I've actually using my TOS FA3V mill to do something other than gather dust!

This is a mish-mash of updates from over the course of a week and two different sources, so it might seem a bit less contiguous than most of my posts, but, it's EXCITING!

I discovered almost accidentally that if I rotated the mill, the hefty 4-conductor wire I have would reach the nearest breaker box! Here's Dave's excited video of me moving the mill with the overhead gantry crane:

I <3 gantry cranes!

Some of you on FaceBook may recall this photo I posted semi-enigmatically:

That casing is from a Getrag 4-speed transmission that would normally bolt to the back of the M10 (I think) engine in my friend's BMW 2002. We unceremoniously took a reciprocating saw and whacked a bunch off:

Then we got down to installing the serious cutter:

After that was installed, we proceeded to test the cutter, fastening and general functionality of the mill after making sure it was oiled and wired (probably) correctly.

 Video of test cuts (though this video is kinda boring):

I do love watching that cutter spin. The mill has a power gauge and it was barely above idle, even on the heaviest cuts we were taking later. I love this mill. =)

Secured the case to the table:

And ran some test passes. What we were left with kinda blew our minds. Check out the finish!

 It's pretty darn smooth! I wouldn't do a head with the current configuration, but with some tweaking and rotating the carbide inserts, I am sure an acceptable finish would be easily achievable!

The whole thing was cutting so cleanly, it left the threads perfectly intact on the fill bung:

That cut was a bit rougher, as we were playing with feeds and speeds.

Now on to the most precise machine work we did to date:

LOL! We didn't want to spend another hour making itty bitty cuts, so we just power hacked off another inch and a half after making sure we knew how far NOT to go.

 Leftovers:

Then we started machining again:

We stopped and checked the depth (I sure hope Dave's math is correct) on occasion, but not before getting some serious chip action going:

Chips were flying EVERYWHERE! I can't wait to get the power feed working in both directions so I can blast the chips towards the back of the machine, not out onto the floor, or my face. LOL!

Here is what the floor looked like after we were done:

I think we did some work! Or, we at least made the mill do some work while we got chips all over us!

This is what we were left with:

 I will be welding a plate onto that after we open up the input shaft hole a bunch, which will be the next major operation we do on the mill after the 10" rotary table I ordered shows up! That will be a fun package to get. It is listed as 137 pounds. heh

Since we made a mess, I had to clean up. It was late, very late, when we finished up, so most things just got plopped on the mill table, which I don't really care for doing, but, it is under the tarp and out of site, which is the most important part. Here's where I started:

I found a box to stick the tools in, took a while to clean out the chips in the t-slots of the table, and basically cleaned everything I could from the top down, ending up with this:

I also moved some of the shop crap that ends up in that corner (that area is the shop black hole) so we can move around the mill in a safer to our knees fashion.

Next time you see this project, I'll have my new rotary table and a better wiring scheme for the mill, so we'll be going at it hard to try to make the deadline that is looming pretty large. We'll make it happen, though.