Search results for:

How not flat is it? I laid Duramat recycled PVC tiles in my garage - they're fairly flexible and cope with a bit of unevenness.

I'll take the Flite, can collect from Bristol. Will PM now.

As for the mill, I've had to take it apart. Something was squeaky under load so I took the motor off to investigate. One of the brush holders was broken and repaired with epoxy and I had to break it out to inspect it.

Now the motor is more knackered than it was and could do with being replaced - but the same unit is £260 with a 10 week lead time. So I'm trying to figure out if I should replace it with a three phase motor and inverter for about the same price. Just means I have to build the control panel now.

As for the welding/brazing, I think I'm going to get oxy acetylene to start with. Easier to find my feet and I'd need a gas torch anyway if I get TIG, so I might as well start with gas. Going to sort the mill motor first though.

I'd start with the pillar drill but don't set your expectations too high in terms of milling capacity. You'll probably get far enough to figure out if you want to get a bigger machine or not.

Though they're broadly similar, there are significant differences between a mill and a drill that mean they're not great at what the other can do.

You can drill on a mill, but the work envelope is small unless you have a big mill and the quill travel can be short - therefore it's an expensive drill press, unless you're going to use it for other stuff. Drill bits can be quite long, so you quickly run out of z-axis travel.

You could mill on a drill but you need either a collet chuck or Morse taper collets and a drawbar to retain the cutters properly. A three jaw chuck will not hold a milling cutter securely. Also the spindle bearings aren't really suited for the side loads from milling and the machine almost certainly won't be rigid enough for larger cuts. You will also need some kind of x-y table to position your workpiece. You do get loads of z-axis space to play with, and the drill is easy use with larger workpieces.

You can do a lot with a pillar drill and I'd definitely recommend one if you've got space. But I'd also recommend getting a mill too. They complement each other really nicely - being able to quickly drill stuff while the mill is setup doing something else is very useful.

First go at making something on the mill this morning - a cube that will eventually become a tube block. Got within 0.08mm of my target dimensions on the first go, quite happy with that. Spindle is a bit squeaky on deeper cuts so I think I need to play with the feeds and speeds, but the finish is good.

Thank you!

This is the fixture I've been working on. I got to the point where I figured out that using the lathe to do milling ops was a problem, so that's where the milling machine came in.

Next few items will be the bottom bracket holder and dummy rear axles for the fixture and a load more tube blocks.

Thank you!

@platypus the end goal is to be able to build bike frames. At the moment I'm making tooling, practicing my machining and putting off the decision about whether to go for TIG or oxy acetylene for the first one.

Just finished installing the next big chunk of cast iron. 2nd hand Warco bench top mill with X-axis power feed and 3-axis DRO. Had to rejig the workbenches to try and improve the layout - trying to prevent swarf mixing with tyres - and still have loads of sorting left to do before I get my tools in the right place.

Raaco works for me. Combo of peg board and louvered panels for small bins.

I really like my (the?) 6 too. Screen and battery both great, though it's noticeably slower than the iPhone SE I had before. Fingerprint reader sucks, though I did install the January update earlier so hopefully that improve things.

Olight i3T EOS for me too. Very easy to use one handed as it's got a proper button rather than a twisty switch.

Making some progress. Got it to the point where I can start to measure how far out of plane things are and make adjustments. Need to come up with some guides for the sliding elements too, as there's too much play in then.

That's a very good point. I'll start with the head tube puck as a close fit to the HT but I can always turn it down or modify it done other way to fit better.

I'm happy to get stuck in sanding and filing - but the more I think about it the more I realise that TIG is where I want to end up, so I might as well start with that. Thanks for the advice, both.

Thank you! The plates are pieces of 10mm (or 3/8") thick aluminium - I've designed the fixture around available sizes so there shouldn't be too much involved in getting stuff to fit.

The axle is free to move back and down when you undo the fixing screw - so the frame is can pivot around the BB. Or I can release the QR clamps holding the dummy axle support and it'll slide up out of the way if I want to keep the frame in place.

Good tip on bikecad - I haven't used it for a few years so it's nice to know I can get that info from there. I plan on modelling the frames in Fusion 360 before making anything anyway, so I can extract those numbers pretty easily anyway.

Thanks!

TIG welding is a bit tricky

Don't say that... I've been trying to decide whether to weld or braze for the last 6 months. I'm almost certain that welding is the way to go - cleaner, safer and more 'appropriate' for the style of bike I want to build. But I can only afford to pick up one method, at least to start with, especially as a TIG setup seems to be about twice the start up cost of brazing, and I know that the learning curve is steeper.

Ah, hadn't considered that. Thanks!

What is it that's tricky? Such a small thing to weld on a thin tube?

N00b TIG Q: do I need an oxy/acetylene setup as well or can TIG do all of the fiddly little bits like bottle bosses as well as the main tube joints?

Spent some time tweaking the design of my fixture and have ordered the extrusions, plates and hardware needed to start building. It's broadly a copy of the Cobra Creator, modified so that I can make it with just a lathe, saw and pillar drill.

Interested. PM sent.

Thanks! I'm very pleased with it, and it's great to be able to have somewhere like this to work/tinker/escape.

It's about 10 degrees in there at the moment. I've got a small tube heater to take the chill off (though I think I need more) and a fan heater for when I'm actually in there.

Have been slowly sorting the lathe out and getting some practice in over the past few months. Dirty side of the garage now looks like this

Grinder and belt sander, pillar drill and lathe with new tool storage for cutting tools and accessories.

Fitted a DRO, task lighting and some storage for toolholders, lubricants and other useful stuff

Got a 3D printer and a bunch of hand tools to play with

Want a mill but can't afford one (yet) so I got a milling slide and machine vice for the lathe. This, along with a collet chuck and some milling cutters will let me get on with some of the more complicated bits for the frame jig build. Made the adaptor plate (the blue thing) from a piece of O1 tool steel.

Also made a start on some tube blocks. Totally not worth the time taken to make them, but satisfying to be able to do it all myself.