“Instead of making ugly welds with a stig welder, I can now make ugly welds with a mig welder!” Priceless 😂🤣 Neat design and build. The depth stop will certainly be very usable. Well done 👍👏👏😀
Man, you don't even realise how educational these videos are. I do some amateur machining while making swords and what you do is very inspiring. You prove that you don't need 10 000 dollar machines to make some neat precise pieces
For welding the side arm (and in general), I would recommend grinding a deep 45 degree chamfer into the parts and fill that with your welds. Will hold up much more than just the 'tack' you get when welding over the two flat sides.
Yeah, I salute your perseverance with that hacksaw. Whenever I think a hacksaw would do the job I want, it makes me feel funny and I have to go sit down. 😁 Then I find a different method.
I enjoyed this video just like I have all of your others. I know you're limited on shop space, but please, please, please consider picking up a portable bandsaw. My own arm hurts just from watching the time-lapse of you doing all that work with a hacksaw! 😨 I bought a used import for $40 US and honestly, it's the most time- and labor-saving tool I've ever bought for the shop. There are plenty of videos out there of users who make a small stands to allow them to be used as vertical saws, but one particular design really stood out: Rather than mounting the saw to the table with a couple of screws like everyone else - which leaves the entire blade exposed all the time - this guy had the saw mounted to a piece of ~2" square tube held vertically in his bench vise. I haven't been able to find the video again recently but if I remember correctly, the table was mounted to another, slightly smaller square tube that slid into the first, allowing it to be easily raised & lowered. The outer tube had a small notch cut into one corner, with a nut welded into the hole. This allowed a knob, made from a bolt, to clamp the two together with the table at any desired vertical position relative to the saw. I'd love to give the maker credit for the design, if I could only find it. 😕 If anyone recognizes it and knows where it can be found, please post a reply with a link. Thanks again for all your excellent content!
Great project! Have you considered brazing or silver soldering instead of welding where you have large faces in contact? That would penetrate the whole joint and be less vulnerable.
Great video. I just got a Little Machine Shop 6700 (Sieg X3.5) and was ASTONISHED that it had no depth stop -- even my Sieg X2-style mini-mill has one. I'll have to make this -- thanks much for the instructions! Just discovered your channel and am going through a lot of the vids just to get some sense of what my mill is (since the manual that came with it is completely uninformative -- doesn't even say how to set the gibs, etc. Your vids are helping a lot. Subscribed!
I have a Ryobi 18v portable bandsaw collecting dust in my workshop. It is yours if you want it. I imported it to Australia over a year ago and then soon upgraded to makita so it has been sitting ever since. It only does 50mm stock and needs some new blades but its better than a hacksaw.
Your welds, from what I could see, look just fine. I will suggest that when welding butt joints, bevel them first to give the weld more penetration. For the fillets (corners) you're doing fine.
Dear god man, I saw that steel bit and thought "damn that guys got a bandsaw as well", then I saw you open the vice and starting going at it with a hacksaw.....kudos that is a tough cut.
The welds look pretty good, nice idea with the combination square too. In hindsight if you have a rotary table you can trepan on the mill. The depth stop came out well.
Something I found very useful when using a hole saw in relatively thick material up to 40mm thick (steel or 6061 aluminium), after getting the hole position set and maybe 2~3mm deep, drill through holes in the cut so swarf has somewhere to go. Hole saw is usually around 1/8" wide cut due to the tooth offset so I use 1/8" or3mm drill bit One hole will work but it's just as easy to make 3 or more somewhat staggered rather than equal angles (it also means the cutter isn't fully engaged around entire periphery) If you don't need the 'slug' from piece, larger holes offset so they intersect the edge you do want gives even more clearance (around 3/8"~10mm dia) I found it prevents swarf building up and locking or jamming the cutter in the 'groove'
Great work as always dude, And nice upgrade getting a Mig in the Workshop. Just watching the Video back looks like your welds might be a bit on the cold side and I imagine all the splatter is maybe down to the higher lead content in machining steels. Not trying to be critical just though it may help you out if you haven’t migged in. A few years.
Cheers, it could be this. This was literally my first MIG weld in close to 7 years, not embarrassed to say that these were some questionable welds. Take care, looking forward to your next video.
Nice, a quick tip to get rough depth dialed in is to use a the inside jaws of a caliper between the stop ring and the bottom. I use it at work with Bridgeport's.
Nice work. Those of us with out a Z DRO could adapt it to take the body of a cheap digital Vernier calliper if we wanted to be fussy. (Indeed might be two birds with one stone, use this as the DRO setup!)
Wonderful!! I have a Tree knee mill and the depth stop screw is hidden. Only wat to adjust the depth is to turn the nut a thousand times, no getting a clamp in there. This will solve the problem.
To weld these pieces one should grind an angle onto one or both pieces most of the way in, and then fill the gap with weld metal. This is called a full penetration weld. What's done here is a (very) partial penetration weld...i.e. it is mostly just sitting on the surface. This can be okay under some non critical circumstances but if you then grind most of the weld bead away for aesthetic reasons as was done here, the is very little strength remaining in it. A further problem with using this approach was to combine it with mig welding, which commonly can be a bit cold i.e. not enough current to get much depth of penetration so the weld bead is almost entirely sitting on the surface. I have even seen short mig welds where there was a blob of weld literally sitting on the surface that had not even fused to the surface.
Love your channel and am finding the hints and tips very useful. I take my hat off to you and your hacksaw. Up to half an inch I will use mine, after that its the chop saw or the angle grinder with a cutting disc. My next purchase is a welder. Ive done gas welding in the past but never electric. I fancy a go with tig.
Instead of using your 123 blocks to line things up parallel with the edge of the vise, try using a parallel if you have them, I find it abit easier to hold onto. Another great video man, keep em coming.
how to make a depth stop video about a zillion times more complicated than mine. I machined an aluminum collar that would slip over the round base of the downfeed hand lever (right side of the machine). I put a 1/4" (or 6mm) machine screw in it so it could be tightened and locked to the base when/where needed. I then drilled and tapped a hole in the side of the casting and put another machine screw with a locking nut to hold it tight in the hole so it would stick out and located so it would come in contact with the machine screw in the lever base collar. To set it up, move the handlever to where you want the chuck to stop (and lock it if you have a spindle lock). Spin the collar around and tighten the screw so its hitting the stop screw that's sticking out the side of the casting. Done. Took me about a half hour to make this, works perfect. Wouldn't have made much of a video though....and me not wanting to become a tube vid hero.....
This may be a stupid question. Is there a possibility of making a hinge mount on the back of the lathe and then using a hack saw to cut through a big work piece (with the back of the saw held in the hinge point). Just turn the part and then use the saw as a way of cutting through the stock. Would save a lot of hack saw time.
I have to say. you must burn though hacksaw blades? I was thinking on the bracket. a countersink screw would have been a better option. it would have looked a little cleaner. and held the bracket from moving around better.
A possible source of flexibility affecting repeatability is the single offset screw holding the L bracket. Need 2 screws to keep it from rotating when pushing down. Or center the mounting hole
It is quite secure the way that it is given the small amount of load it needs to deal with, the flex is coming from the arm. If 0.15mm of flex is too much for you you can always make a more substantial bracket.
If you want to trash a $150 blade per cut. Low-end cold cut saws are for angle, pipe, RHS etc. You're not even supposed to cut flat bar lying flat, because it causes too much continual tooth engagement. 80mm solid round bar would eat the blade for breakfast.
I used to do all my cutting with a hacksaw but now i bought a cheap portable electric band saw and things now fly ahead. as it was a cheapie Ive had to make better more accurate angle cutting clamps
Hi there, Been enjoying your vids. I have the same mill as you and noticed that the fine adjustment for the quill is quite hard to turn- is yours like that? Also when using the DRO for the quill it takes about 30 seconds to settle on its final readout after moving it.
For the dro it might be worth checking to see if the nuts are tight on the bracket that connects the dro to the spindle. Sometimes it comes loose. As for the fine feed, I can't offer too much advise, but its definitely worth trying to see where the issue is coming from. If you take the front cover off the spindle you'll see that it connects to a worm wheel. There might be a way to adjust it, or a way to see where the issue stems from. Cheers
I’m a bit curious if there is a perceivable flex on the long arm extending from the ring spindle clamp. I have a mill with a similar lack of a depth stop and It’s a feature I very much want. But I find myself using the crank on the column to raise and lower the whole head to maximize rigidity on a cut. I’m doing it so much that I greatly lament the lack of a dial on the column crank. (Still saving for a 3 axis DRO) I’m wondering if the quill DRO that came with the mill should just be replaced with a more rigid depth stop that I can set the stop with gage blocks. The Quill DRO has a way of letting oil get into the battery compartment no matter how much I wipe down the machine so I’m not sure I’d miss it. I really like the addition of a depth stop to your mill but I’m hoping you can revisit the modification after some heavy use to tell us if it needs to be sturdier.
Yes there is, as there is on any depth stop that I have used. That would account for the 0.15mm variance in depth that I get, and for me I think that is acceptable. If that is too much for you, you can always change the design to make it more rigid. Personally I would keep the quill DRO because I find it useful, but if you don't, you could certainly replace it. As with any mod, do what is best suited to you. Cheers
I reckon you would get a lot more rigidity and repeatability of you didn't have that huge long arm sticking out. The depth stop needs to be as close as possible to the quill, not a long way away where flex becomes an issue. It seems very strange that you put it way out on the diagonal like that.
There isn't that much space elsewhere. To the left of the handwheel and to the right is the control box and spindle lock, the only other space is taken up by a camera and lighting mount. If you want to do things differently of you do this it is up to you. Cheers
Those welds are killing me, son. Jesus fucking christ. BEVEL THE EDGES. Then there is space for the weld to go. That way when you grind, there will be SOMETHING holding the pieces together. Since you like to grind off ALL the weld you just did. That little 80amp welder gets 0 fusion or penetration what so ever. BEVEL. Otherwise every "weld" is gonna fall apart, because you just thinned it down to a few thou thick, if even, by trying to make it be "invisible".
Relax, not the best example of a weld or technique, but these are under minimal load, and there is plenty weld material to do the job at hand, its a depth stop not a table frame. As I said in the video I'm not a great welder, and I certainly need more practice. Everyone starts from the same place. Take care.
@@artisanmakes Sure. As it came apart in your video? Same for the clamp, the only reason it might work is due to the razor-thin cross-section being in tension, like a dog. And filler being twice as strong as the base metal helps a ton here. Look at how dogs are done. A single weld, on one side. Yet, it can take thousands of pounds of force, and yet are removed with a light tap with the hammer. You have done this by accident. It's not about the welds you did. Everyone sucks at welding for a VERY long time. Only an idiot would hold that against someone. It's a skill that is learned and refined over YEARS. If you ask a welder when they stopped learning, they will tell you NEVER. It's the fact you removed 95% of that weld to begin with. It could have been a nuclear quality weld, with no prep, and the same issue would have occurred. Except it wasn't. Draw lines from the original surfaces of the metal. Your welds are sitting ABOVE this level. If you remove them until just a few thou of metal exist in the corner. There is no more weld joining the pieces together. By beveling, you get more weld metal, and below the surfaces you grind to. I'm not going to comment on the welds or welding technique. Your other work shows you understand the basics of stresses, which is why I had to comment on you throwing away all your knowledge on the matter for this. When it would have added a few seconds of effort. Bevel your shit. If you ever go "should I bev.." the answer is yes. Especially with smaller machines. Same for pre-heating before welding. The answer is yes.
Or, you could just gob some weld on and she'll be right because the stresses in that workpiece are approximately fuckall. Calm down. You will never elicit a positive response when you come at someone with this kind of shitty aggressive attitude. Especially when it's essentially irrelevant in this application. And *preheating*?! Are you serious? What a waste of time.
@@Jamvan001 You didn't read. I SAID TO GOB IT ON. I said the problem was he ground the entire weld off. Leaving a razor blade of weld actually holding the piece on. Which is why it fell off IN THE VIDEO. I also said the problem, was welding only one side, but that it might work, since that's how you do welding dogs. One side, under tension. So he wouldn't need to weld all 4 sides of the block. But a razor thin cross-section under tension.. well, chances are he'll learn a new term. "Fatigue". If he ground bevels. Then he could grind back to the original surfaces like he likes to do, and still have.. 1 piece of metal. UNLIKE THE VIDEO. I did not tell him to pre-heat. I said underpowered welders running too small a wire can get BETTER PENETRATION, the thing he got literally 0 of, as per the video of the part falling apart, can benefit from both beveling and pre-heating. You should.. you know.. try to do the best you can with what you have. Not everyonee has 350A pulsed mig power supplies. You run what you brung. Sometimes that means having to put a bit more effort in prep, to make up for lack of equipment. It ain't a slight. It's.. how it is? Sometimes you gotta put in extra effort to make-do. Something he obviously has no problem with, since he fucking hacksaws everything. But nope, guess welding is off-limits lol How are people supposed to.. do better? Learn things? Make things better? When they refuse to admit "ya know what, maybe i shouldn't have ground so much weld off'' or 'ya know what, maybe a bit more heat would help'. When they documented, in their own video, what happens when you don't? Is this an ego thing or something? But k. I'll wait for the next video and see.
All great again mate except you pronounce chamfer wrong, don't give up Australian accent. It's a French word and it's pronounced with a "SH" . Soon you will be pronouncing rebate as rabbit? 😉
I like how all parts are custom made, yet put all together it looks like a scrap bin project. Poor design choices and massive spring back renders it useless really.
