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Decided to quiet the Mini Mill down somewhat.

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I have a Jet bench top mill here in Reno that's available for adoption
 
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I've got a broken drive gear on my HF Micro mill 47158, stupid plastic gears. I'm considering a belt drive but metal drive gears would do if the price was right.
I just sniped a little rotary table from ebay, should be good for turning 530 sprockets into 520 sprockets.
 
I've got a broken drive gear on my HF Micro mill 47158, stupid plastic gears. I'm considering a belt drive but metal drive gears would do if the price was right.
I just sniped a little rotary table from ebay, should be good for turning 530 sprockets into 520 sprockets.
um,,, the special of the week is the drive upgrade, see above
 
Coincidentally I bought the the HF 47158 micro mill drill in December 2007 for $169.99. It has a plastic 15 tooth gear on the motor shaft that I seem to keep breaking. There is also a hi-lo selector with plastic gears before power gets to the plastic gear on the spindle.
I'm not sure I'm ready to dump that much money into this tiny mill. You've got an X2 mill, I think this was also called the Sieg X1.

Or were you referring to thinning down a 530 sprocket for use with a 520 chain?
 
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That's a start
There's a 6' long 2' wide 3' tall steel bench with sliding cabinet doors and shelving storage underneath

Drill chuck, boring head, R-8 tool holders and collets, fly cutter, swivel base milling vise etc

Also I have a granite and/or an iron surface plate, height gage, surface gages etc that can go with it

More photos later

I'm looking for $1500.
Reno NV area
 
My wee 80mm rotary table arrived while I was out working this afternoon, it's got a groove at the edge of the table where someone got careless, and it's got a little backlash in the 0 or 360 degree area that I'll have to keep in mind. Bought used on ebay, $46 at my door. I hope I didn't outbid anyone here. 😁
 

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My wee 80mm rotary table arrived while I was out working this afternoon, it's got a groove at the edge of the table where someone got careless, and it's got a little backlash in the 0 or 360 degree area that I'll have to keep in mind. Bought used on ebay, $46 at my door. I hope I didn't outbid anyone here. 😁

Man I just did a job that would have been handy for... cutting lobes into the end of a 1" diam piece of aluminum. Instead I set up the full-monty dividing head with all that drama, followed by smashing my finger when taking everything down and cleaning... B&S dividing heads are efficient and elegant when bolted down on the table but unwieldy ill-balanced monsters when moving them around. Could have done it with my little toolmaker's vise on a table like yours and no smashed fingers... :-)
 
Thanks, these are on eBay new for $65 shipped by the way, and there are disassembly videos on YT that say they're actually well made. Sorry to hear about the finger, clutch or throttle?
 
Thanks, these are on eBay new for $65 shipped by the way, and there are disassembly videos on YT that say they're actually well made. Sorry to hear about the finger, clutch or throttle?
:roflthrottle-- got it pinched when setting down the head. My dad has an nice little Enco horizontal/vertical rotary table that he promised me so I guess I'm holding out for that. Amazing how inexpensive some things can be though... same with collets.
 
My wee 80mm rotary table arrived while I was out working this afternoon, it's got a groove at the edge of the table where someone got careless, and it's got a little backlash in the 0 or 360 degree area that I'll have to keep in mind. Bought used on ebay, $46 at my door. I hope I didn't outbid anyone here. 😁
Looks like a good by
 
Made a preload adjustment tool for the Bitubo JBH fork carts I installed in the gsxs- the factory tool was inconvenient to use because the various clearances forced me to use a combo wrench. I can use a ball-end allen key and socket speed handle with the new one- the socket head screw is partly visible on the far end.


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Tried to take some weight out of a HONDA OEM spoke wrench, which is Forged Steel

Burnt up a new 4 flute cutter, and a used 2 flute cutter.

had plenty of cutting oil on the part, and was taking it slow on the feed and a few thou at a time.

Is there a trick to milling super hard steel ?

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Super-hard steel will be tough to mill. Carbide endmills will be helpful, looks like you are using HSS which will get dull more quickly. The good steel will tend to work harden so you have to stay in the zone of feeds and speeds. Your chips don't look burned suggesting RPM is at least plausible but possibly low, so possibly the tool got dull or the material work-hardened on you. Since you did get some cutting done I don't think your methods are far out- could be just tool wear.
 
Thanks that is helpful. Both cutters worked at first then got dull and would not cut any more.

all I have is HSS cutters, all used, some resharpend
 
HSS quickly runs out of gas in harder materials, and in cast iron- otoh cobalt HSS cutters or stellite will last longer. To cut that wrench I'd be trying carbide I think, with careful attention to speeds and feeds. Cutting oil as coolant is probably not going to fix issues, but it may help with the heat. Might be even a deathwheel in a grinder could be an advantage.

A friend of mine brought rototiller driveshaft in once, it was a replacement part too long for the machine it was supposed to be put in. I couldn't touch one end of it with any of my cutters; the workpiece was too hard from the heat treat. I ended up being able to cut on the other end and got him out the door but it wasn't great job. You might be better off with waterjet or EDM with some of this stuff.
 
Deathwheel is a great idea. Thought about that after I burnt up the first cutter.

After I get it roughed in , then a light pass with a Carbide cutter to make it look nice should work.

I have had excellent results with ALUM Parts and HRS 1018,1020 Steel so far with the Mini Mill. This was my first ever attempt at anything hard.

the larger question is how many cutters do I want to ruin on a $4.26 spoke wrench :fpalm
 
Would heating the wrench cherry red and letting it cool slowly soften it enough to make the cut, then when finished heat it cherry red again and cool it quickly with an air gun or oil quench to reharden?
 
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