Refurbishing a neglected mini-mill

[redgreener]

I tried a 7x machine a few years ago and for my needs it just didn't have quite enough power. I went with one of the 8x's, mine is from HF--the 44859. I really like this machine; I converted it to variable speed, and have just recently made a new spindle with a .950 bore. I threaded the spindle nose 2 1/4-8, and now chuck changes are fast and easy. This is a great companion to the mini mill, and I am quite happy with this setup.

[vwtrike30]

Hi guys, Thought I'd bust in here with a trick I learned from an old school machinist...Use a scotchbright pad and WD40, then mineral spirits to clean out the WD, after that dries, rub all the metal parts down with Johnsons paste wax (YES, the stuff for wood floors) Make sure you buff all the parts after it dries. Do that every once in a while and everything moves a whole lot smoother. Plus debris doesn't stick in places as bad.

[dang]

I built Hoss' belt drive as well. It's a really wise upgrade to that mini mill. I burned out three plastic intermediate gears, one of which went while constructing the belt drive. It's alot quieter now, I also feel like I really own it after building onto it so significantly.
Next up is a CNC upgrade along with a coolant system and a full enclosure. I wanna mill some Graphite!

Another really good idea is to buy the 5a fuses in bulk, 100 at a time for about $.10 each.

[maxboostbusa]

Yeah fuses are a good idea. I have never popped on on my mill yet and hadn't on my lathe until last weekend. It usually just tripped the overload and had to reduce speed controller to 0 and restart up. 8 fuses back to back with no overloads kicked. Now its back to hitting the overload since I bought a whole box of fuses.