Hello Guys,
I have been lurking around the boards for a few months now and Have
decided on buying a mini mill for my home workshop.
Anyhow, I just wanted a little input on my choice of mill. I live in Ottawa, Canada and we certainly do not have the same level of accessibility to the many lovely mill drills as you can get in the states but a local company BusyBee Tools just came out with a new mini mill that seems to fit the bill.
http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=CT129
I also found what appears to be the exact same mill on the WARCO UK site
http://www.warco.co.uk/productimages/documents/P53.pdf
They seem to have a little more info on it. I was wondering if anyone has used this specific mill and if so what their experience was?
My main use is for machining aluminum parts, and I would like to eventually do a CNC conversion on it. I know I could get a bigger machine for close to the same price but I am limited to getting something relatively light since it has to go down in my basement, if I had a garage I would have gone for a free standing unit
.
I took a machine shop course back in 83 where I learned to use a Milling machine and metal lathe but it's been 25 years (oh how time goes..sigh) and I have lost most of my machine skills, I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on quality instructional material and books for the beginning machinist?
There is also a quick question, when a mill states that it's "End mill capacity is 5/8" does that mean that 5/8" cutting dia is the largest size that the motor can handle or does it refer only to the maximum tool shank diameter? I ask because for certain design work I will need to use a 7/8" dia endmill and ball endmill. I'm sure there must be some reduced shank type endmills that will work with shallow cuts and lubrication on 6061 aluminum.
THanks for all your help in advance!
Frank