Small Milling Machines

Advert

New Replies

Report Bug

Help/FAQs

Small Milling Machines

This topic has 12 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 28 June 2023 at 17:10 by Bob Sillitoe.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

Author

Posts
27 June 2023 at 21:01 #11506
Grant Fisher
Participant
@grantfisher57205
Advert

27 June 2023 at 21:01 #650196
Grant Fisher
Participant
@grantfisher57205
Looking for a milling machine capable of milling parts for gauge 3 locomotive.

Preferable small enough to be man handled even if has to be disassembled into more manageable sizes.
27 June 2023 at 21:47 #650204
Grant Fisher
Participant
@grantfisher57205
I have a Boxford lathe with 3phase motor. I believe an inverter on some electronic device can be purchased that allows the motor to run on a single phase set up and some devices include a speed control. What makes are available , what is the likely cost of such a device and how easy are they to fit.
28 June 2023 at 07:17 #650220
David George 1
Participant
@davidgeorge1
Hi Grant welcome to the forum. There are many small mills about but you should look at ARC https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/ or have a look at Chester hobby store. https://www.chesterhobbystore.com

The drive for your boxford lathe I think should be fairly easy, there are many makes and if you look here https://inverterdrive.com/Contact/ you shoukd get an idea of costs involved and that have downloads of how to install a drive and set up for free. There are other supliers around as well which may be cheaper but they can help with most queries on the phone or email.

David
28 June 2023 at 07:29 #650222
Thor 🇳🇴
Participant
@thor
Hi Grant,

Welcome to the forum. My first milling machine was a Mini-Mill, similar to this. It worked and is still working even after nearly two decades of (ab)use. It is a bit small and I still use it for light work. I mostly use a somewhat larger machine – similar to this. The larger machine can take heavier cuts and is the machine I mostly use for milling. I would recommend a larger milling machine if you have room for it in your workshop.

Thor
28 June 2023 at 08:55 #650225
Clive Brown 1
Participant
@clivebrown1
Hi Grant, I'd add Warco to your list of milling machine suppliers. I have a WM16B, copes very well with my 5" gauge build. For gauge 3 the WM12 or WM14 would be ample and more easily man-handled but the larger size can be occasionally useful.

Re Boxford, to use the existing motor you need to ensure that it is delta connected, not star, Look on the motor plate. if it is star then it can probably be changed with a biit of know-how.

For my Boxford, I bought inverter and motor from Inverter Drive Supermarket. Altogether with wiring and control switches the cost was about £250, bit higher now, but you have the motor. A separate control pendant is almost essential IMO..(Tip, choose an inverter with a downloadable "easy start guide" which gives an idiots guide to wiring up the controls.)
28 June 2023 at 09:18 #650226
Adam Mara
Participant
@adammara
From years of experience buy as big as you can sfford and have space for. I have a Sieg SX2 mill which has given over 10 years of service. I purchased a Sieg sx2.7 from Arc Eurotrade a few years ago, a great machine, but moving it is a 2 man operation.
28 June 2023 at 09:25 #650228
not done it yet
Participant
@notdoneityet
Posted by Grant Fisher on 27/06/2023 21:01:01:

Looking for a milling machine capable of milling parts for gauge 3 locomotive.

Preferable small enough to be man handled even if has to be disassembled into more manageable sizes.

New or used?

New – as above (Arc preferred)

Used – Ebay? Gumtree?

I have a Raglan, which suits me. My other (larger) mill is somewhat heavier.
28 June 2023 at 09:33 #650231
not done it yet
Participant
@notdoneityet
Posted by Grant Fisher on 27/06/2023 21:47:00:

I have a Boxford lathe with 3phase motor. I believe an inverter on some electronic device can be purchased that allows the motor to run on a single phase set up and some devices include a speed control. What makes are available , what is the likely cost of such a device and how easy are they to fit.

Look up VFD. Loads on ebay and specialist suppliers. Cost depends a lot on quality – cheap ones may be cheap for good reason (conducted/radiated interference issues, reliability, even safety). Easy to fit if the instructions are followed closely, but depends on the fitter’s ability/skill, of course.
28 June 2023 at 09:53 #650232
Bazyle
Participant
@bazyle
The original Boxford motors are star connected and the star point is buried in the windings and varnished over so you are likely to damage the insulation when digging it out. People and youtube videos will say it was an easy five minute job because they had a newer motor and got lucky.

The mill to look for second hand, if not one of the smaller ones mentioned above, is the type called the round column 'mill-drill'.. These were sold in large numbers by many importers eg the Warco 'Minor'. Normally come up at around £500. Some people like to whine about the problems of a round column but it is perfectly adequate for a competent workman.

Finally you could just get a 3D printer. An 08 shunter in G3 was shown at the G1 show at Biceter last year on the gaugeone3Dcircle stand.
28 June 2023 at 14:28 #650269
Hollowpoint
Participant
@hollowpoint
Raglan

Dore Westbury

Tom Senior E type

Hobbymat BFE 65
28 June 2023 at 15:04 #650276
Trevor Drabble 1
Participant
@trevordrabble1
Grant , Axminster are presently offering £173 off a small milling machine in their clearance sale.
28 June 2023 at 17:10 #650287
Bob Sillitoe
Participant
@bobsillitoe83708
When I got my Southbend lathe a few years ago I simply replaced the 3ph motor with a single phase one, which works fine. However I have recently refurbished a milling machine, with this I have put on a 3phase motor with variable Frequency Drive – it works great and if I was doing the lathe now I would do the same as the variable speed would be useful at times.

Regards

Bob
Author

Posts