ToolRoom Mill/Mini Mill

[CJH]

We've had our TM for over 3 years and it still cuts as good as the we first fried it up. We do a mix close tolerance work, and artisic work with it and it really has been a great machine with little problem to date. Overall a fine investment. The comments about having the right tooling and fixturing is critical. As well as using good quality materials. I remeber one of the first jobs I ran on the mill was a steel bridge scale model that had to span about 14 feet. I learned the hard way that the materials and cutters were critical. The fixtures I made were stout held the pieces perfectly, but I bought some lower quality steel sheet to make the pieces and ran into a lot of cutter breakage due to carbon infractions and hard spots in the steel. So after going throuhg a lot of cutters and trying various combos of feed and speed, I resorted to calling a biddy of mine who machines tons of steel and aluminum, and got som recomendations on where to change my thinking. Off hand I can't rember where I got the cutters though, but I went with TICN coated 4 flutes and it did the trick. in retrospect I should of had the parts laser cut. It would have saved a ot of time and cash.

CJH

[thetrillionaire]

Our shop has a Haas mini mill that has run for about 5 years on a regular basis. It runs like a champ and holds good tolerances. Large cuts in steel just don't work, the mill just doesn't have the power. It can take moderate size cuts but our mill has overheated on a few occasions when constantly loading the spindle. The only other problem it has needed work for was about 6 months ago the tool changer carousal arm came loose and was hanging on by a thread, it needed to be replaced. All in all I say it is an excellent little mill for running softer materials, but might want more power if you cut harder ones.

[Geof]

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Originally Posted by thetrillionaire ... The only other problem it has needed work for was about 6 months ago the tool changer carousal arm came loose and was hanging on by a thread, it needed to be replaced......

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We have two Minis that suffered a similar problem. The el-cheapo bolt that held the V-groove roller broke off so the toolchanger dropped. The fix was to replace it with a true Grade 8 bolt. Nor problems since then.