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Machine shop basics Sherline tools

Turbine Doc

Turbine Doc

Just Another Diesel Guy
Messages
6,278
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Location
Gautier, Ms./Anywhere Southern USA
I'm tired of having to pay big $$$ for the overhead of a machine shop to fabricate me little odds & ends pieces and parts, I'm no machinist by any means but do have the aptitude to make basic pieces & parts.

I have a decent floor drill press, now I'm looking at adding mill & lathe capability to my shop, I saw some stuff in harbor freight that is probaly up to the task just sending China my hard earned $$$ when there may be a made in North America option out there does not appeal to me.

I was looking for how to guide to brush up on it with saw this book (The Home Machinists Handbook) by Doug Brinney at Amazon for $13.57.

In one of the book reviews they mentioned it was tailored to the use of a Sherline machine I did a Yahoo search found this site http://www.sherline.com/index.html

Anybody hear of them/use one or have a recommendation to tools that don't cost an arm & leg I can learn on & possibly become profficient enough to maybe justify professional grade equipment purchase.
 
Never heard of them but am intrigued. Looks like some decent quality. Only thing I see is a pretty serious amount of deflection likely on the mill head. What's this stuff cost Tim?
 
Why not just buy used old american stuff. I have an old southbend 13" swing lathe I have a hard time believeing that little lathe would do very much. Milling machines are harder to come by but if your patient...
 
ak diesel driver said:
Why not just buy used old american stuff. I have an old southbend 13" swing lathe I have a hard time believeing that little lathe would do very much. Milling machines are harder to come by but if your patient...
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Shop space & availability (as you state have to hunt/find the right piece at right price then get it transported here) my 16' X 24' shop that at the time I thought would be plenty big boy was I ever wrong there. I really just want something to learn/improve my abilites on not a piece of "capitol equipment" so large I can't move if need be easily. Remember I live in "hurricane alley" and during Katrina my shop went underwater waist deep.
 
btfarm said:
Never heard of them but am intrigued. Looks like some decent quality. Only thing I see is a pretty serious amount of deflection likely on the mill head. What's this stuff cost Tim?
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Prices really don't look terrible http://www.sherline.com/prices.htm on par with Harbor Freight's pricing but for a made in USA piece of equipment I've sent a email to their sales engineer to contact me

Method to my madness soon to be my birthday & Christmas, my wife always asks what I want, well I usually have catalogs with stuff circled and tabbed with post it notes with small to large ticket items, it is how I got my shiney new shop stylr drill press last year allowing me to retire my work bench press all rusted up from Katrinas visit I salvaged. So if this pans out I can add these tools to my shopping list of wants/needs :) and nobody can say "I didn't know what to get you". I'm willing to share my list here if anybody is wanting to buy me a gift :) :) :)
 
Turbine Doc said:
This may be a better buy I don't know enough to know what is a good setup http://metal.baileighindustrial.com/mill-drill-lathe-mld-1030?gclid=CPmw5ZPE1rICFQQGnQodyxkALw

or maybe something from here http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=496&PARTPG=INLMK3&PMITEM=328-1310
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I don't know much about this equipment, but my employer, Airgas, is a distributor for Baileigh mills, rollers, and the like. Might be able to get an idea on your wants versus capabilities at a local Airgas branch.
 
I am no machinist either but can do basic stuff and know a pretty good bit more than I can actually do. I have used a conversational knee cnc mill, conventional knee mill, small and medium lathes, drill presses, saws vertical, cut off, chop, etc and appreciate under 0.003" tolerances. And have had to measure 0.0001 - 0.0002" many times.

I worked somewhere that tried some CNC Sherline machines. They were very light duty. We machined wax/parafin blanks to try and prove out cnc programs before sending them to the shop (we were machining green carbide and scrap was expensive I think we ended up making mild steel proveout pieces more accurately). There was some machine deflection and backlash such that the wax wasn't too accurate. But to be fair the wax caused some workpiece deflection too. The jaws and centers were small which did not help.
 
I'd go with something like the Enco machine. Probably a few name brands similar. Same place I worked with the sherline we bought Grizzly machines (this goes back about 7 yrs ago). They were cheap chinese units and were for start up of project. The castings were crude and most of the metal was sketchy but they were cheap and worked.

We turned green carbide (before the carbide is sintered its similar to a soft chalk). Its one of those materials that the dust from machining wears out the ways, clogs the chuck, and makes a mess etc so the company did not want to invest in "real" machines until the project proved itself. Anyway the runnout and tool holding was adequate to hold the green carbide (was fragile) and it worked .
 
Thanks for the inputs guys apparently the Sherman folks not too interested in making a sale as I've not heard anything from them yet in answer to my request for more info. I've been around rotating machinery fabrication tools for years though not an operator of said equipment I do know the importance for it to not flex while in the machining process, I think based on lack of interest from Sherman to provide info and advise here I'll hold out looking/buying for a more robust piece of machinery. No urgent need to buy so I can afford to "shop around".
 
The only thing I know about the company is they make an impressive scale to put under your trailer jack and help balance your load.
 
I just picked up a magazine called "The Home Shop Machinist" at tractor supply and its not a bad read. They had a decent article on twist drills. It was some basics but things everyone should know and understand.

Anyone subscribe? Only read one article so far but good to refresh the memory / relearn tid bits (I have forgotten) with a bit different explanation than I remember. I'll have to try another issue to see if I really like it.

Flipping through the back I saw an ad for Taigtool dot com. Not bad looking small machines for model stuff. Looks better than sherline IMO. But I'd rather pay a little more and buy Enco, Jet, Grizzly, Shopfox etc and get more size capability. Had some ads for others too.
 
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