More Boxes

USA 2 Ghana 1, O yea.

Today UPS delivered some more boxes.  What's in the boxes;

• 4" Vise from Glacern Machine Tools
• new 16mm ball screws for the X and Y axis
• new 20mm ball screw for the Z axis
• CNC mounting kit from BDtools for the G0704
• 2 - Nema 23 Stepper Motors
• 1 - Nema 34 Stepper Motor
• Digital MX3660 driver
• Power supply

I need to look into cabling and a PCI LP1 card.  Gosh can you even find a computer with a parallel port anymore....grrrrrr.

New Box

A shipment from MSC was on my step today. Woo!

Look like I got some end mills, taps and things that turn. Since I will only be milling aluminum and wood I opted for HSS type end mills.  At this moment I ordered a basic R8 collet set to get me started machining.  In the future I hope to lathe my own TTS style holders.

Mill Tooling - Fly Cutter!

Tonight I was surfing YouTube and was intrigued by Tormach's Superfly Cutter.  You can see it in action at here;

I plan on making my parts nice and shiny.  I'm sure this will do the trick. Let's order one!

If you looking for a link to order,
http://www.tormach.com/store/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=32428

Mill Tooling - Vise!

This afternoon I began investigating tooling for the mill.  Usually the first thing I do when I’m looking for anything is find the best community of experienced but clueless schulbs like myself.  I have found them at www.cnczone.com. This is a great forum for small mill machinists.

I've decided to order the following vise for my mill tooling setup;

http://www.glacern.com/gsv_440

Obviously the first thing I need is a decent vise.  There is no reason to skimp on the vise. Hell, if it can’t hold things straight and parallel then what is the point of having it.  Therefore, I opted for the quasi American made 4” standard vise by, Glecern.  My mill accepts ½“ t-bolts so I believe fit-up should not be an issue.  I‘ll be sure to bitch on this blog if something goes wrong with the vise purchase, but I do not see that happening.  The guys at cnczone really like this vise.

I will need a test gauge to tram this crap Chinese mill.  I have a milling tolerance goal of .001 inches.  Therefore, I think it is reasonable to have a test indicator capable of reading .0005 inches.  I found this one on Amazon, reviews seem positive.

Let’s give it a go.  From what I’ve read on cnczone, Interapid is the cool name brand dial indicators.  Meh, I’m cheap lets go with this one.  If anyone is interested in comparing dial gauge brands; here is a good link;
http://www.longislandindicator.com/p37.html
This link suggests the only thing worth buying is Switzerland produced and assembled.