First Impressions

[JPATTE09]

I had the opportunity to visit Industrial Hobbies last week. I had pre-ordered an IH mill back in January, the mill is here so I drove out to CT (over 2 hours) to make arrangements to pick up the mill or set up delivery if I thought it would be too large for me to handle. I met the new owner Gene and his son Tommy (very nice people). I ended up spending allmost four hours at the shop. Gene was nice enough to take the time to show me the Mills, Tooling, Fixtures, Cnc kits, Dro's, just about anything I could think of. Before I left Gene set up some Aluminium plate on one of the Cnc mills and let me do some conversational machining. I have to say I was very impressed with the smoothness and noise level of the mill or should I say lack of noise or vibration. Theres a lot of Iron in that Mill. How impressed was I? Well I went there to make arrangements to pick up the mill and ended up leaving it there for a Turnkey Cnc Conversion.
Thanks to Gene and Tommy for an informative and enjoyable day.

JP

[tai42]

Originally Posted by JPATTE09 I went there to make arrangements to pick up the mill and ended up leaving it there for a Turnkey Cnc Conversion.

I suppose it's a good thing they are on the other side of the country from me. I pre-ordered the mill, and then the DRO/PowerFeed, then the 3 axis DRO. I think my wife would have some words for me if I then upgraded to turnkey CNC.

Originally Posted by JPATTE09 I have to say I was very impressed with the smoothness and noise level of the mill or should I say lack of noise or vibration.

Do you know if this was the "stock" gear head mill, or one converted to belt drive. I'm rather curious as to the noise level of the standard gear head versus a typical belt drive knee mill. (Need to know if I need a more powerful stereo in the shop! )

[Runner4404spd]

the gear head is noisy. i did find that it was somewhat quieter after getting the 3400 RPM 3hp motor on there. you will need a loud stereo or the belt conversion for the head. i keep hoping gene will release that info soon.

[Ron111]

Runner440,
So hows the IH cut with the 3400rpm / 3HP motor? Did you use any cooling for the spindle bearings? Is there a thread about your mods and are you running the cnc kit from Aaron (or Gene) or did you roll your own?

Ron

[JPATTE09]

TAI42, Its a good thing I am not married, I am sure I could not have gotten away with that if I was. I definately exceded my budget but after running the mill I could not help myself. The Mill that I ran was the standard Gear Head Mill with the standard single phase motor. It was the Standard Cnc conversion. Gene ran the belt drive mill with the high rpm motor and light industrial kit and put it through some paces for me, very impressive.

Runner4404sp, I am not a Machinist and it has been at least 20-25 years since I have been in a production machine shop so I do not have a lot to compare the noise level to. That being said Sound is a lot like Color, no two individuals see Colors exactly the same. I did not find the Standard gear head Cnc Mill loud. As a matter of fact I found the high speed mill with the Light Industrial Cnc kit too be much louder, maybe because it was in a full enclosure with super flood cooling, I can not be sure. Like I said Noise levels are very subjective. To sum it up all I can say is I did not find the noise levels off the Mill to be offensive. One Mans noise is another Mans Music.
Hope This Helps
JP

[Runner4404spd]

i have to IH mills, one cnc and one manual. i am currently using the manual mill and set it up with a 3Hp motor. the cut is night and day, especially in aluminum. the slightly higher ranges in the low gear i find more useful too. i would recommend this swap to everyone. my notes were documented here for the motor swap. i used a standard motor and not the metric, but it works great.