A little off the subject

[Nuclearcricket]

Wayne, I was about to ask you what all you felt you needed a mill for, what kind of work you would do on it and how big of table travel you really feel you need. I will admit I am a little bit spoiled in that I spent most of 21 years working for a company as a toolmaker and all they had was bridgport mills. They are good, they last, they can be a bit on the big side and they are heavy, just ain't no getting around that.
Now all of that being said, I have always wanted a mill and the other year I scored big time. I picked up a used Grizzly G0704 with stand for $450. It was 3 years old and owned by a college student. He had no clue as to how to use it for the most part so it wasn't damaged but did have a bit of rust on the table, not a biggy in my book.
I got a swivel base vise with it for another $50. The vice is from Grizzly as well and to be honest its a piece of junk. No power feed, but does have digital depth on the quill. I added a quill stop to mine and I have found it to be very accurate. I found it on Craigslist. I had to pick up a set of collets for it but the are not expensive if you shop around. I am often surprised at what I see for sale on Craigslist. I have made out well with my purchases on there. Might be well worth your time to check it out. never know what will pop up.
If you do end up with a mill, a good place I have found to look for good quality mill vices in H&H industrial products, https://www.hhip.com/, its owned by the same guy that has LIttlemachineshop.com.
Sam

[TexasMac]

Sam,

Thanks for your comments and link to H&H. I'll check them out. Concerning a mill, considering future use & due to the limited space I'm leaning towards a good quality bench mill similar to your Grizzly with DRO. I've budgeted as much as $3K but if I could run across one like you did I'd jump all over it. For the price you paid I'd be willing to take a chance to see if it would fit my needs. You got a heck of a deal. I've located a used Bridgeport that's reported to be in pretty good condition for less than $3K. It comes with 9"X 36" Table, 2 Axis DRO, Assorted collets, Drill Chuck & Mill Vise. The problem is the space limitation.

I've been all over Craigslist but haven't come up with anything acceptable in my area & I've searched up to 300 miles one way from my zip code.

Wayne

[Nuclearcricket]

Honestly I got lucky with my Mill. I think I happened on the add the same day the guy posted it and he wanted rid of the mill really bad. He had accepted a new job in the DC area and was moving shortly and had no way of taking it with him and no place to leave it. The fact that I was a machinist by trade I think helped.
That bridgport sounds like a nice deal, and the dro is so nice. Where I worked ours had DRO's on them and it does spoil you a bit. In the long run the DRO's are worth the investment if you have good ones and learn all their secrets.
Sam

[mdeland]

I've been tempted to buy a couple of DRO's for my mill but just keep doing things the old manual slow way! I did buy a full set of Guy Leutard manuals on machining out of Canada and think they are worth the price . He has some really neat ideas and techniques he has picked up and put in print that make set up and working easier and faster.

[John Bly]

DRO's on a knee mill give you a false sense of accuracy. Due to knee action the farther you are up from the table the larger the error in the readout. You really need to check them out for accuracy. Keep the gibs adjusted and each axis you are not actively using locked down and you will have better accuracy.

[TexasMac]

I made two heavy bench grinder stands for the workshop yesterday. The stands were made from the following: large heavy school bus brake drums, 2.5” diameter thick wall pipe & a piece of ¼” metal plate. I figured it would be a straight forward process, only requiring a few hours using a Sawzall to cut the pipe, cutting torch to cut up the steel plate & a stick welder to put it all together. Cutting the metal plates & welding them to the pipe was no problem. With everything together & setting on the drake drum the bottom plate was welded to the drum.

While welding the plate to the drum I could not get what I considered a reasonable looking weld so I cranked up the voltage & finished, figuring, although it didn’t look pretty, it would be sufficient. To check the welding I then tipped over the stand and let it fall on the concrete floor. The pipe & plate welds held but snapped cleanly off the brake drums. What I hadn’t considered was the drums are made of cast iron which is almost impossible to weld or weld too, hence the reason for the bolts seen in the photo. Another lesson learned.

BTW, a couple of things nice about the stands is they are very stable & easy to move around with the grinder attached - just tip over slightly and roll to the new location.

Wayne

[mdeland]

I'm pretty sure you could have brazed it on successfully Wayne using a rose bud torch nozzle,brazing rod and borax flux. I've welded cast to cast but not steel to cast successfully. Nice work/grinding stands !

[TexasMac]

I'm pretty sure you could have brazed it on successfully Wayne using a rose bud torch nozzle,brazing rod and borax flux. I've welded cast to cast but not steel to cast successfully. Nice work/grinding stands !

Mike,

I started a similar thread on the ASSRA forum & received several comments. I've also researched the subject after making the stands & it seems the only way to get a reasonably good steel-to-cast weld is to heat the cast iron to around 400 degrees and use a special (read expensive) nickel rod along with layering & peening the weld to remove stress. Neither works for me. Now that I know what's going on it's relatively easy to drill & bolt the bottom plate to the drum.

BTW, each stand weighs a little over 100 lbs. I plan on using the same approach to make a double stand to mount a vice. The top & bottom plates will be extended & bolted together to provide the weight and take the punishment that a vice is subject to. If necessary they can be easily disconnected to relocate.

Wayne