LMS Hi-Torque Mini Mill 3990

Mini-Mill

ByMark

My Hi-Torque Mini-Mill arrived from the Little Machine Shop! An 18 wheeler made it’s way through the subdivision and parked so the tail was at my driveway. The truck was equipped with a lift gate in order to get the pallet to street level. I was concerned about getting the pallet into my garage but the driver graciously used his pallet truck to push the load into the garage. Once there, I could break the load down into manageable pieces for transport into the basement. The following photos provide details on my new machine’s arrival and setup.

 

Delivery Truck
An 18 wheeler is an unusual sight in our subdivision. The truck was outfitted with a lift gate that lowered the pallet to street level.
Moving the Pallet
The driver used his pallet truck to push the load into the garage. If he didn’t do that, I would have had to drag it with chains hooked onto my garden tractor.
Pallet with Mill
I was impressed with the packaging, banding and internal padding with the shipment. Little Machine Shop gets high scores for properly preparing the order for transport!
The Mill
I transported the box with the mill into the basement using a furniture dolly. The mill was securely fastened to the bottom of the box with bolts. The mill was coated with light grease and I spent several hours cleaning it up.
Mill Cabinet
In preparation for the mill’s arrival, I built a cabinet with lots of drawer storage. The cabinet was engineered to support a lot of weight as the mill weighs about 140 pounds.
Mill on Cabinet
I have a chain hoist and hydraulic lift table in the basement so I was able to move the mill to the cabinet without assistance from another person. The mill was bolted to the cabinet and checked for squareness. I had to adjust the gibs and tram the vertical column using shims that I purchased with the machine. All this took a couple of hours but now it is set-up to my satisfaction ready to make parts.
Milling a Slot
The first part off the mill was a brass strap that needed a slot for adjustment in a kinetic art mechanism. The strap was only 0.25″ wide and 0.0625″ thick.
Completed Slot
Here is a look at the slot in this thin brass strip.
Brass Strip Mounted on Arm
The brass strip was mounted on an arm used in a recoil chronometer escapement as part of a kinetic art piece called “Scimitar”. Look for another blog post with some of the details about the Scimitar project.
Mill with DRO
Task lighting and a Digital Read Out for all 3 axes were eventually installed completing my installation. The DRO is accurate to 0.0005″ and is a great help when machining.

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