HiTorque Mini Mill, Solid Column 3960

[rawMACH]

I went to the LittleMachineShop office in Pasadena CA and checked the HiTorque Mini Mill, Solid Column 3960, I found that it is a solid machine for its size and price, the only problem that I found is too much slack in the Y, X-axis hand wheel and also the Z-axis coarse feed handle, it takes almost a 1/4 of a turn before it starts to move, so you can't depend on the dial markings, probably the answer is to use a DRO.
have anyone has any experience with this mill
I must say that the staff in the LittleMachineShop office in Pasadena is great and very helpful.

[Harold_V]

You don't understand proper use of dials. How much backlash you find has nothing to do with the ability to use them reliably, as one thou is enough to make their use unreliable unless you use them properly, and a thou of lash is unheard of unless a machine is equipped with ball screws or has anti-backlash capabilities.

I'm not suggesting that a quarter turn is acceptable--it seems excessive to me, but that has nothing to do with the machine's ability to be operated with precision.

Harold

[rawMACH]

Thanks Harold, I did not mean that the Mill is useless because of the slack , I should have said it is just excessive. I am new to this so I have a lot to learn, and also never operated a Mill before, what I am looking for is some feed back from users of this mill.

[spro]

Most likely it doesn't have near that slack, just a demo that folks can diddle with. I'm not familiar with that particular machine but all of them can appear that way. While you were there a person could've adjusted the handles/dials closer to the table and it would have appeared differently. One missing shim or loose handle.
While turning the crank, you may have noticed the dial/handle moving in or out. That would mean the screw/ nut relation is tight and it is the suspension of the screw at either side of the table is loose.

[Harold_V]

Thanks Harold, I did not mean that the Mill is useless because of the slack , I should have said it is just excessive. I am new to this so I have a lot to learn, and also never operated a Mill before,

It might help you to understand that backlash is dealt with routinely by using the dial in one direction only, depending on the setup in question. So long as you always turn it the same direction, it should repeat within the accuracy of the screw. So then, when the day comes that you have some "hands on" experience with machine tools, just try to remember that you should always turn the handle in the same direction that was used when you established a relationship between the spindle and the part. That means that if you must move in the opposite direction, you should go a half turn beyond your target setting, then turn the dial in the proper direction to establish the hoped-for dimension.

Which direction you choose to set the backlash is opional, but convention for mill work is to choose the left and back edges of a part, so the dials read in a positive direction. There may be exceptions to those choices, often due to circumstances beyond your control. In such a case, you simply read the dials backwards. They work equally well in either direction, but it's a little easier to get confused when reading in reverse.

Operating a lathe is pretty much the same, although it's typical for the dial to read in the positive direction for external work, but in reverse for internal work.

Hope this helps.

Harold

[rawMACH]

Your feedback is much appreciated Harold, thanks again

[rawMACH]

Hi spro, differently the handles are not loose, more likely the the screw/ nut relationship, or as you said maybe because it is a demo, I will see if a new one will have the same slack