pic: Hmm. What could this be?

[PayneTrain]

Pizza vending machine

[Cash4587]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

Pizza vending machine

Man oh man would that be nice. It is not a pizza vending machine, but it is a mill!

[protoserge]

Thread does not deliver. What mill did you get?





pizza joke in case I slipped that one unnoticed

[Cash4587]

We got a machine from Bolton tools, a local place we found here in Houston. it is the ZX45AD:
http://www.boltontools.net/9-1-2-x-4...wer-feeder-dro

[protoserge]

Should be a good machine!

Enjoy disassembling and degreasing it

[asid61]

That is amazing. Beautiful milling machine, although the lack of a knee for $4k irks me. The DRO might be worth it if it has the 0.0002" precision over the 0.0005", as those can go for upwards of $1000.
You may have gotten a better deal on CL if you kept on looking.
Case in point: After months of searching, I literally just fixed a deal for a mill like that today. 1.5hp, came with a 8" rotary table, micrometers, 1-2-3 blocks, 5/8" drill chuck, $400 shell mill, collet fixture and 5c collet set 1/16-1.125", Kennedy toolbox, etc. etc... plus a mill like that one for $1550 all said and done. Plus the seller has a ton of other stuff they're selling for almost nothing.
Of course, the fact that it's new vs. used means the precision will likely me better. Plus, shiny and warrantied.

[Cash4587]

We're happy with our purchase even though it may not be top of the line. We like the DRO since we've never had one before and the precision should be plenty for the things we will use it for. All in all we will see how it goes. We get free tooling and collets from Oceaneering and baker Hughes as well as Halliburton. We even were able to get our hands on a royalty table last year. So we are fortunate to have all the tooling we could ever need. We also are getting an atlas 12" throat by 30" bed lathe for $900. We should be set and ready to go to do just about all we need for the way we like to build our robots. Hopefully we will be set up soon anyway...

[asid61]

Originally Posted by Cash4587

We're happy with our purchase even though it may not be top of the line. We like the DRO since we've never had one before and the precision should be plenty for the things we will use it for. All in all we will see how it goes. We get free tooling and collets from Oceaneering and baker Hughes as well as Halliburton. We even were able to get our hands on a royalty table last year. So we are fortunate to have all the tooling we could ever need. We also are getting an atlas 12" throat by 30" bed lathe for $900. We should be set and ready to go to do just about all we need for the way we like to build our robots. Hopefully we will be set up soon anyway...

Awesome! Have fun with your new stuff! That's enough tooling to do whetever you want.
You may want to make an adapter to transfer chucks from the atlas to the rotary table, for adding keys and stuff to custom shafts.

[waialua359]

Looks good.
I actually like the price compared to what i've spent on our earlier mills.

[protoserge]

Have you put the mill onto a table yet? I don't know if you got a stand with it, but it's better to lift it from the rear, then bolt it to the stand, then rotate the entire assembly and lift it with the engine crane from the front and put it in place. It will save some of the inevitable paintscuffing. I did this just last weekend with a PM932 after we tried lifting from the front and didn't have great success.

And don't forget to take it apart, clean, and regrease/oil it. That step is crucial.

[asid61]

Originally Posted by stinglikeabee

Have you put the mill onto a table yet? I don't know if you got a stand with it, but it's better to lift it from the rear, then bolt it to the stand, then rotate the entire assembly and lift it with the engine crane from the front and put it in place. It will save some of the inevitable paintscuffing. I did this just last weekend with a PM932 after we tried lifting from the front and didn't have great success.

And don't forget to take it apart, clean, and regrease/oil it. That step is crucial.

there's a guide for degreasing on mini-lathe.com

[Cash4587]

Originally Posted by stinglikeabee

Have you put the mill onto a table yet? I don't know if you got a stand with it, but it's better to lift it from the rear, then bolt it to the stand, then rotate the entire assembly and lift it with the engine crane from the front and put it in place. It will save some of the inevitable paintscuffing. I did this just last weekend with a PM932 after we tried lifting from the front and didn't have great success.

And don't forget to take it apart, clean, and regrease/oil it. That step is crucial.

We did get a stand but we haven't quite figured out how to lift it onto it yet. We just barely cracked the box open so we havent had much time to do any prep to get it up and running. We have to clear out our shop space before anything happens though. As it sits now, there is no room to even do anything yet. We are going to spend all of next week cleaning and preparing for the upcoming build season. If you notice, we are working out of a house. Our head mentor (who happens to be my dad) graciously provided his garage and one room in the house to the team. Due to recent complications with the school we used to work out of, we were unable to continue using the shop which has multiple mills, a couple lathes, a cnc plasma cutter, and a couple cnc routers. We are sad we can't use the shop anymore but we are also looking forward to the new opportunity our team has. We are going to learn and grow from this experience as a team.

[protoserge]

School systems that don't stand behind an FRC team with their actions are nothing but an impediment. It is an absolute shame and a true disappointment. Your family is very generous to offer up space to keep the team operating. Hopefully you can find some more permanent space.