MBO: turning in the mill

[X2cnc]

One group I hang with occasionally proclaims someone as a "Master of the Bleeding Obvious." We award the current winner a virtual Captain Obvious hat. Today, I'm wearing the hat.

I have an X2 mill. I *wanted* the mill. But what I *needed* was something like a 7x10 lathe - I have a bunch of small parts I need to make on a lathe, threaded, with tapers and other things more hassle than it's worth on my old manual lathe.

These are all small parts; I can get R8 collets to hold the stock. My X2 has an R8 spindle and a variant of Hoss' power drawbar. All I have to do is make a gang tool rack to hold the various lathe tools, bolt it to the table, and...

The Captain Obvious hat fits nicely, thank you.

I can even attach a plastic bin to the table and drop the completed parts in. Heck, a little rooting in the scrap bin and some hardware-store springs, and I could make a spring-loaded stock rack - just drop a dozen pieces into the rack, and let it load each new piece by itself. (think table-mounted tool rack, except for stock) I could probably figure out some sort of hopper feed arrangement if I thought about it long enough.

[hoss2006]

Mill2lathe has a nice gang tool rack.
check out his videos.

YouTube - MILL2LATHE converts your CNC mill to a CNC lathe!

YouTube - MILL2LATHE converts your CNC mill to a CNC lathe!

good idea on the stock rack!
Hoss