I doubt that pulling the magnet would de-magnetize it; the base was probably built by inserting a magnet into the housing. Still, to be safe, you could try softening & flushing out the old grease with a wash bottle filled with a petroleum based solvent, NOT acetone. My preference for things like this is whatever version of mineral spirits is cheapest!?

?<??>

(That's a short version of a horribly long link; you can avoid it by searching for, "wash bottle" & picking the cheapest - it should cost under $2, no need for an over priced one.)

You'll probably also want some non-magnetic tools to help dig the old grease out.

Roy

I picked up an old Mitutoyo magnetic indicator stand on ebay for a great price.? Has a bit of very light corrosion that I think I can address pretty easily and even if I can't, it's still very functional as is.

?

The one big issue was it wouldn't turn off completely.? I have it partially apart. I think that issue was the limit screw needed adjustment.? Aligning the magnet manually makes it work perfectly fine.? So far so good.

The last issue is the inside is full of heavy, sticky old grease.? i have the knob removed and the insides are gunked up - I think someone squirted a bunch through the hole on top where the rod attaches, probably decades ago.? I'm at the point where I was going to pull the magnet out so I can clean it off, clean the bore and lightly lube it before putting it back together.

?

But when digging around trying to figure out how to get it apart, I found a lot of threads on machinist forums suggesting that pulling the magnet out would demagnetize it.? Right now, it works pretty well when it's "on" other than the issues above, so I don't want to kill it.

?

I"ve had newer indicator stands apart and pulled the magnets out with no issue, but magnets have come a long way.? This is one of those older indicators where the knob is held in with a pressed ring, rather than the square plate with two screws under the label.? I'm guessing early 70s but maybe older.?

The threads I read never really said if they just pulled the magnet out for a few minutes and then it was dead, or they left it out for a few days sitting on a metal table or something.

?

You guys ever heard of or experienced this?? I could clean it all out with solvent with the magnet still in there, but then I risk getting solvent all over the paint (it does soften slightly when wiped with acetone) and I probably won't get all the old grease out that way.

On Thursday I bought this Grizzly G1006 mill-drill on ebay in Brooklyn for $1100.

I went to look at it and paid for it, but I haven't brought anything home but the vise.

The guy selling the mill owns a shop that does custom stationery engraving, with a staff of maybe half a dozen people. He said they're the largest custom engraving place on the East coast. They have gigantic engraving machines and other machinery throughout the shop, but there's no obvious need for a milling machine, so he may have gotten this one in trade and just wants to unload it.?

[They also have a 10" Atlas lathe for sale. I'll talk about that at the end].

I downloaded and printed out the owner's manual for the mill-drill Thursday night. Grizzly has two manuals online for this model, one for mills made before 9/09 and one for mills after, but lthe differences look just cosmetic. (Grizzly of course has newer mills than this, but this is all I need. And I paid more for my mini-mill in 2017!)

The controls are a little stiff, but there's no play anywhere (not even in the column height adjustment when the bolts were loose). I suspect a shot of WD-40 will solve the stiffness. Also, the left-hand crank handle of the table is missing. (That may have been because the power feed was fitted at some point).? I know big mills have two cranks for the X axis, but I've never quite understood why that's necessary. At any rate, that wouldn't be hard to replace.

The thing that impresses me most (and scares me a little) is the size of this thing. I expected something bigger than my mini-mill, but this makes the mini-mill look like a Lego toy.? And I'm planning to move it from Brooklyn to my basement shop in Staten Island by myself in my VW Golf.? This is not as daft as it sounds -- my shop has a ground level entrance in the back, and several years ago I bought a replacement bed for my 11" Logan lathe and moved that into the shop myself.?

Here's my plan for moving the mill. I'd love any comments, especially from people who've done this themselves. An exploded view of the column and table area is below. I think if I remove part 405-1, the Y axis leadscrew (and maybe 415-1, the nut for that leadscrew) I'd be able to slide the table and cross-slide off the Y axis dovetail, knocking off a lot of weight and bulk. Then if I remove the motor and the parts that stick out on the right side, I can flop the mill over on the right and safely separate the base and column from the head. (The seller has several husky employees that could probably help with this).? I'm hopeful the head by itself would weigh only 150 pounds or so.??

When I get the parts to my shop, I won't have husky employees to help me, but I will have an engine lift, which is how I got the replacement bed for my 11" Logan back up onto its stand.?

But this is all guesswork, and I have no idea how heavy the individual parts are. If anyone here has ever taken a mill-drill apart to move it, please tell me how you did it.

This mill is also big enough that I'll have to rearrange my shop. The mill is currently sitting on (not even bolted to) the stand you see in the ebay picture, which is how they've been using it for drilling. This is a rough construction wooden stand on wheels that's probably not worth keeping. But I have a 21"x27" Kennedy rolling tool cabinet in my shop that currently holds a drill press that I won't need when I get this mill set up. Years ago I removed the wheels from the Kennedy, but I still have them if needed (though I don't see the need for rolling around a milling machine, even though this one had apparently been on wheels).

I may have to make several trips, but they don't seem to be in any hurry for me to get it out of there.

----------------------

?ATLAS LATHE:?

The same shop also has an Atlas lathe they want to get rid of.? It looks about 10" and it has a gearbox. Below is a quick photo I took while the owner was giving me a tour of the place.

This lathe doesn't look like other Atlases I've seen. There's a cover that closes on the back-gear like a Logan, and the lathe has a V-way bed. (All rhe Atlases I've ever aeen, and all the ones pictured on have flat beds). This lathe also SEEMS to have steel gears on the outside of the gearbox (though I didn't test them with a magnet.

The seller hasn't put this on ebay yet but plans to. If anyone is interested let me know. Pickup only in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.?

Mike Taglieri?

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Miket_NYC

1:18am? ?

On Thursday I bought this Grizzly G1006

You've probably already found it on the Grizzly site.? They still show it, but as a discontinued model (G1006) but the specs are all there.

I took a closer look at the photos and noticed the collets underneath - nice.? But a really small vise.? I suspect you will want to get a bigger one.? Perhaps look to see if anything is laying around where this is that belongs to it.? From the seller's other items shown, it doesn't look like it is somebody really in the machinery selling business.

One interesting thing is the bolt loosening note written on the side of the machine with a black marker.? I don't think it is likely that a private owner would do that with one in his/her home.? So, this was probably used in a shop somewhere.? And by more than one person.? It has been my experience (and perhaps axiomatic throughout the universe) that if something is used by multiple people, one or more won't use it as if it were their own or even abuse it? ?So, the odds for issues increases.

Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer

On Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 04:48:47 AM PDT, Miket_NYC <mctaglieri@...> wrote:

Thanks for this very helpful evaluation. I'm hoping to go see it this week.

I think there's really a fundamental difference between my mini-mill and mini-lathe.? I now have an 11" Logan lathe and it has a gearbox, so I do most of my lathe work on that. But for small jobs and specialized jobs, the minilathe is still useful. By contrast, if there are things a mini-mill could do better than a bigger and more rigid mill, I haven't run across them yet.

Mike Taglieri?

On Tue, Apr 9, 2024, 12:00 PM Charles Kinzer <ckinzer@...> wrote:

Technically, this type of mill is called a "bed mill" versus a "knee mill" (like the oft mentioned Bridgeports but also larger and smaller knee mills).

If it is in good condition, and even if perhaps not so good, I would expect one of these to produce better results on their worst day than a mini-mill does on its best day.

The primary compromise I suspect most people think about with the "mill-drill" machines is that they are giving up.? And therefore, giving up a much larger work envelope.

I view the mini-mills as just small, weak, low power, low quality, versions of this style.? It is likely that once you have a decent one of these larger versions, you might want to usher your mini-mill out the door.

I think that is probably a long discontinued model, but that probably doesn't matter.? It is very likely that the spindle is R-8 which would be good.? Hopefully some tooling comes with it.

You can go to??to see their current array (which includes mini-mills) and find the closest match to see what a new one might cost retail today.

My bona fides with mills is that I actually DO have a mini-mill that, inexplicably, I find myself using a lot even though I swear at it some.? (Most recently from the locking levers stripping inside as the pot metal crystallized or something.? Little Machine Shop replacement handles to the rescue.)? I also have a Kao Fong knee mill of a medium size of the rotating head style such as the current Grizzly G0731.? At workplaces I have used Bridgeports, a similar Lagun, and a small Clausing 8520 (which makes for a REAL nice milling machine for a home shop.)? For MY home shop, I certainly looked at mill/drills pretty seriously back in the day but got a good deal on the knee mill as I bundled it with a purchase of a Shen-Wai 12x36 lathe.? (Mill and lathe from Taiwan.)? Otherwise, I would probably have bought a mill/drill as being "good enough."

Unless you really need a lot of vertical workpiece space, I think you would be happy with a decent mill/drill.

I know you have a larger lathe, so you know what it is like to use a truly decent machine.? I think many on this group don't know what that's like as mini-whatever's may be their only experience which can, for many, be discouraging at times.? A decent condition mill/drill (so long as NOT the mini-mill version) will give you that same experience of being able to focus on the workpiece and not frustrate with the foibles of a marginal machine.

Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer??

? ??

On Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 03:29:36 AM PDT, Miket_NYC <mctaglieri@...> wrote:

Monday night I was looking at the latest Home Shop Machinist and saw a cover story about someone making new dials for his Jet mill-drill so theyd look more like Bridgeport dials. (This involved designing a machine to engrave the new dials, designing another machine to resharpen carbide engraving tools to needle sharp points, etc. People in HSM often go overboard in cover articles, perhaps to get to be cover articles).

I paid little attention to the modification story, but I was intrigued by the mill-drill itself. I have a Harbor Freight mini-mill (the one with the tiltable column) that I bought in 2017. It's given me good service and I love using it for drilling, but its low power and small capacity have sometimes been a trial.

For example, when I was restoring my South Bend shaper, I had to make a new gib for the shaper ram out of phosphor bronze. The SB gib is a foot long, and that's the exact length of the table on the mini-mill. So milling the edges of the gib was a mess and cutting oil grooves in it was even worse. I had to keep unclamping the work and moving it on the table, because a one-foot table gives you much less then a foot of table TRAVEL, and a table as long as the work means you can't clamp it on both ends at the same time.?

The thing that saved me on that shaper gib job was that it works fine and will never be seen by human eyes until after I'm dead. But if that had been practically anything else, I would've has to scrap the part (probably several? times), in metal that cost $100/square foot.? Also, even on the lower speed setting, this mini-mill doesn’t have much power.

But the mill-drill in that story had twice as long a table and more capacity in every area,? plus a 2 HP motor. (With real American horses, not Chinese horses). So I looked on ebay to see what they sell for and discovered that the Grizzly equivalent is for sale right across the river in Brooklyn right now, for a used price similar to what I paid for my mini-mill in 2017.

What do people think of this? I know there's criticism of round-columned mill-drills because the head can move from side to side when changing height but I could figure out ways around that, and I'd much rather have that problem than to try to make something more rigid or more powerful then it was designed to be.

?I was originally hesitant about the weight of the thing since I lived by myself and drive a VW GTI. But it looks like it can break down into pieces, and I could make several trips.

I'm sick with a cold, so I'm not visiting the seller immediately, but probably will later this week.

Mike Taglieri?

Has anyone had direct experience with AR Warner HSS inserts?
Dick

Has anyone had direct experience with AR Warner HSS inserts?
Dick

Has anyone had direct experience with AR Warner HSS inserts?
Dick

Roy

4:54pm? ?

Why not attack the basic problem? If the motor's internal cooling fan doesn't move enough air at low speeds, simply add an external fan to provide clean, cool