A Taig MicroMill followed me home

[@LoneRevD]

I had to literally laugh out loud (its late I have headphones one) when the pass made it throw the material out of the vice. Good stuff, thank you!

[@BreakingTaps]

Haha yeah, I started cackling like mad after it happened. Still have a nice big dent on the side of the enclosure from where it went flying :)

[@DerekWoolverton]

Surprised you didn't use the mill to make some T-nuts. Number one job of a mill: making more parts for the mill.

[@skfh3]

But they're so cheap and hardend well..

[@Russ_Case]

@@skfh3 Where did you find the nuts?

[@JamesDoebbler]

Wait, where'd it go? Almost like TOT camera trickery @2:40, don't blink!

[@zackcross3626]

Thank you for posting. Its been hard finding recent videos of Taig users. I saved up to finally buy a 4 axis MicroProto. (Based on the Taig mill) I don't regret it as for the price, there is nothing as precise. It takes a while to get it dialed in, yet once it is..repeatability is awesome. Anyway, nice to meet another user. I look forward to your videos!

[@BreakingTaps]

Thanks for stopping by! Agreed, seems hard to find folks using the Taig nowadays! Took me a little while to get settings, feeds/speeds and end mills dialed in, but I'm very happy with it now. Have a bunch of footage that I haven't turned into a video yet, but it's worked great for small aluminum parts so far. Recently picked up some variable flute end mills for aluminum, looking forward to seeing if that helps with chatter/vibration. Have fun with the MicroProto!

[@Basement_CNC]

if you only mill aluminum, try a single flute endmill, its literally only needing 1/4 of the machine strength sice there is only 1 cut per revolution 0.025-0.05 mm chipload and anywhere from 8-24k rpm works great on my makerdream cnc (different machine and a lot better, but still a desktop cnc

[@johnwalters6800]

Does the machine have the ER16 spindle. If not you need to install one. With the tools as short as possible, this will improve rigidity. The $74 WEN vise is great because I could easily mount it to a 3/4 aluminum plate and then the plate to the mill using 4 each precision T-NUTS. These are two changes that will make a major improvement. You need to come up with a Z-Axis way cover.

[@dominic6634]

so depending on what your going for. If you mill some soft jaws with a dove tail you will get a much better grip on your material.

[@pirateswiggity5278]

That is such an egregious waist of milk

[@Robert_Browne]

Chatter is the song of my people. Don't judge.

[@BreakingTaps]

😂

[@houseofbrokendobbsthings5537]

Morning Zach. BAHAHAHAH - nice pitch off the vise. More practice and you will hit the scrap bin on every try. LOL. Thanks for warts and all - happens to all of us brave enough to share. Long way from an old manual mill. If that old Rockwell is in the way - I will accept your donation and even pick it up. LOL. Need a spring on those parallels to keep them spread out. Ask me how I learned...LOL. Also - get a Randy Richard in The Shop Scribe - makes me smarter by its mere presence...LOL. Still screw up but I imagine it would be worse without the scribe... Music was awesome ans usual. _Dan_

[@BreakingTaps]

Haha not a chance giving up the Rockwell :P If anything, this little baby Taig has made me appreciate the Rockwell even more :) That part flying off the vice put a nice dent in the plywood enclosure. Made me laugh so hard after it happened... took me a minute to realize what happened. One of those "did that just happen?" moments XD Will investigate a spring/parallel spreader. I've seen them before and didn't understand why you'd use them... but I think I'm starting to see why. Will give it a shot, thanks! Take care Dan!

[@houseofbrokendobbsthings5537]

Yeah I went through a Sherline phase with mini lathes and mills. Spent way more than the bigger stuff and far less ability to do the work I wanted. They are great machines as well as Taig - but you have to stay in their performance window to make it worthwhile. The resale on used pieces for both Taig and Sherline was ridiculous - like Google stock they never went on sale.

[@fermino6441]

That was hilarious. Keep it up!

[@jakeehrlich8113]

Did you figure out the inaccuracy issue on the one axis? I’ve been considering getting a taig over a tormach due the price. They quote “better than 5 tenths” accuracy but I’m assuming thats local not over the whole setup. Tormach doesn’t make any accuracy claims but I’ve seen plenty of people say they can get 1 thou out of the bigger machines and 2 thou out of a pcnc. The Taig claim seems really impressive if its not local so I was hoping to get some insight.

[@BreakingTaps]

I didn't, and no longer have the machine so afraid I can't offer much insight :( Mine was also a used model with an unknown number of previous owners, so that probably contributed too.

[@davidroan9652]

How would you say the noise is on this machine compared to a belt grinder? I've found a low grit belt grinder on steel is borderline too noisy for my loft, so I'm nervous about finding a sound solution before I purchase.

[@BreakingTaps]

Hmm, maybe comparable? The steppers and spindle are very quiet, but when it begins cutting it can get loud'ish. Depends on material, the cutter and how fast you're going, but it can create a bit of a racket. An enclosure definitely helps cut down on noise though, so that could be an option.

[@nac4965]

was ready to buy one until you said "aluminum table" ... i can only imagine cranking down a t-nut and cracking the carriage table.

[@exotime]

Mill or pressure washer?

[@BreakingTaps]

Yes 😂

[@kennethkustren9381]

A FOREVER HOME !! I PRAY YOU FEED AND BRUSH HER DAILY. The benefits are not yet visible,... but surely will last a lifetime. Remember to buy a new PhotoAlbum. Get plenty of pictures while You can !!

[@cayenne7792]

Whats with the long spindle extension?

[@BreakingTaps]

Needed for "larger" end mills on the taig. The collets only go up to 5/16, after that you need an end mill holder which screws directly onto the spindle, has a lot of stick out, and is not terribly concentric. :)

[@cayenne7792]

@@BreakingTaps hmm My Taig with er16 collets go up to 3/8'', but ok makes sense.

[@BreakingTaps]

@Cayenne Ahh right, my Taig came with the older style, proprietary non-ER collets :(

[@hectorgomez8374]

What CAM did you use?

[@BreakingTaps]

Fusion360 :)

[@jakub.686]

You should use higher parameters, it's only an aluminum. For example Vc=400 m/min, Fz=0.01% of D endmill. Ap=1xD

[@spikeypineapple552]

lol.

[@elonquemattheson6151]

With 1/5 HP, a toolmaker's vise, and a flexible column, that's just not going to happen

[@joshuasimmons2412]

Lmao 😂

[@BreakingTaps]

😁