Plans, projects and How-to's for Home Machinists and Other Makers
SwarfRat Enterprises has a set of free plans for a quick-release dial indicator holder that mounts on the front of a mini-lathe. The holder is made from a 5-inch long piece of .875-inch square aluminum stock. It also uses a quick-release lever from a bicycle seat or wheel that can be purchased inexpensively or salvaged off an old bike. … Read the rest
This tutorial was written by Earl Hackett, who graciously gave me permission to republish it here. Earl found that even though his mini-mill was trammed correctly, different length drill bits were not hitting the same spot on the work piece. He found that the spindle was slightly tipped and tilted instead of being square with the column. … Read the rest
I took a couple of machine shop classes and got spoiled by the X-axis power feeds on the Bridgeport mills. Ever since then I have thought about adding one to my Harbor Freight Mini-Mill (Sieg X2).
Beside reducing wear and tear on your arm and the boredom of turning and turning and turning a wheel, a power feed can produce a better finish on your parts because it moves the table at a more uniform speed than you probably can. … Read the rest
The typical Sieg X2 mini-mill [HF 44991, Grizzly G8689, Micro-Mark & others] has a lot of backlash in the Z-axis. In my case it was .053-inches, which was almost a full turn of the fine-adjust knob.
I heard that putting a shim behind the rack on the column would help by causing it to mesh tighter with the pinion gear in the head.… Read the rest