New Xmas Tool

[Wayne Snyder]

Whats better than new tools for Christmas. After spending an absurd amount of time online watching Brian Banna's builds and showing my wife what I just had to have. I got this present:





I built a table for it and now starting to collect tools for my new mill. I think i have created a monster, accessories for this damn thing are going to set me back just as much as she purchased it for, but it will be sweet . Now for the kit bashing to really get started. Thanks to Brian and Glen for all the assistance and guidance on my new endeavor.

[sd80macs]

Tooling for it is always fun. I would recommend the belt drive conversion first, lol. You can also remove that plastic shield as you will notice it gets in the way quickly. And you can easily surpass the cost of the machin in tooling. I usually get stuff from littlemachineshop.com and Ebay. I picked up Collet sets on Ebay along with batches of End Mills in various sizes and have used the machine to Mill Brass, Resin, Plastic, Frames and it has always worked out good. I also bought a DIY kit for the DRO and put that togther along with adding the scales to the machine which is nice to have too.

[Deleted]

Wayne, I do believe you will thoroughly enjoy your new tool. Even with N-Scale, I use it a lot. You will find all sorts of things to use it on and will be amazed at how quickly you will learn to use it. Congratulations!

I doubt I will ever get a DRO. I have been using my machine without one now for over 10 years and I seem to be doing OK with it. If I had a machine that was setup for more precision, I would probably use the DRO's. Definitely my machine could use some fine tuning, but I am just to lazy to do it and so far everything is working out fine. Also, I still have the gear sets in mine. If anything, the belt drive will quiet your machine down. But until my gears wear out, I will stay with them. After over 10 years of use, I have only had to replace the motor. The brushes wore down and the motor crapped out. Bought a new motor from The Little Machine Shop about two years ago and was back in service very quickly.

[antlorch]

I need you to convince my wife I need one! I am building my shop now out of an old tact shed and it's coming along nicely.

Anyway that is awesome and good luck with it.

[dtinut]

Wayne,

Cool, take your time, and play with soft materials before your try machining hard stuff like steel.
Plastic, acrylic, and wood will help you learn.

A couple notes, always feed/cut with the cutter rotating into the materail, don't backfeed/cut, and it will cause issues.

Clean all the packing grease, and then oil the surfaces.
Do this often like once a month.

Understand how to adjust the ways, to keep out play in the axis.

Sharp tools work best, dull tools cause issues/problems.

Bolt the thing to the table!
Last thing you want it to do is tip over onto the floor.

Regards,
Brian Everett

[Wayne Snyder]

I was giving her a bad time, didn't think she would really go for it. I am planning on putting it to real good use.

Brian, yes it will get bolted down, just need to add a platform under it to raise it so i dont smash my fingers. Also you talk about oiling the surface, what do I use?

[dtinut]

Wayne, any light oil will do, even WD-40 in a pinch, although WD-40 dries out too fast for my liking, and doesn't offer the oxidation protection a bit heavier oil would.

- remember the old 3-in-1 oil, that would be good.

Brian

[tamaman]

Nice! I'm getting one as we speek!

[m a y o r 79]

Im jealous, my shop needs one of those

[upguy1981]

I got one that is a mill and lath combo and I am loving it

[zakc]

Very nice

[Wayne Snyder]

Per Brian's recommendation had a local machine shop make be a blank fixture.



Now the fun begins on figuring out what reliefs to do to make this Athearn cab fit. This will be the first major build I have ever done that will involve machining shell and frames by myself. Have more tools on order for the mill and should be in Monday. Then the chips will start flying, hopefully . This will be for my FWWR 2001 and 2003 build at dieseldetailer.proboards.com/thread/11217/fwwr-2001.

[Deleted]

Good job Wayne.

Now just look at all the protrusions inside the shell and make teh necessary cuts to allow the underside of the roof to sit flat on the tool.