Hello Everyone
My name is Steve, and I have been floating around here a few years and I thought I might put a little back into the forum after taking a fair bit from it. This will be my third build having converted a RF31 round column mill and a 12" x 36" lathe, both have been very successful. As I said I am very happy with both my other projects but had thought that a larger mill might be nice and have looked drooling at the Industrial Hobbies Mill as it has double the Y travel and an extra 200mm on the X compared to the RF31. Not to mention having all that Z travel - you can't imagine how much planing goes into setting up jobs on a round column mill with regard to thinking about the tools you need to use and the start point for your z set up so you don't run out of travel when swapping your cutters over.
I had many thoughts about this including importing one from the USA - all too costly until I found that Titan Machine Tools at Wyong on the New South Wales Central Coast imports a clone of the IH Mill. So that was the start - a 3 hour drive there and another one back - I had the mill of my dreams.
I am a Machinist by trade and I started about 30 years ago - I have been out my trade for about 20 years and now run a clothing factory. I have kept my trade as a hobby and build Live Steam Locomotives (a photo of one of mine is below).
This build will suit the type off work I do - Steel and Cast Iron Machining so I won't be doing the belt drive conversion as I don't need the high speeds this provides and I won't be able to use the Tormach Tooling System - (not recommended for tools over 1/2" dia. or heavy cuts(from the Tormach blurb on their system)) so I won't be needing an Air Powered Draw Bar or an Auto Tool Changer. I will put my money into good ball screws and servo's. Lets call it a light industrial build.
I would like to acknowledge some inspiration from G.D. Marsh and Pete from Texas and a few others on this site - yes I have borrowed more then a few of their ideas for this build.
The Fun Begins.
Steve