Harbor freight milling machine

[JoelD]

Trout that is a great video thanks for posting

A little depression though when I run intonguys like you and I realize just how much I don't know

Seriously great video and craftsmanship and thanks for posting

Would love to see a picture of the final parts all laid out if you have such a picture

Joel

 

[JoelD]

What does powerfeed mean?

Also, I'd like to be able to cut shapes out of flat stock, do I need powerfeed to do that?

Joel

 

[Gods Country]

I think your best bet would be to take a basic vo-tech course to learn the basics of milling & turning.

You'll save yourself years of frustration. You'll learn what to look for in machinery, and most important you won't lose a finger trying to teach yourself.

I also agree to look for good used equipment. The quality will be better, you'll be able to find parts, and you won't be able to blame the machine for poor quality.

 

[JoelD]

Great advice, I'll look around for classes today.

Any advice on what to search for, class titles or topics?

Thanks again,
Joel

 

[Gods Country]

I would contact local vocational schools, or community colleges and inquire whether they offer basic machinist courses. Explain you just want to learn the basics to safely operate a mill & lathe, possibly a surface grinder.

There is a foundry (Hitchiner) in Milford. I imagine there are local tool shops that support their operations. Hopefully there are also educational outlets
to fill the niche. Rural areas can be difficult that way.

 

[JoelD]

Thanks I started calling around to the community colleges, we'll see what comes back.
Joel

 

[troutsqueezer]

WRT Trout's steam engine:

Thanks Milton and Joel.

I don't have lots of free time, just spend 1 to 2 hours most evenings out in the shed. Currently working on building an internal combustion hit and miss farm engine.

Joel, sorry I don't think I have any pics of all the parts laid out. I did a build thread on Home Model Engine Machinist for others to follow as I built the twin steam engine. The purpose of the thread was to elicit advice from those members whose experience and skill levels are much greater than mine. This is one of the great things about this particular forum.

Trout's Twin

The HF mini mill comes with R8 spindle. There are some earlier versions that don't. However, if you are into making tractor parts and such, the mini versions of mills and lathe may be too small. Still the machine and machining advice available on these forums still applies. And there is no requirement to go to formal training sessions unless you want to. Many of the forum members are there to teach and they do it well with pictures and videos galore. It's how I learned.

 

[wdchyd]

JoelD,

When you do buy a machine I have all kinds of scrap shafts, nubs and slugs you can use for piddling around with.....the price is right(free)....I pitch the stuff out all the time..

 

[wdchyd]

I agree 100% on the R8 spindle, but not on the 3 phase option. Any 3PH machine tool under 3 HP can easliy be powered with a VFD, and the money you save buying the tool up front will pay for the VFD because so many people are scared of 3 phase.

The VFD for my 1 HP lathe was only $120 a few years ago.

Yea I guess the converter would be fairly inexpensive for 1 hp.....Guess I am just used to bigger motors (several as big as 20hp) which brings the cost up for conversion considerable.....

 

[JoelD]

wdchyd what a hugely generous offer and where I live close to you I might just take you up on it, you'll need to let me know what your preferred beverage is though and you'll have to be very clear when it is time for me to leave otherwise I'll ask questions for hours.

Thank you very much.

I'm still up in the air on what machine to initially get.

I'm thinking maybe the harbor freight as it is small enough to fit in either my or David's garage and we can learn as we go and then maybe progress to a bridgeport or the like Mill and a larger lathe?

The bridgeports are wonderful looking machines.

Can threading be done with a manual machine like the harbor freight?

Joel

 

[troutsqueezer]

Threading is most often accomplished with the lathe rather than the mill, not sure if you understood that from your wording. The HF mini lathe comes with the capability to thread, for sure. It comes with a selection of gears for different threads. We are talking about rather large threads from the sound of it, right? Small standard threads can be done manually of course, or used in conjunction with the lathe (tailstock and such).

More about the mini lathe can be found here: mini-lathe.com home page

Any part for the Seig (Harbor Freight, Grizzly, etc.) mini laths can be found here: LittleMachineShop.com - tooling, parts, and accessories for bench top machinists

As well as the entire machine, if desired.

 

[JoelD]

Threading is most often accomplished with the lathe rather than the mill, not sure if you understood that from your wording. The HF mini lathe comes with the capability to thread, for sure. It comes with a selection of gears for different threads. We are talking about rather large threads from the sound of it, right? Small standard threads can be done manually of course, or used in conjunction with the lathe (tailstock and such).

More about the mini lathe can be found here: mini-lathe.com home page

Any part for the Seig (Harbor Freight, Grizzly, etc.) mini laths can be found here: LittleMachineShop.com - tooling, parts, and accessories for bench top machinists

As well as the entire machine, if desired.

Thanks for the great links trout. I can see the conundrum.

Do you spend $1500 or so combined for a mini-lathe and mini-mill (both look to be real nice tools) or do you spend $1500 on a used Bridgeport and another $500 - $1000 on a used lathe and have two full sized machines capable of handling anything I might run into.

Tough decisions.

Joel

 

[sal64]

This machine gets great reviews and price seems good

Multipurpose Machine

My brother and I have no experience with milling or tooling but would like learn

Does this look like a good first machine?

Also what sort of bits or tooling would we need to do some basic processes like boring and milling?

I know nothing

Thanks
Joel

my oppinion way to small you cant do much on it.

 

[troutsqueezer]

Nice used lathes at fairly low prices may not be easy to come by. I'm always watching Craigslist for those. Rarely see much that interests me but perhaps Craigslist postings in the bigger cities have more to choose from.

That said......you will spend much more for the tooling for these machines than you spend on the machines themselves, so leave some room in your budget for that. One reason R8 can be important is that those tools can be ported over to any standard milling machine.

By tooling I'm referring to things like dial indicators, digital readouts, parallels, angle plates, rotary tables, cutting bits (end mills, cutters of all sizes and shapes), boring heads, boring bars, vises, clamping sets, drills of all types, lathe chucks (3 and 4 jaw), the metal itself, the list goes on and on. The machines can't do anything without the tooling that goes with them.

 

[JoelD]

Nice used lathes at fairly low prices may not be easy to come by. I'm always watching Craigslist for those. Rarely see much that interests me but perhaps Craigslist postings in the bigger cities have more to choose from.

That said......you will spend much more for the tooling for these machines than you spend on the machines themselves, so leave some room in your budget for that. One reason R8 can be important is that those tools can be ported over to any standard milling machine.

By tooling I'm referring to things like dial indicators, digital readouts, parallels, angle plates, rotary tables, cutting bits (end mills, cutters of all sizes and shapes), boring heads, boring bars, vises, clamping sets, drills of all types, lathe chucks (3 and 4 jaw), the metal itself, the list goes on and on. The machines can't do anything without the tooling that goes with them.

Thanks again trout

Joel

 

[moe7404]

i am a retired machinist, Boeing, 25 years. my last machine was 240" long 6 ft wide 8 ft tall. i would not buy that machine unless my space was cramped. but if that was the only way that would be ok. but you will still have to buy accessories no matter what machine you buy. most places you buy from will have a tooling package, most of the time thats a good buy.

 

[JerryG]

As was said, take a class at a Vo-Tech. I taught a lot of night classes at a Vo-Tech several years ago. At the time they were 6 weeks long, 3 nights a week and 3 hours a night and then the short course was 6 weeks, 2 nights a week and 3 hours a night. You can learn a lot in a short time for home use.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have a Bridgeport NC Mill in the garage and use a home made rotary phase converter.

Had the set-up for 20 years and ran the mill some Saturdays for 10 to 12 hours with the rotary converter... so far no problems.

The only difference is I have to start/spin the rotary convertor before starting the mill.

Also have an old 3-phase compressor with another home made rotary converter.

Basically, the converter is nothing more than a 3 phase motor idling on 2 legs of power... the third leg is induced and tapping into all three runs the mill.

Rigidity is the key to mill work... the stronger the set-up the better.

Also, look for low speeds... some of the imported stuff will not have low speed capability...

When I worked in the Tool and Die Shop years ago... almost nothing was done on manual machines at the higher speed ranges... some of our best drill presses would go down to 20 RPM and were built stronger than any of the imported stuff today.

 

[JoelD]

Well looked a lot and thought a lot.

I ended up going with HF 44142 3-in-1 for the following reasons.

First, I've never used a mill or lathe before. I primarily drill, my bench top drill press crapped out and instead of getting another I started to think about getting something a little more versatile.

I bet I'll run into maybe one or two projects per year where I'd have a use for a mill or lathe, maybe key-ways or the like.

A used BP would take up one of my slots in the garage, which would stink in the winter as I put my car in there to avoid clearing snow off in the morning.

I'm scared that a BP could end up being big money if something were to brake (still bad memories from my dozer).

The machine I purchased gets good reviews (as good as these inexpensive 3in1's seem to get) and I think it will do a good job drilling and will let me mess around with lathe and milling when need arises.

Another benefit is I can move it around with my loader, a BP at 2Klbs or so is just too much for me to deal with here at my home.

I think I made the right decision for my needs.

Thanks guys for all of the advice and input. I took a little from each and thought this out.

I hope I'm pleased with the machine.

I've also seen some cool, inexpensive ideas for DRO, which is something I'm going to try, mostly to see if I can figure it out.

Thanks again all,
Sincerely,
Joel

 

[ultrarunner]

You will more than get your money out of it as long as you use it...

Sounds like you did your research and you're ready to start making chips.

Only one comment on the Bridgeport... pretty much indestructible. Never seen one ruined unless the building around it burned in a fire... long story, for another time.