lathe mill drill

[willofiam]

Has anyone ever used or looked in the Smithy granite 3 in 1 mill,drill,lathe machine. wondering if they would be good enough for general clock work, gear cutting ect….thanks and have a good day, William

[willofiam]

UUUGGGHHH forget it, having brain failure today

[chris mabbott]

William I saw the title of your post and thought YEEES someone else is also looking at those Chinese drill/mill/lathe combos.

Have you any thoughts/opinions about them?

Chris

[david pierce]

I think the SMITTY is made by the same company that makes the SHOP SMITH woodworking machine and is probably a pretty good tool. I personally would rather have two dedicated machines.
david

[chris mabbott]

I agree David, I would love to have three actually 😆
Those mini mills are so bloody expensive in the EU, like everything else, Ive been cruising the bay for a while looking for a decent used one, when I find one …. Doesn’t ship to Spain !!

I want to use it on metal and wood but right off the bat I’m not sure if I can justify the cost against the amount of proposed use for one of the decent German made machines, or a Sealey.. $$$
Like you David, I’m not a fan of all in ones, and I was looking at the Chinese mill only as well, I think they’re around 289 euros, without attachments.. And free shipping 😮

I was surprised by the quality of Chinese material, I was recently on a project in India and their steam turbine was made in china, my initial thoughts were.. Oh boy, but the build quality was outstanding and almost comparable to German models. They just haven’t quite got the outer finish quality down yet as there stuff look like a rough cast pour lol

[david pierce]

Holy Cow William,
That last picture is out there. I know the bodybuilder pose in the Speedo is coming. It is just a matter of time.

[david pierce]

Chris,
If you look at Tmac’s shop you can see a picture of his. In the U.S. they are under $500.00 U.S. but I don’t know what they charge for them on your side of the world. I guess if you wanted to you could just drive to China and pick one up for very little money. Tmac’s is the same as mine and has the R8 spindle. That is the industrial standard over here so most of the accessories are available in that format. It may be different in Europe. There are probably some very nice machines available on your side of the world that rarely make it over here. When you look at Stefen Pahlow’s videos and some of the others there are some beautiful machines that are being used.
david

[gerene]

Some European shops carry the Chinese machines for prices not that different from those in the US. Have a look at the following link http://www.rc-machines.com/en/machines or http://stores.benl.ebay.be/GG-Tools/Fras-Bohrm-Zubehor-/_i.html?_fsub=137010011&_sid=220554261&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
A problem in Europe might be that some webshops are only in the language of their country, so to find out you need to be fluent in French, German, Spanish…
I bought from both of the companies in the links and they give good service and ship for reasonable prices.

Jan

[willofiam]

Hey guys , thanks for the input. I too like the idea of having dedicated machines. I have the larger lathe and a atlas horizontal benchtop mill. the issue I am having is that I want to use a dividing head on it for cutting gears. the lowest the mills bed will go will give me 5 3/8″ from the table top to the spindle center, I see the bs-0 dividing heads (smallest I have seen) with a 100mm (almost 4″) center height leaving me with a 1 3/8 center to center, the possible largest sized gear would be 2 3/4 without a cutter. I have not used this or even bought any cutters yet but unless I am missing something here I know I wont be satisfied. I cannot seem to wrap my mind around what I need to do and I feel way out there 😯 as you can see…. . sherline sells this, Sherline CNC 8700 – CNC Rotary Table Indexer on ebay (item # 251273224335) rather steep price. . I did some more research on the mill/drill/lathe setups and it was a overwhelming negative response from machinist forums. have fun today, William
P.S. sorry David, no speedos here (below zero weather) youll have to get Tom to redo his picture.

[tmac1956]

All:

As David said, HF Mini Drill Mill is – for the price – a superb machine. Any problems that I might have posted as having were not with that machine, but with my ignorance, which thankfully David spent time educating me out of. David has the patience of Job!!!! Well… as does everyone here.
It can do SO many things….

Thanks!
Tom

[chris mabbott]

You gentlemen are making me awful jealous by telling me about all these nice machines you have

Thanks for the links Jan, they have some nice stuff and thanks to google translate….

Great tips guys, much appreciated info as the hunt continues, apparently for life 😆

Chris

[david pierce]

William,
The mill drill/lathe is a comprimise to save space and in most comprimises there are irritating trade offs. As an experienced woodworker you know that the European all in one woodworking machines are well made and can do nice precision woodwork, however, as a professional woodworker you also know you would be pulling your hair out reconfiguring the machine every time you wanted to do another type of operation. Outside of saving floorspace, there is really no advantage to an all-in-one machine.
david

[willofiam]

Thanks David, I have remembered why I went the direction of finding this atlas horizontal mill, it is exactly what you just said . I have to think a little more about how I would set it up (that is where my questions are coming from) I do not think cost is as much a factor as getting it right is (dont like wasteful spending or as some would say, anti money without possible recuperation) Trying to find the right sized indexing/ dividing head that will give me the room on the mill to allow larger size gear cutting, (are they out there, have I missed something?)….have you had any experience with that sherline rotary table I posted previously? Have a great day, WIlliam

[david pierce]

William,
I have had no experience with Sherline products. The indexing systems I like in general are made out of cast iron and have a worm drive. The worm drive gives an error reduction equal to the gear ratio of the worm to worm gear. That means that if the ratio is 40:1 the position indexing error will be reduced by a factor of 40. If you use a direct indexing plate and the hole is off .002 inches then the gear you are cutting will be off by that same amount (.002 inches). With the worm drive unit with the same error in the hole plate the error would only be .00006 inches. For indexing purposes I prefer the dividing plates with the sector arms as they are much easier to use once set up. The smallest rotary table I could find with the dividing plates and sector arm is a 4″ table. If you can fit that on your Atlas mill you will have a good setup. Bigger more massive machines chatter less and hold the work more firmly under cutter pressure.
david

[willofiam]

thank you David, I respect your advice, I just saw a dividing head that has a 60-1 ratio and it appears the center height is lower than the bs-0 according to the pictures, It has one dividing plate with numbers 11-18 and the sector arms. If I were to buy this and needed other plates I think I could fill in as needed? I think I understand what your saying with the ratio and error (have to let that simmer a bit) Possible a rotary table of that size would work (I am stuck on the thought of having this indexing/dividing set up horizontally) but I suppose either a dividing head or a rotary table can be configured either way on the machine with proper plates ect…. hope I dont sound too stupid about this…William

[Author]

Posts