Would this work (and other questions from a complete noob)

[Wyldeside]

I'll preface this all by saying :

-I don't own a mill
-I've never used a mill
-I don't know the terminology
-I have done just about enough research to be dangerous!

I have a project where I need to cut small tubes of aluminum, brass, and possibly copper (Think cutting pen bodies in half). The materials are hollow, and I don't think more than 2 - 3 mm thick.

I know that a proper lathe would bang this job out no problem. I can't however justify spending 500 dollars or more on a mini lathe... yet. Here's my idea :

I was thinking that I could chuck the materials into my drill press. secure a cutting tool in a directional vise, and then move the tool into the spinning material (much like a vertical lathe I guess). I'm not sure if the drill press was designed to handle lateral pressure like that so I would go slow, and let the tool do the work.

Does anyone foresee any disastrous consequences from a setup like this? Aside from maybe burning out the drill press? The drill press is a cheap tabletop, and was free to me, so I'm not overly worried about it.

If all goes to plan, this could turn into mass production in which case I would invest in a proper tool. I'm more in a proof of concept / prototyping phase right now.

I'm also open to other ideas if there are any to be shared.

Thanks!

 

[Alexander]

Hmm I'm still not exactly sure what your trying to do. But I do know you won't be able to do any milling or turning on your drill press. A drill press doesn't have enough rigidity and it will not take the axial force required to machine any parts. If the Chuck is on a mandrel with a self holding taper that will probably get destroyed. I would say if you can tie a little money up in the project troll kiji for a cheap little mill and or lathe. Machining equipment does not loose its value ever unless you use it alot so you can easily sell it for what you paid for it.

 

[EricB]

@Alexander he's looking to part-off chunks it sounds like.

@Wyldeside if you set it up properly and the materials are smalls and thin (and not steel) disastrous? No. Kill your drill? Absolutely. There are other ways to cut the materials that would work better and just require some de-burring after. Look into a simple guide for a hacksaw. Ask at a bike shop, they can get guides for cutting seatposts and handlebars that ought to work.

Sent from my B15 using Tapatalk

 

[Wyldeside]

Thanks for the replies. after re-reading my OP, I realized I was talking about a lathe, not a mill.

I was kind of hoping to avoid having to cut these manually - i'll have to look into the guides, or setting up a jig or something....

Thanks for the ideas - I really appreciate the help.

 

[Jwest7788]

Hey @Wyldeside

As the others have mentioned, this idea may work for a little bit (few pieces is my prediction), but ultimately the drill press spindle ball bearings are not made for radial loading.
Here's a cool link if you wanted to consider upgrading your drill press to allow for usage as a mill / lathe: http://hackaday.com/2014/10/12/bench-top-drill-press-converted-to-milling-machine-mounted-to-lathe/

You could make a jig that uses a drill press and also a cut-off wheel on a dremel maybe? But at that point it's getting kinda complex for what should be a simple task

What are you making?
how many tubes do you need?

 

[Janger]

A hack saw like @EricB said. A wooden miter box from the hardware store would help. A good quality hacksaw, not the cheapest one, and good quality blades. Stuff wood dowels inside if the tubing tends to crush. a metal cutting bandsaw would be faster and make short work of it. Pictures and more details would help us guide you better.

Oh and I have a rage3 chop saw, see the internet, it makes short work of this kind of thing if you want to scale up. We cut a few hundred pieces of electrical conduit on it recently. You can get them at can tire.

 

[kylemp]

The cutting is pretty straight forward, for your turning operation thing you could do that. I would obviously recommend using a lathe to do lathe work, but if you really want to try and do this get a live center to support your material on the base otherwise there will be too much runout in the spindle to get away with this. You're also going to need to tighten the gibs up as much as possible on the vise to not have the tool bounce around feeding into it. In the end, I dont think you will get the outcome you are hoping for, you would be better off to buy a small lathe or try and get someone to help you prototype a few so that you can see how it works, then make a decision about buying a machine.