Subject: Re: Mill/Drills and tapers (help?)

From: [email-masked] (Tim Kirby)
Date: 26 Sep 94 15:49:00 CDT

Jim Jaskie ([email-masked]) wrote:
: [I have taken] the decision to take a plunge and am going to buy an Enco
: Mill/Drill this weekend...

Fair enough. All the nasty comments aside, an *awful* lot of those machines
have been bought and a lot of them have been used to turn out some very good
work. Not a production piece of machinery as it stands, but that's not what
you're asking for...

: Will the mill/drill be able to hold 0.001 in if I'm patient?

It should do. Check the machine out carfully when you set it up, make sure it
is properly adjusted and let the tools do the cutting. Far better to take a
couple of smaller cuts than to try and hack out large lumps of metal at
high speed. These machines are not heavy duty and they are not going to
tolerate heavy cuts and maintain accuracy as well as a bigger, sturdier
machine.

: What is the difference in functionality between a cheap mill/drill and a
: mill, as far as a hobbiest is concerned?

Geez, how long is a piece of string? I would personally spring for a cheap
drill press and keep the mill/drill (mainly) for milling. The set up time
for a drill is going to be much quicker IMHO - if you need to drill something
between milling you have a "pain" on your hands, so to speak.

: The mill/drill has an "R8 and 3MT" spindles...

Presumably the 3MT is for taking large drill bits (almost universally
they come with Morse Tapers) - I would guess that you get a drill chuck with
a 3MT shank too. Mills are usually held in collets which fit in the R8 taper.

The beast should with some collets standard or it's not much use; I think
they sell different "packages" of machine with varying amounts of tooling.

Tim
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Tim Kirby _________ Cray Research Inc., Eagan, MN, USA __________ [email-masked]
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