Rotary Tables
Very soon after buying a milling machine I can guarantee you will be looking at rotary tables. A rotary table feels like a must have. Use it to machine: arcs flats on bolt heads and [more…]
Milling Machine
Rear Wheel Hubs
The rear wheel hubs for the miniature traction engine that I’m making need to be indexed with eight spokes each side of a single wheel. The trick is that the spokes are out of “phase” and [more…]
Rear Wheel Tread Pair
My first go at machining a rear wheel tread pair for my miniature traction engine was not that successful. That meant I needed another go. The rear wheel tread pair are handed and the tread [more…]
Rear Wheel Treads
The rear wheel treads on these 97mm diameter wheels are just 0.75mm thick and so after some consideration were designed as a machined feature rather than a riveted tread. The rim itself is just 2.75mm [more…]
Milling Machine Z-Axis Accuracy
Someone asked me how accurate my Sieg SX2.7 milling machine was in Z-axis. There problem was the head moving when you lock the travel. My method for measuring this was to lightly clamp an engineers [more…]
Centering and Aligning
I thought I would write an article around Centering and Aligning workpieces on the milling machine. These tappet covers were rather damaged after a number of years of use and what looks like some rough [more…]
Milling Machine Stiffness
So, here I am in the workshop with a dial gauge in the spindle and weights on the top of the milling machine, trying to measure the Milling Machine Stiffness. The head was locked in [more…]
Mill X Y Axis Accuracy Check
I received an email from Ian asking if I had measured the X Y axis accuracy on my milling machine. The issue he had found was that the X and Y axes were not at [more…]
Aligning a Rotary Table
Aligning a rotary table or more importantly aligning a part on the rotary table can be tricky and this is just a simple rough and ready approach to aligning a part. What I’m actually trying [more…]
Milling Cutters
As per the title, milling cutters are used in milling machines as the working end of material removal. There are a number of different types of cutter depending on material and the type of application. [more…]