Well I’ve got a bit of bad news. I’ll have to hold off ordering the parts for about 3 weeks. I’ve got other things to order and take care of which include, but are not limited too; prom, oil change, digital camera (to keep you guys up to date like you like to be) a slide vice, boring tool, and an end mill set. Total of about $340, quite a dent for me.
I found a slide vice on Harbor Freight for $50 and a Drill press milling vice for $54. Is there any difference?
As far as I can tell the drill press vice just has more positions to clamp something in place. Also I found an endmill set on Harbor freight for $80. Anyone know where I might pick one up for cheaper? Or is that a decent frice for a set of 20…
The milling vice (ITEM 94276-2VGA) gives you more options, XY is what you want. This won’t replace a mill/drill, or a milling machine, but are great to have until you’re ready for such things.
I’d go to MSC and get US made endmills, you never know what you’ll get with the import stuff. Yeah, more expensive, but you want to get the feel of a good endmill cutting. May not be as important on a drill press…
Again I’ve ordered my boring tools an holders from MSC. Or made the holders myself!
I do own a big RF-31 mill/drill from HF. Great for the larger stuff. But BOY, is it HEAVY!
Does this seem like a decent set? I wanted one that had 2 and 4 flute end mills just in case.
As to the boring tools I’m having trouble interpreting the specs with all the “large end bore” and “small end bore” jazz. If i could get some interpretation of the specs that’d be nice. I’m looking for something that would make the hole for a set screw that is going to be only 7 mm wide. If you guys think I should go a different method due to the size of the hub, be my guest to suggest something. The only other thing I can think of is boring straight through the gear and shaft and put something almost like a cotter pin through the hole to hold the gear in place…
Being practical, and as previously posted, I think you should look at modifyable solutions instead of starting from scratch. Something similar to below probably can be modified much, much easier than maching your own and probably for a lot less $$$ and time. For a $6 (plus postage) the OFFSET SCREWDRIVER ADAPTER below can be disassembled to see its workings and possibly modified for your use. Machining parts is a world unto itself.
Hm. You make a valid point zoomkat, but I’m am probably going to involve myself in machining at some point anyway. I will order 1-2 of those offset drivers just to check it out, but I’m going to go ahead and get that other stuff anyway. Can never hurt to start something too early
One suggestion for when you get your tooling, make something similar to what you want using the tooling that is a little larger or smaller than the tooling you intend to use. Chances are you may damage some tooling until you get the hang of it and you don’t want to damage the one piece of tooling that is critical to the project. I was at the HF store today and got some security bits. The one bit I needed didn’t seem to fit the screw head. On close inspection that one bit had the center hole in the star pattern a little off center. Murphy’s law is always at work!
Well, this project is gonna get set back even more. Dropping $300 on a set of new tires… stares at 1987 plymouth money hole (sundance) Curse my brother for totaling my old truck…and the car that woulda been mine had he not totaled that one too…
Anyway. Got the camera before I knew about my tires so now I have one less thing to get on my list. I’ll keep this updated as much as I can, I’ll get there eventually, little by little
I was able to get the endmill set and the drillpress/milling vice ordered and all squared away thanks to an extra couple bucks I made with a side job I did for my uncle.
I took Alan’s advice and ordered from MSC Direct. Boy do I have some praise for them. I ordered the end mill set at 7pm last night and they had next day air mail as a free upgrade from 2 day ground cause the package was under 20 lbs. I got it at 1 pm this afternoon! I went with a 10 piece set only $70 (imported) cause I figured it was the smarter choice in that I don’t need a really nice set unless I get really into machining my own stuff. Here’s some pictures of the set.
badongo.com/pic/5915369 : MSC box, less than 18 hours hours from time of ordering to actually opeing the box in my own home
badongo.com/pic/5915371 : A half decent wooden case with a cardboard sleeve for shipping purposes.
badongo.com/pic/5915372 : The end mill set. Tin covered. The 3 on the left don’t fit my chuck, but they are too big for anything I would be using them for anyway.
My milling vice is going to be 10-14 days as it came from HarborFreight. I’ll be counting down the days
Got my milling vise today. Harborfreight took a while to ship it but I guess that is why it is considered freight. Anyway. I have not got my whole little setup with a drill press / Rough CNC mill. Not gonna lie, it’s really fun. I have already made a sign for my dad . I’ll be ordering the motors and U channel next week so i can get started on boring out the holes on the U channels to get thme to fit the motors properly. Here’s some photos of my shenaniggans today:
Interesting use! Always helps when you can make the odd item for a family member (wives especially).
Use the highest speed you can on the spindle when routing wood. In fact, there are router bits especially made for wood. Not that I bother to buy them for the very seldom job of cutting wood on my lathes/mills.
Did you say CNC? You’re going to add motor drives to your XY drill press table?
. That cuts costs quite a bit 
I went with a 10 piece set only $70 (imported) cause I figured it was the smarter choice in that I don’t need a really nice set unless I get really into machining my own stuff. Here’s some pictures of the set.
. I’ll be ordering the motors and U channel next week so i can get started on boring out the holes on the U channels to get thme to fit the motors properly. Here’s some photos of my shenaniggans today: