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« on: July 11, 2025, 21:12:18 pm »
Back in 2020, I sold my bed mill to a friend who needed it for his business. I had intended to buy a replacement with a tool changer, coolant, probing, etc. But then Covid happened, and the model shows closed down. So no place to show off the results of what I built. During the past 5 years I just lost interest.
But now some of the shows are back in operation, and I've decided to give it another go. This time I'm going to try building a clock; the one I've settled on is the Strutt Epicyclic, for which there is a book by W. R. Smith. I've now renewed my SolidWorks student subscription that I can get for $20/year as a veteran.
But what mill to buy. I need one that fits in the shop, and isn't too heavy but does have the "convenience" factors I want. If I want to buy new I think Tormach is about the only one that fits the parameters. The 1100MX will cost me a bit north of $40K, which is a lot to invest if my interest level falters again. I did find a recent used model model that wasn't too far away, but it was already sold. So for now I've bought a DMC2 Mini as a kit, that should show up this week. It'll probably take me a few weeks to assemble and test it, but it's a good fit for a clock project since the spindle goes to 24K. To profile the gears (without a 4th axis) I'll need to use 3/64" endmills in brass. The mill does have probing and coolant (good) but manual tool changing (fair) and needs Mach3 (yuk).
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