Noodle's Machinery Misadventures (on a budgetish)

[DangerNoodle]

I'm a whore for tools. I really do have a problem, so I figure I'd at least document it for other's entertainment.

I work at a high end restoration shop currently, but I'm looking for a change and still want to be able to work on my own projects and need (want) to keep the same tooling capacity or better.

Anyways, here we go.....

 

[DangerNoodle]

I should also state that I'm also a Facebook Marketplace fiend. I spend way too much time looking for things I really probably don't need.

I've wanted a mill for forever. I learned and got to use one a ton in college, and I've missed having one since work doesn't have one. This one was on marketplace for almost six months. I figured it was sold and gone, but I asked and it was available. A small aerospace company was shutting down their manufacturing and selling off all their tools. They were asking $3000 for this, but I got it for $2500

It came fully tooled which was a big added bonus. It is a Chinese Bridgeport clone, but it is all ball screw and was built in 2015 with very little use as a prototyping machine.

 

[DangerNoodle]

I use a lathe on almost a daily basis to face and square up all kinds of stuff. It's handy to have around. For some reason, in Colorado, lathes are ungodly expensive and small. I found some guy, Tim, on Facebook, selling a bandsaw. I wasn't too interested in the bandsaw necsuse it need a ton of work and was wayyy too big for my needs, but he was also selling a midsized 15 x 52 Colchester VS 2500 lathe. It was really cheap, $1500. It needed a VFD, and a monkey had gotten into it and started the replacement and quit. It is a super nice machine, and I figured one of my friends who likes to build cncs could help me get it back up and running.

I'm currently waiting on the proper VFD to arrive to get it back up and running.

Not the best looking electrical cabinet for sure.

We'll see if this turns out well or not. I have full wiring diarams and a smart person to help me with this, so it should be interesting.

 

[DangerNoodle]

This little fella popped up for $100 in Breckenridge.

It's an OTC 17.5 ton open throat press. Goes for a pretty penny new these days. Best part? Everything works, and it didn't even need any oil. Some chimp tried to paint it red, though.

 

[DangerNoodle]

Frank, the smart friend of mine that likes to build CNCs found this deal and we decided to split it. Some old head was moving and had accumulated a lot of nice stock and was getting rid of it. Frank and I split it for $1000 each. There is a large amount of tool steel and a lot of precision ground round stock in there. Not sure if I'll ever really need all of it, but it was a lot cheaper than buying it all new as needed. Maybe not cheaper for Frank, he cooked his transmission pulling about 15K with a 1/2 truck

 

[DangerNoodle]

I will say, moving this much steel twice in one day was not the most fun. We did move all the precision ground stock inside and reorganized it by size and shape.

 

[DangerNoodle]

This thing popped up for $3000. It's a 1996 Moffett Mounty forklift, rated at 5K capacity. It has 2600 hours on it. A lumber yard bought it, never mounted it on a truck, let it sit for a while, then decided to sell it. I have a few machines that will need to be moved and unloaded, and I figured this will do it and I can resell it after I'm done. It's three wheel drive and meant to work on gravel. I don't have an ounce of pavement anywhere near me to unload at, so it works out well.

 

[DangerNoodle]

This may be a dumb decision in the end. I'm not really sure yet.

I went on the good old Chinese Amazon and got a NC finger press brake. 30 ton, 5' width. 220 single phase. It's the same controller as the piranha brake that I used at school. They let you spec your upper and lower dies. It's currently sitting in a port about to ship. I'm hoping that it will be a good machine, they seem to be pretty well built. Shipping and importing has been a PITA so far and expensive. 30% tariffs suck.

 

[DangerNoodle]

The mill is a super nice machine, but the CNC conversion isn't great. Turns out the x axis stepper is dead. Not really a big deal, but it is a bit more work to get it running. I'm probably going to convert it back to a manual machine. But, I can still run it manually with the steppers attached, but no way to get any location data because there are no dials. So DRO time.

It's an okish Sino / Shars 3 axis DRO. Pretty easy to install on this mill, there were a lot of flat, machined surfaces to mount to. They Y axis was the most annoying one, though.

And now I have a really accurate, useful drill press lol.

 

[DangerNoodle]

For those that don't know, I do a ton of custom sheet metal at work. I also have very few sheet metal tools at work. Quite a terrible conundrum. This woodward fab English wheel popped up for $350. I snagged it. Super excited to start using it.

It came with all the dies except the flat one, but that's not too hard to get. I am also ooking at possibly making this convert into a planishing hammer station as well, because I really could use one of those as well.

 

[gnob]

cool thread. keep it coming.

 

[BILT4ME]

I miss the days when I was on the farm and had a place to put all that kind of machinery.

Now, my garage is overtaken with tools, lifts, stands, and then a bunch of other shyt that doesn't belong in a garage.

 

[DangerNoodle]

I miss the days when I was on the farm and had a place to put all that kind of machinery.

Now, my garage is overtaken with tools, lifts, stands, and then a bunch of other shyt that doesn't belong in a garage.

It's definitely hard. Current space is pretty small, and too short of a door to fit my cruiser in. We are currently working on a 40 x 60 steel building to build as a shop for my dad and I's projects.

 

[DangerNoodle]

It's alive!



Spend a day and a half with a bunch of wiring diagrams and a Frank to get the new VFD in. Changed all the oil in the gearboxes and was able to peek at the head gears. Seems like a super clean machine. I'm super excited that this worked out well.

 

[Ol Yeller]

Wow, nice to have the space for all that is right, I’ve considered a small mill but can’t dedicate the floor space to something that honestly wouldn’t get used that often.

 

[DangerNoodle]

More lathe stuff done this weekend.

Got the head oil pump wired in and running. I then got the DRO installed.

Need to extend the X wiring, it's short for full travel.

Frank had some CNC time and got the solid tool post machined. Super excited for that.

I also got a block heater installed in the mounty. Starts much more easily in the single digits now.

 

[rherrco]

It's definitely hard. Current space is pretty small, and too short of a door to fit my cruiser in. We are currently working on a 40 x 60 steel building to build as a shop for my dad and I's projects.

The more space you have, the more stuff you accumulate. Metal working equipment in particular. It’s like there’s a giant magnet buried under your shop floor.

 

[DangerNoodle]

The more space you have, the more stuff you accumulate. Metal working equipment in particular. It’s like there’s a giant magnet buried under your shop floor.

Its such a problem lol. So many fun things I want.

 

[ntsqd]

"Stuff expands to fill the void" is how I've long heard it said.

 

[DangerNoodle]

Well, the brake showed up! It is a 1500mm, 30 ton, full American style Tooling finger brake. A little light for some stuff, but for most fab stuff I do, it will be more than enough.

Slightly disappointed, I spec'd it as a single phase machine, but a three phase machine showed up. The company is sending me parts to convert it to single, but I have no idea what they are sending. Hopefully just a VFD.

The box looks great. I could hook up the phase converter I have, but I really don't want to always have to run this on a converter given everything else I have is now running on 220 single.

The machine weighs 3700 lbs, it was a bit sketch to get off the trailer. The poor little mounty was picking up the back wheel. I was able to suck it in after breaking down the pallet and it went smoothly after that.

This is now the heaviest thing I have, the lathe is about 3350.

I spec'd this punch set and had it made. It is a nice little gooseneck, and the lower is set up for 3/16th, 10G, 12G, 14G, 18G, and 20G

What is super nice is the fact that the NC control is the exact same as the Piranha brake I used at school, so this is all known.

It has a full NC X and Z? Backgauge which is super nice.

Anyways, this was expensive, but I think it will be a very good machine. It was way cheaper than getting something pre imported in the US.

I also got the plasma table out of the enclosed trailer and under the leanto so I can start working on more stuff at my Dad's.

I lubed it up well and got it tarped. Good thing it's in the banana belt of CO lol.