My milling machine is bigger than yours

[nsracing]

I have to be up in Upstate, NY to pick up a couple of things. I hear - 5 feet of snow up there now. I bought 2- Sunnen hones. One is tooled and other not. Both same models.

The mill is in Ohio -

T/hen January, I have to drive down to TX to deliver 2 machines to a friend of mine. A boring mill and a flywheel grinder.

I took few months off work - I need a break from all the sick people.

I just want to deal w/ machines right now. I turned down 2 engine builds recently coz I cannot get to them.

Hope this winter will not be too bad.

[stealth67vw]

[NJ John]

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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[nsracing]

sold a tool like that some time back. did not think I needed it. But second thought, maybe I do -

If anyone knows where I can grab one, lemme know.

[NJ John]

[NJ John]

My milling machine is smaller than yours. Actually it’s a Linley Jig Borer. It takes LB collets. If anyone has any?

_________________
1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[nsracing]

Oh heck - that is plenty! It does not really take much milling machine to do cases and heads.

I am already dreading losing mine soon -going to TX to deliver. But I may pick up something on way back w/ empty trailer being a waste.

I always take a load back so make the trip useful.

[jimmyhoffa]

Finally getting there with my rig! Picked this up from a local guy who also runs a little shop. It weighs just over 2 tons so it's interesting to move around, but not a problem for me. It holds a few tenths on hole diameters on circular interpolation stuff, so nailing bearing and shaft press-fits is no problemo. The iron seems young, mileage-wise. It's an '86 and the hardware is all metric even though it is a Racine, WI built machine, so that's awesome.

It's hard to take on VW stuff because job shop work pays so much more, but I'm working on getting some VW "leisure time" on the machine to develop some parts I want to see out there. TO DO LIST: Re-parameterize the control to use M-codes so I can control coolant (oil droplet air blast) in my code instead of the cheesy manual switch. Tidy up the panel and add an EMC filter for the servo drives. Keep making tooling and make the tabletop lathe chuck for round work cooler. More chip spray guards to keep the shop floor cleaner. Add CAT40 tool changing station to my "wall of fun". Re-write the postprocessor so that it moves the table out of my way on tool changes, and moves the table way forward at the end of the program.

Cheers mates, keep turnin' and burnin'.
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1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[NJ John]

NSracing, You can bring back a bug in El Paso for me. Lol I’m pretty sure you won’t be out that far.
This machine was in a marine shop that rent space off my Father, probably 30 years ago. Then my Father used it a little, then gave it to me. And it’s been in his shop just sitting for 20 or so years. I just brought it home. I have to try to get the collet set that was with it. If not it has a 3/8 in it. And I read you can modify
3-AT collets to fit. I think the biggest they make is 1/2”. The collet is only .687” diameter. Maybe cut down the Berg fly cutter with 3/4” spud to 1/2”.
_________________
1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[nsracing]

Damn Jimmy - you gots the machine! There is not enough money to even warm up your mill.

Unless - you are doing them top line racing engines people plunk big money for you might just break even w/ your rig.

It is quite a feat to move that much weight -by yourself. I learned a little bit from old people over the years buying machines all over the place.

[mark tucker]

[Vanapplebomb]

I’m jealous of that jig boring machine.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[jimmyhoffa]

Mark, that's one of the things I have really enjoyed doing in my CNC- is using a smaller endmill and circular toolpaths to flycut and open up heads. I can almost see myself in the finish. Awesome compared to those big ole' cutters you're talking about that re-cut and swipe chips. Can't stand it. Especially when people use them down inside a hole like a VW head without at LEAST air-blast or something to encourage those chips to get out of there.
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1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[Vanapplebomb]

I have yet to try it, but I liked the idea as well. I now have a small 8” rotary table. Not quite as big as I wanted, but it is something. I have some 1” thick cast tool and jig plate I could make a head fixture on and bolt it to the table. Worth a shot. The ability to just use a standard end mills for all sizes of registers on a manual machine I was the appeal to me.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[RWK]

Yes jimmyhoffa, do all your heads and decks with an end mill if you have a cnc, I use a 1/2 with corner rad for the heads, so no sharp corner. Also cut's flatter then fly cutter with some arbitrary angle ground on it,

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73 Type 181
63 Type 113
63 Type 261- 428 071
62 Type 241-378 025 178 530

[theastronaut]

I clicked on this topic not long after it started, didn't understand anything that was happening in it, so I made my way back to the topics that better covered my level of ignorance. Since then I've taught myself how to use the 12x24 Atlas/Craftsman lathe that had been sitting unused in the shop for years, and we bought a Pullmax for sheetmetal work. Thought it would be a good idea to find a milling machine to help make dies for the Pullmax, and in 2021 we bought a Bridgeport from a friend who was closing down his shop. One of the first things I bought to use with it was a 10" rotary table to accurately redrill lug patterns in wheels and brake rotors/drums.

Probably the greatest use for the mill I've found so far- finally satisfy your OCD by knowing that your DIY engine turned panels are now ultra consistent.

Late '22 I found a 12x36 Atlas lathe on a factory stand for $500 so I bought it to upgrade from the previous bench mounted 12x24 that took up more space and had less capacity. It's currently disassembled for deep cleaning, deburring, derusting. Eventually I'd like to find a larger lathe that can handle wheels.

The Pullmax. A bit off topic but it's why we got the Bridgeport. It's a P7, has a 48" throat, and weights about two tons. It's super handy for making precise profiles in sheetmetal when recreating or repairing body panels. It'll do pretty much anything a bead roller will do but the dies can be set up to stretch the metal as it adds a bead, so that the extra surface area needed is created as it's stamped, whereas a bead roller pulls metal from the sides and distorts the panel. It came with a lot of dies, including louver dies.

This die set was made for recreating the correct profile for the top of '66 F100 fenders. The sandpaper is used on a test panel to quickly find the high spots or pinch points of the dies so they can be smoothed for less pinching/stretching as the profile is shaped. The lower die holder is threaded, which works great when a profile tapers in depth from one end to the other like the fender profile does.

Test piece- crappy repro fender profile on top, newly made piece on bottom, profile gauge showing the difference.

I found an old Delta carbide grinder on Marketplace and started learning how to grind my own HSS- with help from This Old Tony.

Late last year dad got a call from a friend who owned a building that had been rented by a machine rebuilder, he thought that we might be interested in some of the machines or tools left by the tenant. In the back was a huge Pond Machine Tool Co metal planer, with a 12' by 54" bed that had been updated with a Bridgeport clone head to turn it into a planer mill. There was another smaller planer in the shop as well.

Another big piece was a Pratt & Whitney 3B jig borer.

The planer and jig borer were cool to see but we had no use for them and nowhere to move them to, but I was able to buy a decent amount of tools from there including a 30x36" cast iron surface plate, a smaller 24x36 surface plate, lots of measuring tools, a few camelback straight edges with various angles on their sides- all scraped for flatness, right angle plates, a keyway cutter set, machinist jacks, v- blocks, and a few books on machining. Most of it is outside of my skill level but it's nice to have, and I've been watching scraping vids on youtube so I'm itching to try it out.

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Strive for perfection in everything. Take the best that exist and make it better. If it doesn't exist, create it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough."
-Sir Henry Royce, co-founder of Rolls-Royce

'64 Beetle Sunroof OG Bahama Blue
'63 Beetle Vert
'66 Beetle
'88 Festiva L
'89 Festiva L
'64 Chevy C10
'66 Chevy C10

[jimmyhoffa]

I love watching people get sucked into "the vortex" It seems like just yesterday I was pushing my little desktop mill in on a hand truck, thinking that was totally the bees knees.

Next thing you know, I'm lowering a 5000lb machine on a hydraulic drop-deck trailer in my driveway, asking the people helping me rig it if it's rigid enough for clean cuts with my Sandvik 3" face mill.

Yes. Yes. Let the machine tools flow through you. You've got some sweet stuff Astronaut
_________________
1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[Stripped66]

Heck of a shop you've assembled there!
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[nsracing]

Geeze Astro - are you ill?

Goodness, I thought I had an addiction w/ machinetools. YOu take it to new heights.

ARe you keeping the camelbacks? Let me know how much if you are selling them.

The cast iron surface plate might still be in tolerance. So check with precision gage dial indicator in tenths.

[JaredJ]