milling machine

The "speeds" and "feeds" are different for wood than they are for wood, but a milling machine can certainly handle wood, if it is properly set up.

Have fun.

Lew

| The "speeds" and "feeds" are different for wood than they are for | wood, but a milling machine can certainly handle wood, if it is

Are you really sure about that?

G'morning, Lew. (More coffee, please...)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

You need to pay close attention to cutter and feed speeds.

Also the grind angles of the cutters.

If you also use the mill for metalcutting the cutting oil really causes the sawdust to stick making for a messy cleanup.

Otherwise it can work well.

Which make and model? Price?

How much do you know about mills?

Depends on what you bought, but if you've got a manual mill, odds are it's going to be less than suitable for making wheels. If it's a CNC mill, or you have a rotary vise, I'd imagine you can get away with it.

Myself, I'd keep the wood off it, if for no other reason than it'll be a mess when the sawdust sticks to everything. You'd be better off machining your wheels out of nylon or something, which is a fairly common practice on metalworking mills.

And generally speaking, a mill isn't going to spin anywhere near as fast as something like a router.

A lot.

No rotory vise needed. Simple tooling and you can make wheels rivaling a lathe.

I tend to agree although I have done it (makes nearly as much mess as phenolic).

No, but it doesn't need to.

a few years ago I upgraded my drill press to a mill-drill.

no regrets at all.

I have.. I learned to operate one years ago and still find it easier to set things up on a mill than on a lathe or router table. As mentioned the Sawdust is an issue but if you clean it (the mill) up after cutting metal there is no reason for the sawdust to get anywhere the metal shavings wont get.. and if it does that area should be dry and easy to vacuum up.

(If you have the cutting fluid spraying all over everywhere when you cut metal then that is another story)

I have one of the Harbor Freight mini-mills in my shop. It cost me less than $500 in 1995. I use it as a drill press more than I do my regular drill press. My mill has a MT#3 if I remember correctly and I have a drill chuck mounted in it most of the time. Cleaning all the sawdust off after each use is a must. When I have a project that calls for making wheels I try to find a hole saw with the correct diameter. My RPM range is from 80 to 3500 I believe. One thing I really find usefull is being able to precisely locate holes with the X & Y table adjustments then the Z for depths.

I have plans for buying a bigger mill for my Metal projects and when I do that I suppose my small mill will be used 100% for wood projects. I like it but I suppose for the $550 this little mill costs now you could buy one heckuva quality drill press.

Dennis

Probably more than me, but you're not the OP! :)

Really... I'm going to have to ponder that one a bit, as I've never done it without a rotary vise. Do you mount the tooling to the ways and turn the work in the spindle or something?

No, it probably does not need to. I was thinking of mill marks if a guy put a router bit in the collet, but a lower RPM would probably work fine with a slower feed.