Mini Mills?

[hanau]

Looking to add a mini mill to my shop.
i have been looking at the mini mills from little machine shop and Harbor Freight.


Between the prices of the Hi torq package and making a package to equal the same with the harbor freight i still would save a few hundred dollars.

Which would you do?

I am leaning towards little machine Shop do to being able to talk to someone that is experience with the mill if problems happen.

i would eventually would like to convert it to cnc and both seem to have a lot of info online with the conversion.

If you have any experience with either let me know what you think of the mill.

 

[hanau]

Also does little machine shop ever do coupons or put the mills on sale?

 

[BKelley]

I have the LMS hi-torque mill and love it The people at LMS are most helpful and willing to be of service. I have added an auto-feed and also the rotary table to my mill. I don't thank you can go wrong with LMS.

Ben

 

[ironman123]

I have the discontinued Seig X1 Micro Mill from HF. Don't expect any helpful answers from HF about them. They just sell them.

I cnc'd mine on my own about 2005, and when anything needs to be replaced, if LMS doesn't have it I have to make it myself.

Ray

 

[hanau]

i think I am going to go with the LMS setup mainly since being pretty new to metal working the customer support I think will be very helpful.

 

[rherrell]

Why do you want to turn it into a CNC machine, that takes all the "fun" out of it!?:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Unless of course you're into programming...then your idea of "fun" is ENTIRELY different than mine!:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[joefyffe]

Very good choice!!
I don't know anything about either machine, but I have dealt with HF and I have dealt with LMS. As I said, "Very good choice"

i think I am going to go with the LMS setup mainly since being pretty new to metal working the customer support I think will be very helpful.

 

[hanau]

Ended up getting the little Machine shop mill.


Electronics to go with the cnc conversion.



motors all wired up to the drivers and computer.

Geckodrive g540 - YouTube

Don't really have a plan yet with what I am going to make with it, but got a itch about a year ago to put one together and learn something new.

 

[BRobbins629]

As long as your spending money, you will probably want a rotary axis and another stepper - just saying.

 

[hanau]

That is on my list to get.
Figured it would be best to get the first part of it figured out before trying a rotary axis.

I think learning software will be the hardest part.

 

[Ligget]

LMS are excellent, cool looking piece of equipment John, have fun!

 

[BradG]

Why do you want to turn it into a CNC machine, that takes all the "fun" out of it!?:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Unless of course you're into programming...then your idea of "fun" is ENTIRELY different than mine!:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

AnsiString fun;

if(rherrell->Personality->BoatFloater==TurningManually)
{
fun="be Hands on";
}
else
{
fun="Let it do it for me!";
}
ShowMessage("I like to"+fun.c_str());

:biggrin:

 

[hanau]

Still waiting for the screws to show up.
Forgot I had a Tachometer to install so i added it today.


Got it from
Macpod Software: Hacking the SX2 Mini Mill - (Adding a reverse switch and reverse engineering the tachometer port protocol)

Now if the ups guy would get here with the screws and I will be happy.

 

[InvisibleMan]

what are you going to use the mill for?

 

[hanau]

I eventually want to get into personal gun making but that wont be for a while.
But never know what will be made.

 

[hanau]

Got it together, had some issues with the mounts but have a couple temporary fixes. waiting for a reply from cncfusion on them.



I'll take a video tomorrow, think i got a little confused on the + and - direction of the x and y axis.
Then my keyboard keeps disconnecting and was being a pain in the ass. It went flying across the shop into the trash can.

 

[joefyffe]

Huh?

Why do you want to turn it into a CNC machine, that takes all the "fun" out of it!?:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Unless of course you're into programming...then your idea of "fun" is ENTIRELY different than mine!:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

AnsiString fun;

if(rherrell->Personality->BoatFloater==TurningManually)
{
fun="be Hands on";
}
else
{
fun="Let it do it for me!";
}
ShowMessage("I like to"+fun.c_str());

:biggrin:

HUH ???

 

[vanngo5d]

Wow nice setup you didn't waste any time, You went from wanting a mill to maybe a CNC convert to 1 month pass it's done full CNC.
I just wish I could get enough time to complete the laser I'm building.

 

[hanau]

Thanks Don,it did come together pretty quick.
It will take awhile to make the first thing off f it.

Got the first cnc run by the computer.it is just a air cut to see if I am close with the settings.
Litle Machine Shop 3960 HiTorque Mini Mill cnc test run - YouTube

 

[hanau]

A little update.

When I was trying to hook up the limit switches, i must of shorted something in the drive.
Had to send it back and get it repaired.
I ended up buying a refurbished drive to get me up and working.
The next day after ordering it, work said we had to work 2 weeks with no days off.
Wouldn't you now it, the repaired drive showed up Saturday my first day off in 2 weeks.

Now I have a backup or the beginning of another larger wood cnc table.

This is the first completed carve on my mini mill.

 

[hanau]

short video of it running,
took image from google
converted into .dxf file,
used Cambamto produce gcode
mach 3 to run.

Little machie shop cnc mini mill - YouTube

 

[Turned Around]

Pretty cool. Been looking into something like this for a while now