As some of you might remember I,ve been building a manual milling machine and to mount my mini milling head to my column and z axis I had plan to use 1 inch thick plate in between the column and the z axis ( this is done so that there will be enough room to turn z axis handle)and 1 inch plate in between the mill head and the z axis. I had planned to use iron plates but ran into a problem when I went to 3 of my local suppliers they all didn,t have any. So I have a choice either I can do it out of 1 inch aluminum at about $20 cost or do it in 1 inch stainless at about $70 to $90 cost. I don,t mind spending the extra money for stainless if you guys think that would be better, but if you think I,ll be alright with aluminum I,ll go with that , either way I,d like to hear opinions on which would be better suited for mounting a milling head to the column? I,ll eventually use this mill to mill aluminum and some iron and some steel.

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Eric

Thanx but which would you use to mount a mill head to a column? Aluminum or stainless?

for a milling machine, i would use steel or cast iron. For a router, i would use aluminum.

Aluminum plate or the cast aluminum plate (Mic6 or Jig Plate) will work beautifully.