Harbor Freight Micro Mill

[Bill M]

All of my jigs for pickup making are made of hard wood. They are getting beat up, so I went to a local machine shop to get estimates to have them made out of aircraft grade aluminum. Very expensive. Now I'm just thinking of making my own and want some opinions. Ive been looking at this micro mill from harbor freight and was wondering if anyone has any experience with it.- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

[belwar]

With machine tools you really get what you pay for. I dont ahve any experience with this particular machine, but in general it probably wont be the best quality.

With the number of businesses going under right now, there are lots of good buys on machine tools through ebay and craigslist. You might consider looking for a used mill of higher quality. You might spend another hundred bucks or two, but you get a FAR better machine that will outlast you.

[kevinT]

great advice.

[jonson]

If you find you cannot run to a mill, then face your jigs with 1/4 or 3/8 Phenolic sheeting. A lot of my guitar and other jigs are faced just round the edges with phenolic and have been in service, hard run against router pins and bearings for nearly 30 years with very little wear over that time. Small jigs are sometimes just made of phenolic or thick bakelite you can buy from people like Trend routing tools. Hard acrylic sheet will work as well and always keep amaster copy in case you want to run a replacement or run more than 1 jig at a time.

[jonson]

Seeing as you are Stateside you may be able to find something like this your side of the pond. Tufnol Sheet - Main supplier for Tufnol Sheet

[belwar]

+1 on the phenolic if you are not going to go with 6061 aluminum.

Check with local plastic supply places and see if they have remnants.

You want paper phenolic either XX, or XXX grade.

[automan]

I make all my forms from phenolic backed plywood. It's very slick and hard (giggedy).

[Bill M]

Thanks Guys for all the info. I have big pieces of aircraft aluminum 1"x6"x 3 feet long, so I think I'm going to stick with that. Belwar- You are right you do get what you pay for and will keep my eyes open for a more quality used mill. For some mysterious reason I am compulsed to make my jigs, bobbin spacers, and anything else that I can think of out of this aluminum stock. I think I'm obsevive/compulsive or something. Anyway thanks everyone for the input.

[chevalij]

Thanks Guys for all the info. I have big pieces of aircraft aluminum 1"x6"x 3 feet long, so I think I'm going to stick with that. Belwar- You are right you do get what you pay for and will keep my eyes open for a more quality used mill. For some mysterious reason I am compulsed to make my jigs, bobbin spacers, and anything else that I can think of out of this aluminum stock. I think I'm obsevive/compulsive or something. Anyway thanks everyone for the input.

I have a mill almost identical to this one (If not this one) . I've used it to make jigs, winder parts, custom flatwork etc. It'll handle aluminum no problem, same with mild steel. There are tons of collets etc. on ebay as well. You will also need a good, although small machinist vise and T bolts. Only problem I've had is the travel can be limited for larger parts about 4" fore/aft , but this is mostly a factor of the vise size and placement. For the price it's pretty good, but is limited to smaller components due to it's size.

[jonson]

Just out of interest Bill, have you never tried machining youir material with a router. I used to supply a superyacht company with burr veneered highgloss dashsets "instrument panels" and I machined all of them out of 6mm ally. Overhead machines run best but I have worked with hand routers and good cutters in small bites. It does work with the right sharp cutters.

[Bill M]

Thanks for the info Chevalij. Thats all I'm looking for is something small to make small parts.

Jonson, I didn't know that you could cut aluminum on a router. It probably would be hard to mill the face with it though. Anyways thanks guys for the info.

[David Schwab]

Jonson did you have to slow the router down? Did you use a spiral bit?

[jonson]

Jonson did you have to slow the router down? Did you use a spiral bit?

Hi David and oh yes!!
As an overhead pin router I was running a Danish Dankeart router which is belt driven from a 14inch diameter crowned wheel at the rear of the machine and that git used to scream like a banshee so that was the chosen one to slow down. Ripped off the pulley and replaced it with a 2inch diameter mahogany sleeve. and I am sorry but Iv'e never worked out the rpm but would say about 1000. With a hand router I use a Bosch GOF1700ACE and that is on the slowest speed 8000rpm plus a fabricated oversize dimmer switch to bring it down almost to stop. Upcut spiral cutters for trenching and slotting but downcut for trimming outer edges. I have also some alluminium window industry cutters which work very well and that is where I first nicked the idea from, as those guys are doing it all the time. Surfacing is ok but all done in small bites. Skim the surface with the router on a pair of skis. I'm fairly sure some of my other routers will handle this but the Bosch is a bg bitch and really suited to being slung under a table so that became the alli one.

[David Schwab]

OK, I figured as much! I have a router speed control I use from time to time for difficult materials.

I wouldn't want to try and use a regular bit on aluminum! I could see that getting too grabby!

[jonson]

You are correct. Did it once with a straight flute cutter and the snatch was over the top, till the cutter snapped and shot off at speed. Aluminium is the same as most other products, different grades, different machining properties so it's all down to getting the right balance. I cut up sheet alli and sheet nickel on a 12inch rolling table saw using triple chip tungsten blades and that presents very little problem. All good fun but maybe one day it may bite me.