Mini Mills?

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H

hanau

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
1,394
Location
thomasville, nc, USA.
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.
 
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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
 
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
 
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.
 
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:
 
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.
 
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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.
 
rherrell said:
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:
Click to expand...

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: :cool:
 
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.
 
Huh?

BradG said:
rherrell said:
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:
Click to expand...

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: :cool:
Click to expand...


HUH ??? :) :)
 
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.
 
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.



 
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