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Thread: IH Mill Build

  1. #1
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    Default IH Mill Build

    I took delivery of an Industrial Hobbies Mill back in August of 2013 with the Intent of throwing the CNC kit on it quick and having it going within 2 weeks. Well it is October now and only part of the way done.

    Along the way I ran into some issues and I also decided to do a bunch of extras on it being I will already have it apart. I have been taking pictures of it along the way and have been meaning to post them on here but haven’t had the time until today.

    Before I received the mill I saw a posting on the forum of people complaining about lack of support and many people having issues getting parts and such from the company. I contacted IH a few times on the phone and sent many e-mails with questions that I had for them and they responded all most immediately and even asked them about the issues. I found out the company switched hands and there was a new owner now.

    I must say that I have had nothing but excellent service from IH – they always respond to e-mails right away and usually you can get someone on the phone.

    When I purchased my mill and CNC kit the instructions were not updated so they sent me some old plans – there were a few changes but mostly correct.
    For the money I paid for the CNC kit I did expect more then what I received – According to their website “ The only things you will need to complete your CNC conversion are a computer, monitor, basic hand tools, drill, drill bits, taps, and about $100.00 in extra electrical components. “ well the statement about $100 of electrical components is false. I spent well over $300 so far on electrical components and still need some minor electrical connectors to do it right. If I had to do it over again I don’t think I would buy the kit – I could have probably saved about $2500.

    Enough with the boring stuff…..

    The first thing I started with was the stand – I was going to go with a basic stand but started looking online and saw some people were going with flood coolant. I liked that idea so I mocked up a design in Solidworks and started the build. I wanted something to contain all of the liquid so I planned on making an enclosed cabinet design with removable sides if I ever need to fit something big in there.



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    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IH Mill Build-mill-base-render1-jpg  
    Last edited by turbotoys; 10-07-2013 at 10:52 AM.


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    Here is a picture of the base along the way - It is made out of 3x3x3/16 square tubing and the tubes that the mill will sit on will be 1/4"thick. It is over built - I know

    Sorry for the grainy image - most of them will be taken by my phone.





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    Here are a few delivery pictures - I wasn't too impressed with the quality of the mill - the castings are very rough. And whatever paint they use is total crap - I used plain solvent to remove the cosmoline and the paint bubbled off where ever it ran on the paint. They also painted it totally assembled and painted over all of the oil points. I would assume this is from the manufacture and not IH that did this. If it was IH I would suggest to them not to use that crappy ass paint they're using.



    While cleaning off the cosmoline I noticed some big gouges in the Z-Axis ways - I wasn't too happy to see that on a brand new machine. I sent an e-mail to IH about this and they assured me that the gouges wouldn't be an issue. Well it was - the slide would bind in that area and if i tightened up the slide so it wasn't loose at the bottom i could not move it all the way up.


    Talked with IH again and after some exchange of E-mails they said they would send me a new column and slide. Another delay.....




    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IH Mill Build-mill4-jpg  


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    Disassembly -

    First issue!!
    I bought a 2 ton engine hoist from northern tool and when I went to go tear the gearbox off, the legs would hit the pallet and the arm did not extend past the long legs for obvious reasons. This would also pose a problem when I go to put the mill on the stand I made. So I had to modify my hoist arm. I used 2.5x2.5x1/4" square tubing and made it 24" longer - I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE AND WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYONE THAT TRIES THIS!!!!




    I started by tearing off the 3hp motor and gearbox.



    The head was very hard to rotate as the 3 bolts holding it to the slide assembly kept catching. Another sign of poor casting. When I pulled the head off you could see all of the sand from the casting process - it wasn't even cleaned off before it was assembled- it was everywhere. Hopefully when I put it back together some grease will help make rotating it easier.



    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IH Mill Build-mill-disassembly2-jpg  


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    More disassembly pics.....

    Another image of quality issues - the rubber that covers the lower ways had a huge cut



    The next two images just show the mill with the x and y removed







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    Modifications time !!!

    First thing was to modify the base - I had to extend the slot in the base 3.5" - I cut it out with a 3" pneumatic abrasive saw then cleaned it up with a 2" die grinder.



    Here it is cutout





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    I did a lot of research before I bought the mill and saw that a few users stiffened up the base with an Epoxy granite fill - being the casting sucked so bad I figured the added stiffness would be worth the extra time to do this. I searched high and low on the optimal mix and needed something that i could find locally. so I did some experimentation and came up with a mix that worked out very well and was hard as heck.

    I purchased the rock and sand from my local Lowe's.

    The rock I purchased was Quickrete all purpose gravel. And the sand was Quickrete play sand.
    I used the west system Epoxy.

    The mixture was:

    32oz rock
    21oz sand
    6-7oz Epoxy

    The rock was cleaned by taking a bucket and poking a bunch of holes in the bottom as a drain and rinsing the rock out until the water was clean. The hard part was drying the rock - i started using a heat gun but that didn't work so well so I fired up the grill.



    Once I had clean rock it was time to experiment. I tried about 8 different mixtures and did a non scientific hammer and chisel test directly in the center of the blocks. The one that I picked barely chipped and that is the mixture i mentioned above.





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    Now its time to start getting the base ready for the fill. I cleaned the casting really well with a wire brush and brake cleaner - I then used lacquer thinner and a wire brush. the casting had a bunch of loose sand that kept coming off.

    I used 6" PVC cut in about 1/3 and scuffed really well with a 36grit grinder disk and epoxied it to the base.



    then I took 2" PVC and made a drain tube in each chamber.



    For the center chamber I needed to be able to get to the ballscrew to be able to tighten it to the ball mount so I created a wedge shape block of wood to use as a plug. then I used monofiliment tape and waxed it with mold release so i could pull it out after the epoxy cured.



    below is after the fill



    and the next two images are of the complete fill - I plan on using black por15 on the bottom of the base and on the inside of the center section to make it look finished.







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    Time to fill the column - I haven't seen anyone fill the complete column yet but thought I would try it out. After receiving the replacement column and slide from IH I mounted all of the bracketry and ballscrew to see how much room I needed in the column. I figured that a 3x3 steel tube would give me plenty of room so I used my plasma cutter and basically made a C channel. Once I had that cut I placed it in the column and it sat very nice in the casting but had some gaps to fill so i grinded the whole outside channel with a 36 grit grinder for adhesion. Then I used short strand bondo to affix the c channel in place and plug the gaps so epoxy wouldn't run everywhere. I also ran 2 threaded rods from the back to push against the channel to keep it in place.



    then i needed to have two oiling ports so I drilled a 5/8" hole into the c channel where the existing holes where in the column. I didnt get pictures of all of this - forgot to take them. The below pic is the holes I am talking about....



    I am using a 1" threaded rod down the center of the c channel to the base to connect the two together so I welded up a flat plate with a 1.5" round tube in the center and welded it to the end of the c channel. Sorry, i dont have a picture

    the pour went slow because i didnt want to create any heat and warp the column. I used the slow harder and tried to wait until it was all most fully cured before i did another pour. The weather was also very cold so that should have helped. it took a weekend to do the fill.

    the column took a little over a bag of rock, bag of sand and little less then a gallon of resin and made it very heavy. I used to be able to pick it up myself and move it but now its impossible to lift by myself.



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    nice work man. i'm following this closely. when i built my IH, epoxy granite was just in its infancy. i'd love to tear it down and rebuild it, but i don't know if its worth the time.



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    Thank you. I am so picky and I know if i would have just thrown this together I would be kicking myself for not doing all of the extras. I had a deadline to get this machine done but it has come and gone a few times. Now i just want it done by spring.... hope that will happen. still have to do so much...



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    More to come on this project. Today I am hopefully going to get the Base painted so I can mount it to my frame tomorrow and start assembly. The column and base had sooo much bondo on it and it looked like total crap I had to strip it all off and repaint it plus whatever paint they used bubbled up from just plain solvent so I needed something more chemical resistant.

    Hopefully in a few days I will have some more photos



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    I didn't get much done over the weekend - had other projects like blowing out the sprinkler system and working on my wifes grand prix but I did get the base painted. One thing that I noticed is that after the E/G fill everything weighs a lot more and kinda sucks trying to move around - but the benefits will be worth it.

    Heres one of the images of the base





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    Out of curiosity, what kind of paint did go with for the repaint?



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    I used PPG's cheap Omni single stage line MTK? (acrylic urethane). I looked at so many different options - I tried the Hardnose from Por15 and it peeled right off. I didn't want to spend a whole bunch because it is a machine and its going to get scratched - my main concern is that the majority of the paint needs to stay on with some of the chemicals that might spill on it or be used. The original paint bubbled from solvent and was horribly soft - I could put my finger prints in the paint if i pushed hard enough.



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    I didn't get much accomplished again today - Hoisted the base onto the stand that I made and Painted the iside of the Base with POR15.





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    I just bought one of these mills. Still on my truck waiting to be uncrated. What did you do with the old column? I need one...



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    One thing I did find on the IH mill head was the three flange bolts don't have any shoulder and chipped the casting. I had one just strip all of a sudden. McMasters has some nice flange bolts and flange nuts that are way nicer. The head of the flange bolt need to have two flats cut and the top trimmed down but is makes fore a much better mounting setup.

    I'm looking forward to see how the AG works.

    youtube videos of the G0704 under the name arizonavideo99


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    Quote Originally Posted by arizonavideo View Post
    I'm looking forward to see how the AG works.
    Thanks for the reply. Given the date of the last post, I didn't know if anyone was still following this thread. What is AG?



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    Default Re: IH Mill Build

    I am interested in this build, but see that it's been almost a year since the last update. Anything new in that year?



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