Adam Savage's New Milling Machine!

hey everybody adam savage welcome to my cave  and this is this is a show-and-tell you've   been asking for i don't know why i always  think that i need to like narratively creep   up on the point of the video because  i know that it's in the title that you   clicked on to watch this video so  we know that we're going to be um we know that we're going to be uh this is a show about my favorite tool in the  shop the milling machine this one sharp-eyed   viewers have been noticing for a few months that  there is a new sheriff in town and it is this this lovely thing um the lighting is weird uh all right let's try this  well maybe i do it with that in the background so that's my milling machine i've been this old tony had a great phrase for what i've  been doing in covet he called it chasing zeros   uh in europe i guess you would say chasing  microns um i've been using a milling machine   and a lathe which is on the other side of my shop  i've been using a milling machine in the lathe   since 1991 was the first time i used both of  those tools and in that intervening 30 years i   have become a competent operator of these two  machines that's the highest complement i'll   allow myself about my skills on these i am  competent on them um i'm not super fast but   the the the longer i go using them the better  the stuff that i turn out with them looks   um the the the hellboy samaritan was a a  transformative project in the last year   and the milling machine that i built that gun  on uh was a bridge port and it was from 1968   it's one year younger than i am in fact actually  i believe that the body of that mill if i look i   looked up the serial number the body of the mill  came from 68 and the head the dynamic the the   variable speed head is from 69 so they're just  slightly mismatched but you know this is the thing   with milling machines and i got to the end of 2020  and i was thinking about okay well wait a second   so um okay so a milling machine looks to a lot  of people like a drill press because you can pull   down on an arm and a spindle moves down this spins  and you can drill stuff with it just like a drill   drill press sometimes in the middle of the day  the sun coming through my skylight is so hot   uh not hot on me but hot in  the lighting here anyway um so the things that a that a the things that a mill can do  that a drill press can't are   it doesn't just drill stuff you can actually  use bits like this this is an end mill   and if i chuck this in what i've got is a pair  of sharpened flutes that pull material up and out   and i can i can both make holes and stuff but  i can also go along stuff and i can shave off   tiny amounts larger amounts five thousands  to fifty thousands in a pass you can build   a car engine on this thing okay you'd still  need the lathe for some of those operations   but um i was using that milling  machine at bridgeport that   52 year old bridgeport i was using it i've been  using it for eight years now seven years i think   wait wait wait no no no i tell a lie i got this  milling machine after we wrapped mythbusters   we were at mythbusters at the end of 2015. so  i got this in 2016 it's five years old to me   not this i don't mean to be confusing i'm  trying to figure out how to cover all this but   the bridgeport that i used to build my  samaritan hellboy samaritan prop um was 50   years old and i've been using it for five years  and it's a a good machine but it was worn out   what does that mean that it was worn out  that's what i'm trying to get to what does   it mean that my my mill was worn out well when  you have a mill and you can chuck work into it   and move the table back and forth to precisely  cut off to robustly cut off precise amounts   from the material that i'm affecting in here be  it plastic resin aluminum steel what have you   um i have three axes i can move this mill on  i can move it in this axis i can move it in   this axis so i can move it up and down and what  happens over the lifetime of a milling machine   is picture that this table is a it's a five  foot long set of dovetails that nest into   uh a home on this main crossfeed and so these  dovetails their relationship is absolutely   critical right like no movement at all because i'm  going to be chucking big chunks of metal in here   and i'm going to be peeling away at them  with an end mill and because of that i need   maximal rigidity that's literally why this thing  is 3000 pounds it's a giant cast iron turret specifically to remove any vibration so  as you're moving the table back and forth   over the lifespan of a mill you're sliding parts  and that orientation is really tight you want   the mill to be tight you use whey oil to make  sure that the surfaces can move over each other   but have a minimum of backlash and what that  ends up happening is is that the oh sorry one   last fact the uh those two surfaces uh the mating  surfaces of the dovetail those are called the ways   wait w-a-y-s and the ways as you go back and forth   thousands of times hundreds of thousands of  times you can imagine that most of the work   that most mills do is all within about one foot  like that's the majority of the machining that   they do they're rarely machining stuff that's the  length of the milling table although they could   the practical result of that is that the middle  of the ways gets a lot more action than either   end of the ways and over thousands and thousands  and thousands of back and forth between these   pieces of metal small amounts can be worn away  we're talking microns but it doesn't take many   microns to start to feel it in the table and what  you'll notice if i mean machinists are all nodding   as they hear this you walk up to a mill and  you can kind of tell what shape that mill is in   just by turning the dial all the way to the  end of the table um if it gets really stiff   what that means is that there's more room in the  middle than there is out at the ends right so   there's this depression in the middle made and the  depression is it's half a thousandth 12 microns 20   15 i mean tiny tiny tiny amounts of of extra room  being gotten from the frictive forces means that   the practical was even just like a 10 000 you  can feel it out at the end because you'll tighten   it for the middle and it'll be too tight for  either end and this is what we mean most often   when we talk about mills being worn out now that's  actually a repairable situation the way you repair   that is you pull apart the machine and you do  what's called re-scraping the waves and this is a   precision operation using um using certified  flat surfaces and a set of inks and dyes   to uh both check flatness and squareness and  be able to adjust those things in tiny tiny   increments it's a beautiful process it's a  very laborious process i've never done it   tom lipton was going to help me do it he had  a he had a plan to we've been talking about   this for a while so i was thinking about going  through the process of re-scraping the waves on   my milling machine which is also an expensive  process it can be in the thousands of dollars   and given that that bridge port was was only worth  like a couple thousand dollars given how worn out   it was it wasn't really it didn't really make  sense for me to expend a lot of money or time well i'd been thinking about expending the  money and the time and then as 2020 drew to   a close i decided to upgrade i decided i'd  been using a milling machine long enough   damn it so i bought a new one i know  i've never even seen a new mill i didn't   i was talking to fon davis about this just after i  got it and fawn was like i have no idea they made   new mills i just thought there was some warehouse  in milwaukee where everyone went to get them and   that was kind of the way i thought about it too i  mean every milling machine in this special effects   shop is in a special state and the machinists who  are the specialists in those shops are all pissed   off about it i mean this is just a universal  truth um and so fawn and i we've used a lot of   compromised and worn out milling machines and we  you know for film work it's generally totally fine   but like i said i've been chasing zeroes  and i wanted a little more out of my machine   uh and so i got this from sharp in la i ordered  it in december it arrived in february yeah i guess   so somewhere around february um and i love it i'm  going to take you on a little tour through it but   first i would like to take you on a tour through  what we went through to get it in here because uh   this path i'm walking the mill  came down this path yeah it was um so uh i had to open up this loading door which i  literally do maybe once a year and that requires   moving a bunch of stuff away then um there's  i had to make so you can see my shop there in   the distance i had to make a six foot wide hole  all the way through here in fact also there's   an artificial floor here this is concrete but  it slopes and so we built this flat floor that   goes all the way back so i was able to drive a  forklift holding the milling machine into here   but i couldn't get past this point this isn't  rated for a forklift it's rated for a milling   machine but not a milling machine with a forklift  so i had to drop the milling machine here on these   traveler dolly wheels that they specially make  that are crazy expensive i i've got a guy in san   francisco he moves mills that's what he does he's  moved all of my machinery and he has these these   wheels uh so he left them with me it's just long  story but like the guy who was supposed to move   the mill had to go do another job so i ended up  doing most of the mill moving he moved the old   one out which is like was amazing but i moved the  new one in and i dropped it here and then slowly   pushed it pushed it pushed it getting stuff out  of the way taking stuff down removing stuff from   the ceiling pulling aside the entire bookshelf  here with all of the round materials moving all   of these mobile tool carts it was dudes dudes  and dudettes it was a day but eventually after   about four hours we got in um a couple of things  uh last year i spent the dough on a curt vice   and the hype is real these are just  magnificent pieces of equipment   i've always had cheap milling machine vices  i've always had the 150 vice and it like   it's one of the most common questions i get from  new makers which is what should what tools should   i spend money on and the answer is always the  ones that hold value for you right like so i've   always had these cheap vices and they've always  held their value for me because i didn't need too   much out of them but again once i started chasing  zeros and i needed real repeatability and no rise   and all the things you get out of a high quality  piece of equipment i spent the money on a curt   vice and i am really happy about it i also bought  a setup table that's what this piece of steel is   um it's got threaded holes around it it just makes  setting up flat work a lot easier and i thought   you know as long as i'm setting up i do most  of my work on a vise but i've also been doing   more fixture based work and i thought  i wanted a little more versatility and   i'm also protecting the the chrome tops of the  uh of the lathe table uh by putting this down let's see what are the main features of my sharp   mill uh one feature is that it's got  a oh wait i can turn this hold on one feature is that it's got a  beautiful uh digital speed control it's also crazy silent it's  really really quiet and setting   so so nice um i uh i did the full  cadillac version so i got the um   i got the air powered uh drawbar which allows  me to easily uh load and unload tooling   the sharp mill sharp the sharp mill is effectively  the same exact form factor as the bridge port   which means that most bridge port parts play  nicely with the sharp parts which is great   i was able to keep my um my my five ball uh  arm here for the quill i was able to keep   my this is actually one of my favorite pieces uh  this is oh there we go this is my quill feed and   i didn't have one of these on the old mill so  i made this one and i made this do you remember   when i uh replaced the hand wheels on my table  saw this was the old hand wheel i machined it   down added this uh added this uh handle there  and then made it coupled correctly with the uh made it couple correctly with the quill feed and i really come on sometimes anyway oh there we go so this is how  you lower the quill and this is how you raise the   quill it also has an integrated z-axis on my dro  so i have x y and z um so going up and down like   this is now integral to my digital readout which  is fabulous this is all the same things my old   digital readout did in fact it's the exact same  company new all n-e-w-a-l-l they are the really   nice um gauges and i specifically went with these  because i work wet i use a lot of cooling fluid   and i didn't want glass i don't need to educate  you in all the vagaries of digital readout systems   but some of the systems are waterproof some of  them less so i got the fully waterproof system   because i'm a messy guy um it does all the  same thing normal milling machines do uh   you can bring the quill way down you can the  same attachments you can put on the quill of   a bridgeport you can put on this one uh  it has quill stop set uh i have oh yeah so um one of the biggest pains of the ass of a of  a mill is the z-axis it's raising the z-axis so   when you want to do this you got to do this this  doesn't sound like a lot but it's only a hundred   thou per turn so 10 turns per inch you got to move  this thing around a lot you get kind of oh you get   tired i know it sounds like i'm complaining but  i promise you every machinist you know when you   talk about having a motor on the knee that  is machinist luxury a motor on the knee is   that is some that is sleeping to sleep of the just  man you are just like a motor on the knee is is   a is a delightful luxury i also got a automatic  uh whey oil feeder down here this automatically   injects oil into the ways uh about every three  hours of machine use uh so i don't just leave   this on randomly it will literally empty that tank  in a few weeks if i did that um turn this back off and i set it up the way i set up all of my  machine tools kind of like what tom lipton   described as like setting it up like a fighter  pilot right the cockpit i've got my i've got   my bond who's my bonjour allen's here i've got my  hardened drill bits my parallels uh this light it   came with this light is really really lovely i'm  still using this antique light for the other side there is even a coolant reciprocating system here   can you see that yeah there's a coolant  reciprocating system and i haven't gotten   around to connecting it up it uses the same  coolant as my lathe again just moving slowly yeah there are a lot of sm like i know  that a few of you have asked for a kind   of a tour of how a mill works um and i  don't know how to give that tour i mean   it's effectively a drill press in which  you can lock every access you would need to   and you can move things precisely  without incident on all three of the axes   um in tiny increments if you need to and  that's the way i think of a milling machine um having had so much experience on old worn out  milling machines it is among the deeper pleasures   of my maker existence to be able to play on this  thing because there are all these compromises   you end up having to make with an older milling  machine you you you got to go slower you got to   take passes and cut off less material vibration  can be your real enemy and with a brand new like   well-tuned machine like this so much of that is  just not stuff you have to worry about it's like   it must be like this the difference between  taking apart like a you know some cheap uh   you know eastern european car from the 70s versus  a mercedes engine it's like the part fitment   is just fundamentally different and this brand  new machine like the way it operates feels   fundamentally different even though it's the  same just with less vibration and less uh less   unexpected stuff it's i'm super happy to have it  and i kind of beam every time i get to use it um   you've been seeing it in the videos thank you so  much for asking for the show and tell uh i just   haven't gotten around to it but there she is my  new milling machine thank you guys for joining me   for this uh one of the longest show and tells i've  done i don't think of this as a tool tip because   there's going to be a run on new milling machines  soon uh show and tell thank you for joining me   and i will see you guys next time cheers thank  you guys for watching that video if you'd like   to further support us at tested you can do  so by buying some merch from us in our store   a link is below but i wanted to tell you that  for the first time we are releasing a discounted   bundle of tested merch specifically our original  five demerit badges these are ways in which every   maker screws up so we've got the measure once  cursed twice uh releasing the mysterious blue   smoke from electronics and stopping them from  working breaking a drill bit uh 3d printer   going all flag spaghetti monster on you and my  personal most common one cutting your finger   yeah get yourself over to tested dash store.com  and uh line yourself up with some demerit badges   i'm going to sew these to my apron oh that  actually would make a good one day build

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 227,958

Keywords: tested, adam savage, adam savage tested, adam savage milling machine, milling machine, machine shop, sharp mill, sharp milling machine, how a milling machine works, how a mill works

Id: j8_EoUXvTJk

Length: 21min 40sec (1300 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021