Mini-Mill Spindle/Column Alignment

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

Make or Buy a Power Feed for your Mini-Mill

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

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