----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 9:16
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Mill/Lathe
tools
"My 20 year old Chinese drill press, cutoff
saw and band saw do not have on bit of plastic on them and are ugly, but
despite being abused for close to 3 decades just keep on
working."
I totally agree with you on these
specific machines, Ed. I have, and the museum also has, a chinese drill press
and chinese bandsaws. Superb acurracy is not the hallmark of these types
of machines, so close is just fine in this case. I would also advise most
folks to get a Chinese bench vise and a Chinese bench grinder. They are
quite sufficient and I would not advise anyone to buy anything else for home
use.
Drill presses especially are subject to
SEVERE abuse in most shops. I wouldn't buy a used one unless I knew its
condition and could give it a thorough going over. That said, I'd trade my
chinese one for a good (key word being GOOD) 40 yr old used Clausing
drill press in a split second! I use the mill as a drill press if any degree
of accuracy at all is required.
When talking the high end machines, like
mills, lathes and such, I stick by the "bigger is better" motto. I have
experienced firsthand the frustration of trying to work on a very small piece
that missed fitting in the machine by a fraction of an inch too many times. It
still happens, even with bigger machines, but not nearly as
often.
Your machine is a LOT better than that
crappy Smithy I had. It has a lot more room on the table, and under the
spindle, but the basic design isn't far removed. The extra rods no doubt help
keep the head from twisting, but they are simply not comparable to a cast iron
box, 15x15" square with 2" thick walls. THAT'S how a milling machine MUST be
made to prevent chatter and flexing of the column. You also will NEVER find
yourself saying, "Gosh I wish I didn't have this much extra room under the
spindle, or travel on the table." It's like too much horsepower on a plane...
you don't HAVE to use it all, but when you need it, it sure is
handy.
I remember the day that 12,000lb, 24x72",
25hp American Pacemaker lathe showed up at the museum. I thanked the guy
profusely for the donation while secretly asking myself..."What the HELL am I
ever going to do with THAT??!!"
After I had that machine all
hooked up and cleaned up, I chucked under my breath the day I was
using a cutoff tool to take the top off a Mazda air conditioner
dryer to make a burp-bottle for the 13B. The power was WAY overkill for the
job and the machine was MUCH bigger than you would think necessary, however, I
could fit the entire dryer into the hole in the spindle, so I only had
about 2" sticking out past the chuck jaws. No wobble, no hangups, no problems.
There was not another more perfect machine to do that little simple job. Sure
beats trying to take it off with a pipe cutter or hacksaw. Welding it back up
will be a snap as both sides are already straight and the cut is as
clean as if it were done with a surgeon's scalpel.
Another example showed up a few weeks
later when a buddy's bandsaw had the idler wheel bearing gall up. It was
chinese, so the bushing was metric. He needed it bored out to 1" so he could
go down to Motion and get a $0.25 bronze bushing for it, instead of trying to
custom order the metric one (I also had to make him a new shaft as it was
shot, too). The wheel was 14" in diameter. I chucked it up and was finished
with the job sooner than I could have found a reamer, set up the drill press
and then had it bounce all over the place and end up with the resulting
hole triangular or pentagonal due to slop in the spindle. I bored it 31/32 and
then used a heavy boring bar to finish the ID. Final fit was within .0005"
Without that machine, it would have been a PITA and the bearing fit would have
been sloppy.
When I found the Van Norman #6, I thought
I would NEVER need a bigger mill. I soon realized how limited even it was. I
jumped at a chance to get a Van Norman 22L, with nearly twice the travel and
table size. It is much better, but it's huge. I would probably have turned it
down if it had been offer to us before I realized the shortcomings of the
#6.
Buy as big a machine as you can fit
in your shop. Buy a bigger machine than you think you will need. Buy an
old used American machine before you buy a new import (if you can afford
new American machine, more power to you!). Buy a floor machine instead of a
bench machine, unless the bench machine has the original cabinet or stand with
it. Buy a lathe first. Buy a BIG lathe (you will be glad you did). Get somone
who knows what they are looking at to go with you if you don't know what you
are looking for, especially on used machines. Don't be afraid to spend as much
or more money on a used American machine, they hold their value extremely
well. A Bridgeport mill or South Bend lathe that costs $2000 can be sold
tomorrow for $2000. A brand new import machine that costs $2000 is worth $1300
tomorrow, if you are lucky.
If a 3in1 fits your needs, is the
biggest thing you can fit in your shop, and is the most expensive machine you
can afford, by all means get one! It is better than a soupspoon and an
icepick for removing metal! I promise you, though.... The first time you just
can't fit that little part in your machine and you have to take it over to
somebody else, who puts it in his Bridgeport with room to spare, and then cuts
it like it was mozzerella cheeze, taking a 1/4" at a pass and leaving a mirror
finish with the checkerboard crosshatching from the cutter, you'll be in the
market for a good mill. Been there, done that. Mike
C.