Mills and others
 

Hey I am thinking of making chassis's for a couple people to help em with there projects and I dont think I can keep up cutting them by hand anymore. I was looking for a mill or saw that can cut a shape out of metal or CF/similar, cut out designs and such and that will be able too make parts for my big rc cars. It also should be like under 300. Wuld this do the job?http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...99/47158-t.gif thanx for the help. I will see if I can get pics of my hand cut chassis. thanx for help

mind you; you are in Mikes line of business, and on his playground.

my sentiments exactly Rene.... Tread Lightly on this one.....

I wondered why my cad question went unanswered for so long :005:
I've been lusting after a cnc taig mill for some months now but just haven't had the nads to pull the "buy now" trigger :026:
hard to tell by the tiny pic but a friend of mine has one similar I think from harbor freight and he tells me it's a good machine for doing small hobby related stuff.
I think you'd find cutting chassis out with it miles better than a hack saw,drill and files you're probably using now:002:

If you do a google search on that model # I bet you'll find user groups that will be willing to share any and all knowledge they have

Good Luck

Steve

I'm surprised to see this reaction.... ???

I think this kind of small-time deal, making a few parts for you and your buddies.... or even doing a $$ job for someone is not a big deal. I would be shocked if Mike took issue with this, even though this is his site, his business, etc.

Mike does nice CNC stuff... it's in a different league than a harbor freight lathe or mill. Besides... I think Mike has got all he can handle in the custom milled dept... at least right now anyway.

How many parts can a guy crank out on a simple hand mill?

I could be wrong... which is fine... cause it's not my business here. Makes me wonder about making a few extras of my basic conversion parts like I was going to do, so I could "hook up" a few guys who want to duplicate my cars.

Is that wrong here???? I hope it's not....

My thoughts exactly. I think there reaction was a little harsh.

Me too... really, I thought that's part of what this site and this niche group of guys is all about.

I know there is a line to be crossed at some point, where it's become a business and thus a competitor to RCM... but this kind of small-fry stuff is also just the nature of what we are doing.

The reason why I posted what I did; It's not about helping friends; it's about 'helping a couple of people, because he can't keep up making them by hand anymore' I don't know how many cars you guys converted by hand, but I can do 1-2 conversions per week, and if i can't keep up, that means I am doing a shipload of conversions per month. And that exactly IS Mikes business, and he is asking information on HIS forum.

and instead of mixing up with your personal feelings/opinions towards us, you could have replied to the thread a bit more on-topic (since Cembom initial question isn't really answered by any of us regarding the mill) and I would have preferred if you guys discussed this matter with me/us by PM. As you both know we are reasonable persons and do nothing without a certain reason.

Now Cembom; for your questions;

Running a Mill is nice, but you need other things than the mill alone; the material you work on, the tools you need to use the mill. (such as a good machine-vice, bits, material to work with. Because the normal stock aluminum you can buy on the corner of the street doesn't give the nicest results in machining. You might need to look for another supplier for the aluminum since the normal aluminum will leave nothing but ugly grooves/burrs

I can guarantee you, once you have a mill (and a contructive mind) you will be using it all the way.

Good points Serum. I replied "off topic" (sorta) because it appeared that the topic perhaps should not be discussed in this forum...

(which brought about the "other" topic..... ;) )

Fair enough... we'll leave it alone if it's not an issue.

I don't have much to add to the mill advice, other than to say I would like to have one too. :D Sure would beat doing stuff by dremel and drill press and belt sander...

If your look to only spend about $300 on one, I would look into this.

That's the one in his link.

I was pretty sure it was, but the picture is so small I couldn't tell. :p

I used to have 20% off coupons for harbor freight, but I could not find them online last time I wanted one. There might be some others out there... maybe 10% or something...

Yea...I'd love to have one of those too. But I do very little conversion wise, so it wouldn't be a wise investment.

However...a compressor powered rotary tool (like a dremel basically), an 18V cordless drill, and a hand hack saw can only do so much sometimes lol...

The one you and Squee linked to seem good for the price.

That mill is a piece of junk. Its just a bench top drill press with a two direction slide on it.

You DO NOT want a mill that uses a chuck. Way too much chance of chatter and loosing a bit.
Also, this thing only has a max speed of 1000 rpm. Thats extremely low relative to most somewhat decent mills.

THis is an example of a little better low priced mill: http://cgi.ebay.com/JewelMasterNC-CN...QQcmdZViewItem

better yet: http://www.grizzly.com/products/g8689