FS:Aixiz LD Table Top Clam Shell Heatsinks

[mikkojay]

Hey Pat, those look really nice- are you running a CNC rig? just curious. I cobbled together a small CNC mill using some linear slides I won off ebay years ago. Here's the result
I use Mach3 to control it- mostly gathering dust instead of making chips though. The Sherline spindle and weak motor are the weak link as it sets.

Have you considered making dichro mounts? I bet there would be a lot of interest in those. Carmangary fabricated some nice ones for his rig. If I remember right, he ended up getting some fine thread ball tipped adj screws from Mcmaster Carr that did the trick. Right now I am faced with rigging up something for my current Lumia projector. I don't need lab quality optic mount specs on this one, so maybe I'll be able to come up with something- we'll see.

-Mike

[Laserman532]

Hey Pat, those look really nice- are you running a CNC rig? just curious. I cobbled together a small CNC mill using some linear slides I won off ebay years ago. Here's the result
I use Mach3 to control it- mostly gathering dust instead of making chips though. The Sherline spindle and weak motor are the weak link as it sets.

Have you considered making dichro mounts? I bet there would be a lot of interest in those. Carmangary fabricated some nice ones for his rig. If I remember right, he ended up getting some fine thread ball tipped adj screws from Mcmaster Carr that did the trick. Right now I am faced with rigging up something for my current Lumia projector. I don't need lab quality optic mount specs on this one, so maybe I'll be able to come up with something- we'll see.

-Mike

if you only knew my perdiciment. I am working with a 76 year old retired german fellow who has a very cool machine shop in his garage. He skies mt bachelor everyday, works 1 hour a day, HE IS SO SLOW, Snails pass him on his way out to his garage. I have 1.2 million ideas, no machine shop and TIME ON MY HANDS. I want to make very cool stuff for a fair price but when i need something I need to go out to my shop and bang it out in 7 minutes not taking 2.5 weeks to make 17 of these heatsinks. It is driving me bonkers. Normal machine shops are too expensive to make one or two prototypes. nevermind sorry for venting, but I just left his shop and my parts still arent done I could have done 20 pcs in one night and They would have already been black anodized, photographed and listed on a web page

all I want is a brigeport mill and a band saw and I could move the frickin world. I had a great shop when I left texas. I kept all of my tools collets, bits. I jjust need a mill and step the F out of my way!!!

[Laserman532]

I dont know if you know this...but I am selling this-

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=140283207852

It is very precision, computer controlled does inside of rings and such. But I dont want to do this type of store any more

I WANT TO MAKE BIG CHIPS FLY...NOT SCRATCH GOLD RINGS!

IF I COULD SELL THIS MACHINE, I WOULD SET UP A KILLER MACHINE SHOP!

[mikkojay]

Dang, that is a bite- it seems like time, money, and inspiration are 3 factors that are rarely around at the same time. When one is up, the others run and hide. Hey, I saw there are some machines on CL not too far from ya:
http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/tls/994767469.html
-Mike

[Laserman532]

Dang, that is a bite- it seems like time, money, and inspiration are 3 factors that are rarely around at the same time. When one is up, the others run and hide. Hey, I saw there are some machines on CL not too far from ya:
http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/tls/994767469.html
-Mike

LOL yes I have already found that machine, i have sent him an e mail asking how much he would charge to deliver it to bend. I'll probably call him tomorrow. Then I would need to get a roto phaser, and have my wife park outside...Chances are, i see myself living in the fifth wheel motorhome before she parks outside to make room for my mill

[carmangary]

I have one of those Chinese mini mills from a Cummins truck sale. It isn't CNC so it takes a lot of cranking but does nice work for the price. It doesn't take much room, either. I have it an a mini-lathe on a workbench and there is plenty of room left. One of these days I am going to convert the mini-mill to CNC but too little time and money at the moment.

[Laserman532]

I have one of those Chinese mini mills from a Cummins truck sale. It isn't CNC so it takes a lot of cranking but does nice work for the price. It doesn't take much room, either. I have it an a mini-lathe on a workbench and there is plenty of room left. One of these days I am going to convert the mini-mill to CNC but too little time and money at the moment.

With milling, I prefer hand cranking. CNC is great if you want to make a ton of the same parts like in a production setup. My engraver is CNC but damn once you push the button...it goes and if you make one mistake in programming you are screwed. I like to feel the metal. Carmangy - Do you like your mini mill? Does it have guts to chew 1" allum? Do you have the link on those adjustments for making mirror mounts?

[carmangary]

I understand what you are saying about hand cranking. Luckily there are CNC conversions for the mini-mill that leave the cranks on so you can do both.

I like the mini-mill although it does have its shortcomings. But, they can be worked around. As long as you don't work it too hard and the work will fit on the table it will do whatever you want. Here are a couple of good links with more info than you want:
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_mill/Main/mini-mill.htm
www.littlemachineshop.com
There are many different brand names on these things but all from the same factory. Cummins has the best price as far as I know.

I don't have a link to the adjustment screws. They are on McMaster-Carr. Go to fasteners->set screws and the look around for 1/4-80tpi ones with ball bearings on the tips. They are pricey but they make adjustment smooth like butter. I have 3 each to my dichro mounts and it made a huge difference compared to the 40tpi set screws from the hardware store. The ball bearings on the end make a bigger difference than the tpi. I ended up paying about $35 in materials for my dichro mounts. About $30 for the screws and about $5 for the aluminum and other parts. lol. Probably would have been worth it to have bought ready made ones.

[chad]

Then I would need to get a roto phaser

Not true. Just get a VFD (variable frequency drive) and you can run it on single phase and have variable speed with the twist of a pot. Reverse is just a toggle switch away.
This is how I am running my cnc bp clone. Works great and i son't have to make room for a noisy rotary.

chad

P.S. once you get used to cnc you will use it all the time. for even simple things.

[mixedgas]

I'VE got one minimill and two minilathes. Minilathes, with some work, ie scraping the ways etc are great. Minimills on the other hand, have some vunerabilities, as far as 1" 6061 goes, NO WaY. My minimill needed a lot of rework after shipping, and unless you buy a ball bearing refit for the ways, its iffy. The R8 taper is nice, the z axis is nice, but the x-Y is crap without a refit. The little tiny sherline had a better table. I'm spoiled by having had access to Bridgeports at work. I do laser grade work, so the minimill was kind of a waste of 600$. The table is not strong enough to take a good vise and the work at the same time without some cross talk on the axis.

I am no mecheng3, but but I can work "sissy metal" as the machinists round here call it quite well. I love correcting them , telling them AL is a metalloid, not quite a true metal :-)

for not much more you can get a Rong FU and be much better off. Just beware of the Rong Fux that have a weakly mounted gear rack up the side of the column for Z, on some of them the Z gear rack is just held on by a loose ring clamp, which is bad.

For not much more, as most shops go CNC or out of business, :-( you can get a bridgeport that needs some TLC for 800-1000$ or so.

I bought my minimill on the basis that the minilathe, after some rework under the eyes of a master machinist who made me scrape the ways, held +/- .0005 over 6 inches taking a pass off a steel rod.

For those who don't know what scraping the ways means, the ways are the large flat surfaces the carriage and tailstock ride on. My master machinist friend made me coat the ways with blue die, run the carriage back and forth and see where the dye was wiped off the steel. You then take a chunk of tungsten carbide, mount it on a shaft and scrape off the high points gently, and do it again and again and again. 8 hours of scraping later it was "decent" by his standards.

So minlathe heck yes, minimill, only in a emergency. Mine sets unused till I can afford a bearing refit. If you buy the minilathe, buy spare change gears(they are delrin) and a couple of 24N250 power mosfets.

I made high pressure micro nozzles for work on the minilathe, that we couldn't make on a 22,000$ Clausing.

Steve Roberts