Originally Posted by Bristoe
Originally Posted by Clarkm
I had a 600 pound Rockwell 21-100 mill and replaced it with a 2000 pound Bridgeport series II.

The old mill would have been just as good for gunsmithing projects if I had:
1) installed DRO
2) installed auto feed
3) rebuilt to get the backlash out of the X axis.


You only need to adjust the gib to take the backlash out of the X or Y axis,....5 minute job. Basically, it involved turning a screw with a screwdriver.

Also, the lead screw is affixed to the table of the milling machine with a split nut,...usually bronze. If the backlash is coming from wear on the split nut you only need to spread the split nut via a tapered screw which is threaded into the split in order to spread the nut which tightens the relationship between the nut and the lead screw.

Milling machine tables are designed to be adjusted. They'll loosen up over time and will need to be tightened up. It's not a big job.


Yeah, when I read this book about the next mill
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1482367912
I realized after I gave away the old mill to a hunting buddy that I could have fixed it.
I paid $2500 for the first mill and $12,500 for the second.

40 years ago I saw parking spots in Manhattan Beach in LA and in Tokyo cost more than a new porsche to park there.
Now in Seattle, the price of a mill is nothing compared to the cost of the space to store it.

I think BlondiHacks has a precision Matthews mill and lathe. She is in a shop 3 feet wide, and has to pull the car out to work. That is in the Bay area, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/c/Blondihacks/videos
She was independently writing games for the I-phone 5 years ago for a living when my son was.
That is one smart woman.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. -Ernest Hemingway
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.-- Edward John Phelps