{"id":2587,"date":"2009-01-21T10:20:17","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T15:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=2587"},"modified":"2009-01-21T10:20:17","modified_gmt":"2009-01-21T15:20:17","slug":"milling-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=2587","title":{"rendered":"Milling Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

You Know the Drill<\/em><\/p>\n

I resent people saying I have a tool addiction. I can stop any time I want. But first I have to find out which expensive tools I need in order to do that.<\/p>\n

I continued Googling milling machines last night. I blame reader Jdunmyer.<\/a> He posted a comment linking to some photos of beautiful machinery a guy made on a Harbor Freight combination machine. Here’s the link.<\/a> Look, and weep.<\/p>\n

A combination machine performs functions that would ordinarily require several machines. People buy them to save money, and because they take up less room. These machines are often criticized because they don’t do everything well. But this guy’s work seems to demonstrate that the man running the machine is a bigger factor.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I looked at that stuff and got all excited. He made little engines, mainly. I can’t really see myself making those. But the quality of his work and the relative cheapness of the machine he used made me realize you can do a lot with small machinery that doesn’t break the bank. You can do more than enough to make the expense and effort worth it.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I’d buy one of these things. The man who made those little machines says the milling part is very, very cramped. That’s bad. But you can get other machines that save space and money, without losing so much functionality.<\/p>\n

One type of machine that interests me is the mill\/drill. This is a milling machine that also functions as a drill press. They make them big enough to do respectable milling jobs, and they’re excellent drills with deep strokes and a wide range of speeds. Some people buy them and use them for both metalworking and woodworking. Obviously, that appeals to me. A good drill press–good enough so I’ll never have to replace it–will run me at least nine hundred dollars. A mill\/drill that will do nearly everything the drill press will, plus much more, will cost twice that much. And it will take up roughly the same amount of space as the drill press.<\/p>\n

The obvious difference is that the mill has a short column, so there is a limit to the distance you can put between the work and the spindle. I think. Maybe you can spin the head around and drill on the other side, with only the floor below the spindle. I don’t know. If you did that, you’d have to come up with some kind of rigid substitute for a drill press table.<\/p>\n

Another concern: to do woodworking on a drill press, you need a suitable table. How do you manage that on a milling machine? And if you do manage to attach it, how do you swivel it and rotate it in the small space between the drill spindle and the bed?<\/p>\n

Still, neat idea. I have read that you can do a fair amount of metal turning on these things, so presumably, a mill\/drill would–to some degree–be a full-blown combination machine.<\/p>\n

Here’s a link to a guy who uses a mill\/drill primarily for woodworking. Looks like he has no real problems.<\/a> He has a pretty expensive machine; it doesn’t have a round column. Machines with round columns are cheaper. Grizzly makes a similar machine (G519) for about half of that price. Whoops…the Grizzly is 3-phase. And it looks like they came out with a single-phase version. People are 3-phase is better, because you can put a $200 VFD on it, and it has a tapping function, which somehow relies on the ability to reverse the motor. Refresh my memory…will a VFD reduce the power of the machine?<\/p>\n

Anyway, it’s all very interesting. And I am not addicted to tools.<\/p>\n

I hope my miter gauges arrive today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You Know the Drill I resent people saying I have a tool addiction. I can stop any time I want. But first I have to find out which expensive tools I need in order to do that. I continued Googling milling machines last night. I blame reader Jdunmyer. He posted a comment linking to some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}