Using a Hobbymat BFE 65 vertical mill

[schofieldjd]

I'm trying to use a probably 3rd hand Hobbymat vertical mill, but have 2 persistent major problems

1. The collet chuck just relies on friction to hold the endmill, and however tight I can get the collet, the mill still drifts. Milling cast iron the tool drifts up, and cutting depth slowly decreases, whilst with mild steel the tool seems to be pulled into the job and the cutting depth increases. I don't think I'm taking cuts that are too big, as I'm following the advice in the Workshop Practice Book - a depth of no more than one third, and a width of no more than 40% of the mill diameter.

2. I struggle to lock the slides. The locking system uses an M5 socket screw that presses on a steel ball, which then presses on the jib strip. (A similar system works perfectly well on my ML10 lathe.) But however much I tighten the screw, I can still wind the slide without too much effort.

Any ideas or similar experiences?

John

[jem]

Try taking a cut of say 1/2 or 1 mm Change the ball for a bit of brass strip.

best wishes

Jem

[manofkent]

I use this mill as well.
Fortunately my collet chuck has a threaded end for an arbour to screw it in tightly, but the 1MT shank is certainly limiting.
However, I do cuss wnen engaging the mill and John is not alone, the slide locking and slide adjustments are tricky, and the work can tend to "wobble" on the bed.
I too would love to hear from someone who has solved this problem.

The vertical slide and quill all seem to lock up pretty well though on my machine.

John

[Jo]

I do not use mine for milling as the mounting of the head on the column is not satisfactory. When I loosen the two handles at the back the head noticeably tilts forward with it the cutter which cuts into the work (unless it is off the side of the work). And there is no gib strip to provide adjustment I keep thinking I will modify it but the availability of other machines have overtaken it.

There are various milling holders you could be referring to: The lathe Collet chuck fits the milling head and can be used to hold mills, there was the original collet chuck (I brought with it), MT1 stub arbours which can be brought with a grub screw in the side to hold the cutter or ER a6 collet chucks are also available. If you are using the original collet chuck mount the cutter all the way in the chuck.

I usually just use it as a co-ordinate drilling machine these days.

Jo

[schofieldjd]

This is John, the original questioner. My milling head seems in good condition, albeit I had to part-make a new dog clutch. The collet chuck bolts on to the flange on the milling spindle, and I do wonder whether it is really a lathe collet system - it has no stop preventing the collet from slipping back. Strangely my spindle has a 2MT taper. I read on the internet that Hobbymat brought out a belt driven mill with a 2 MT taper, but mine is gear driven. Anyway, I think I'll just have to buy a 2MT milling chuck - any views on which one to buy?

As regards the cross- and transverse-slide locking problem, having taken a slide apart it is absolutely covered with grease. I wonder whether this is the problem - even when the lock is tightened the grease still prevents sufficient friction. I plan completely degreasing it, and assembling it with lathe oil as I use on my (satisfactory) ML10 slides. I'll do this anyway, as I've no other ideas, but I wonder whether anyone thinks I'm going down the right line?

John

[Jo]

That is the lathe collet chuck you have there. I have a belt driven machine but it still has the 1mt nose. Later machines were redesigned to allow for a bigger taper. Some people bored out the earlier machines to a 2mt but it is a bit tight on the bearings.

The cheapest/easiest to get hold of will be a ER collet chuck but don't be tempted to go too big unless you consider going for a ER32 when it will also provide you with the possibilities of using it on your ML10.

Jo

[manofkent]

Schofieldjg (John).
As Jo suggests, I have er32 collets as well as the Hobbymat collet chuck.
I managed to get a 1MT collet holder off eBay made in Germany. I use this with larger mills. I don't like to mix collets that hold work (precision) with mills, so don't tend to use it elsewhere.
I have found the Hobbymat perfectly comfortable with a slitting saw or side and face cutter held in a suitable arbour.
Rather interestingly my lathe is an ML10 as well!
I haven't tackled the slides on the mill yet, and would be very interested to hear how you get on.

John

[goldstar31]

I too am setting up a ML10 which I am finally getting to a point of 'commissioning' it, for indoors.
It came with a Potts spindle etc. I'm interested in what can be done

Norman

[manofkent]

Hi Norman

Prior to my ML10 I had a HARRISON L5 9" lathe, and apart from size I only notice that slightly smaller cuts are needed, and that drills in the tail stock need to be properly sharp.

The ML 10 is really excellent IMHO . If you can hold the work you can machine it.

I use a large dti on the crosslide to measure distance rather than use the dial which is small and (I noticed) a bit inaccurate.

The far side bed slide needs to be kept clean, as it forms the register and can throw the tail stock just off centre.

My only other observation us that if you use back gear put plenty if oil in the headstock pulley grease nipple ( oil seems better in my experience rather than grease) otherwise it can sieze.

Just some observations that I hope are useful.

John

[goldstar31]

John

Thank you for your valuable pointers. I 'hit' the rear shear problem and I had to remove a burr to get things to align. Again, I was fortunate in that the previous owner had fitted locking dials to the feed screws. A sort of rough George Thomas approach and a welcome one.
Surprisingly, it came with a set of steadies, an original Martin Cleeve swing tool and a home made Potts drilling spindle and a clutter of useful goodies.
Sadly the added tumbler reverse bracket was broken and I have to address this as well as a badly repaired gear bracket. Both are either repairable or renewable on my other lathe which is an old sight glass Myford Super7B.

So where I am at is the need to better the vertical slide and attendant spindle arrangement and I hoped that this could be bettered with a more rigid bit of kit.

Being all of 86+, I am trying to bring a little lathe indoors rather than endure the cold of outside workshops which is numbing to what is left of my body and - mind(?)

Thank you for giving your valued time and experience.

Norman

[schofieldjd]

John, the original questioner, back again. Well I degreased the traverse- and cross-slides, removing all traces of grease on the slides with white spirit. I then reassembled them lubricating with Esso Nuto 32. They don't lock perfectly, but they are one heck of a lot better. Quite a lot of torque needs to be applied to the handle to shift the slide. The real test will be when I go back to my original milling job.

As regards the problem of the end mill shifting in the chuck, it was pointed out above that it is actually a Hobbymat lathe collet chuck. Further investigation indicates it's a "Swiss-type" collet system, and another website describes this as a lathe headstock collet system. I've therefore decided to treat myself to a 2 MT ER-type collet set.

Thanks for all you comments.

[manofkent]

Thanks for the update John.

I think I will also clean up the slides then - I will add it to the list...

Fortunately I also have an Amolco mill (like the Rodney mill that bolted to Myford lathes). This one I converted to CNC, and I now tend to do all the difficult work that way.
It makes valve gear parts very nicely.

Cheers

John

[austerity]

A bit late to this discussion but i mght be able to explain about the BFE65 mill.I bought one of these in the mid 1970swhen there weren`t many milling m/cs about.to go with,hobbymat supplied a collet chuck which used 3 cap head screws,this bolted to the flange of the quill & they also supplied a set of Metric collets to go with it.A No. one morse taper was virtually unknown then,As a mill,it was okish,not very rigid & it was metric which wasn`t very useful & the topslide had a LH thread but the cross slide had a RH thread which was in reverse to all my other machines,you had to watch what you were doing because if you turned the handwheel the wrong way,you could easily damage the part that you were milling.I still have it but as a small drilling m/c as i now have a Warco WM16 mill.

Ray.