Mini-Mill unpacking
The Mini-Mill weighs quite a bit more than the Mini-Lathe, and it comes in a wooden packing crate, normally attached to a small pallet.
As normal with these machines, the Mini-Mill is covered with red packing grease, which needs to be removed. I used much the same system as I did for the Mini-Lathe, which proves that Gunk is very good for the job. Because there are so many flat surfaces on the Mill, much of the grease can simply be scraped off with a filling knife. Doing this I ended up with a pile of grease about the size of a small egg, which is quite a bit. You will see from the photos that I have not got all the grease, and to be honest, I still find the odd spot on the Mini-Lathe! Time will overcome that.
The Mini-Mill is in two parts, the table and base assembly, and the main column. I noted that the column was not exactly upright on unpacking, so it did not bother me to unbolt the column from the base casting. This is done by undoing the very large nut on the rear of the Mill. Once undone the column can be removed. This makes moving the Mini-Mill a much easier task, as each part weighs a bit less than the Mini-Lathe.
I bought my Mill from Chester, and there was no collets or cutters in supplied, but I did get a quick action milling vise. Note that the long pin that looks like a spare spoke for the down feed wheel, is the quill locking pin (next to the drill chuck). There are dire warnings all over the web regarding this. Leave it engaged and switch on, and the Mill will break it's gears.
This Mill has the gas ram support. This takes most of the weight of the head assembly, allowing easy movement of the head,
A couple of under views of the table. Interesting discovery here, the top slide (with the red ends) lead screw has a very interesting slot cut in the end. I know that there is a power feed unit available for this mill, and I am guessing that this is where it connects to. Looking at this slot, I think that an old large speedbit woodworking drill bit will fit this slot nicely, so a cheap batt drill and an old bit will make a poor mans power feed.
The indicator dials on the slides, well a disaster at the very least. One turn goes from 0 - 75 , each division is 0.02mm so it says. So one turn is 1.5mm. Far too easy to get confused. I fitted electronic scales the mill and never used the manual dials.
Another problem with the Mini-Mill is that the cross slide hand wheel is very close to the bench surface, and the mill needs to be raised up to avoid your knuckles being mashed up. In some cases it may be possible to mount the mill over the edge of the bench, but that was not workable here. The last picture shows 3 x 18mm plywood boards stacked and glued together. The edges have been routed square and the top edge rounded over. The bolts in the picture are acting as clamps while the glue cures.
As the Mini-Mill is quite heavy, AND rather top heavy when the quill assembly is at the top of the column, it really MUST be bolted down to the workbench.
