Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
Am very seriously looking into acquiring the Micro-Mark Mega Mini R8 Milling machine Super Package. I have a list of simple adapters that I want to make. Have never used a Milling Machine before, but I am very handy and resourceful. Up to now have been making metal adapters from aluminum stock for years by hand, but this way is very slow to say the least, and not all that precise by far. Plus aluminum no wheres as "solid" as steel. Threaded aluminum works but doesn't stand up to continuous use, and an accessory shoe's male counterpart when made of aluminum far from being useable without bending in little time. Distinct possibility of taking an adult Ed course in (metal) "Machine Shop" locally, which would be a real plus. Am not looking to adapt barrel lenses to shutters... will leave that S K Grimes. My adapters are simple constructional configurations with usually only 3/8" or 1/4" female threads included.

Currently have a Horseman bellows lenshood that I would like to adapt to my Sinar X and Chamonix cameras. Have seen images of the adapters to make this so, but the adapters look to me to be beyond being manually fabricated. Using a milling machine I believe a must for fabricating these adapters. Also use a Nikon Multiphot whose some accessory parts are seemingly non existent, but look to be quite easy fabrications. These Multiphot parts require tolerances way more accurate than what I can do with a hand file.

So.... hopefully am looking for advice. Hopefully some forum members have some experience with fabricating metal parts.

Thanks
I think you need to do more research on hobby mills before dropping dimes on that Micromark mill, LMS
has a very similar mill with slightly larger table on the Y axis ( front to back ) but sans the table power feed
that Micromark includes in the package for about the same price.
https://www.micromark.com/Milling-Machine-R8-500W
https://littlemachineshop.com/produc...ory=1387807683

Shipping can also be a deal breaker on machine tools.

Bear in mind buying a milling machine whether it's from Micro Mark, Little Machine Shop or Grizzly and every vendor
in between them is going to be about the same ( made in the same factories, re badged, different importer manufacturing tolerances ).
It'll come down to what's the best bang for the buck in terms of capacity and accuracy, too small a mill and you'll out grow it quickly
and there is never a mill that's too big. The same goes for lathes.
Don't be swayed too much by "package" deals, the only thing I see in the Micromark package that's of good value is
the power feed for the table, you'll do much better by purchasing a better / larger capacity mill and getting the accessories separately.

As the saying goes - You can make little things on a little machine but not big things on little machines

In regards to aluminum, there are different alloys of aluminum, if your parts are not holding up
to use then I would look into getting aluminum from places that will give you specs on that alloy.
Home improvement big box stores are the worst place to get aluminum, it's practically dead soft and gummy when machined.
McMaster is a good place to start since they carry high strength 7075 aluminum.
I have a tooling plate that's 6061 aluminum that I use on my smaller mill and I have no issues
with the threaded holes in it, other than getting chips and cutting fluid gumming up the holes.

You may want to take a look at the series of video's MIT put out a few years ago for freshmen
working in the machine shop.You might be able to save a few bucks for milling accessories
rather than going to a class.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...DN3g6ZgaM0tbk7

JimC