doesn't seem like it would give enough support, even if the table is 3/8" plate.

 

[astjp2]

Why not kennemetal facing mills? There are a bunch on the bay for cheap..Tim

 

[coolidge]

Wow well if you are going to bury a fan like that the fan needs to be spec'd to outlive the rest of the machine and never need replacing.

 

[astjp2]

We have mills at work that were built in the 80's, most of the fans died years ago, these machines will outlive the electronics. Tim

 

[PatMiles]

Fast shipping from ebay, I got my Glacern 3" face mill today and gave it a test drive. It came with one set of inserts installed, no idea what kind as there weren't any markings. I made a light pass on some steel (.010"), no noise or drama during the cut. I next tried a .030" cut and you could tell the inserts were dull by the finish. I rotated all of the inserts to get a fresh cutting edge and retried a .030" cut. Very smooth and the finish was very nice. I think it's a great buy for $113 shipped to my door.

$113.00 shipped? Did you kiss him at least?

 

[Bray D]

I had the chance to use my face mill on some 1" square steel stock this weekend (making some T nuts). It was pretty harsh. It sounds like the gears in the head were knocking pretty good.

I experimented with various DOC from .015" up to approx .060". Toyed around with different speeds as well. Anything from nearly 100rpm up to 600rpm (coated carbide inserts on a 3" dia mill). Nothing I did seemed to quiet it down.

I decided to take it out and stuck my 1/2" rougher in there for most of the material removal. .100" DOC was still smooth as ever.

Do you guys' geared heads clank pretty loud when using your face mills?

 

[sanddan]

I had the chance to use my face mill on some 1" square steel stock this weekend (making some T nuts). It was pretty harsh. It sounds like the gears in the head were knocking pretty good.

I experimented with various DOC from .015" up to approx .060". Toyed around with different speeds as well. Anything from nearly 100rpm up to 600rpm (coated carbide inserts on a 3" dia mill). Nothing I did seemed to quiet it down.

I decided to take it out and stuck my 1/2" rougher in there for most of the material removal. .100" DOC was still smooth as ever.

Do you guys' geared heads clank pretty loud when using your face mills?

That was the main reason I started looking at the Glacern. My mill came with a 4 insert face mill with unknown square inserts. I think they were HHS and even when I swapped them to a fresh cutting edge they made a racket and shook the mill really bad. They also gave me a crappy finish. The glacern is very quiet and smooth, only making noise when first getting the cut started. That goes away once the cutter is fully engaged. I was running 1180 RPM and took a .100" cut in steel like it was butter. I am using inserts I found on ebay for about $50 for a set of 10. Each insert has 4 cutting corners so should last awhile. Even better would be a 2.5" face mill as they use 5 inserts instead of 6. I'd like to find a 2" to go with the 3" as they use 4 inserts so the 10 pack would be perfect. The arbor works for 2", 2.5" and 3" so I am covered there.