First cuts

No pictures, but as soon as I finished the clean up, lubrication and break in procedures I grabbed a piece of 3/8 inch re-bar and chucked it up. The Smithy came with a 6 inch 3-jaw chuck. 3-jaw chucks are self centering with so-so accuracy but fine for most projects. I turned the a few diameters and made a 60 degree angle on the front. It turned well with a decent finish. For the milling machine, I put on the vise that came with the Smithy which is a 4 inch angle vise. Then I took an aluminum ingot from my casting project, put a 2 1/2 inch face mill on the machine and cut away. I was pleased to get an excellent finish on the ingot with the face mill and decided to try a 1/2 inch end mill. The end mill cut well and I set the vise on a 45 degree angle and cut some v-grooves into the side of the ingot. The only issue I found during this test was that I need to tram the milling head as the milling cutters are cutting on one side of the cutter more than the other. I will need to research the best method to tram the head. I'm not real sure that I have much control over the head itself but if I don't I should be able to tram the vise to the head. Not the ideal way to do it but it will work.     

Cleaning

After getting the machine on the stand I spent several hours cleaning as much surface area as I could get at. After cleaning off all of the goop from the external surfaces I pulled the tail stock off, cleaned the ways and deburred the gib to make sure that all of those surfaces were clean and smooth so that there was nothing to cause wear on these surfaces. I followed that process for the table and cross slide, then followed the manual instructions for lubrication. I am currently using a 30w Valvoline but am considering switching to an oil/additive combination for additional protection, although I'm not sure yet. I do run additives in my vehicles...............
After getting everything cleaned up and lubricated I followed the manual recommended break in procedure. To accomplish that I spent a few hours running the machine and I found that it was time well spent to get used to the controls on the machine.
The next step was to clean all of the various accessories that I either already had or the new ones that came with the machine.
Now it's time to try cutting some metal and making a few chips!

Smithy Granite 1324 Max

After I had decided to purchase one of the 1324 Granite 3-in-1 machines I called Smithy and they were very good to deal with. I wanted to pay cash for the machine but the purchase price was above the daily limit of my debit card. Smithy set it up to be paid over a 2 day period with no headaches. I was told that the machine would ship the day after the final payment was made which was no big deal. What I didn't think of was that the coming weekend was a holiday and so instead of shipping on Friday, the machine didn't ship until Tuesday and it went downhill from there. Instead of taking 5 days it took 2 weeks for the machine to arrive. Plus (and this is the only gripe I have to date about Smithy) the shipping company was to deliver the machine to a company shipping dock in the town that I live in and then I would pick it up from there. The problem was that the company didn't have a facility in my town. The closest company facility they had was over one hundred miles away and they didn't have a correct phone number to contact me about this. When they finally made contact with me I was out of town working and I made arrangements for the company to deliver it to the yard of another shipping company ,my wife then went to go pick the machine up. That cost extra and was a major pain. But everything arrived in good condition so I looked at it as better late than never.
The machine shipped in one crate, the stand shipped in another and there was a third box that had some extra stuff in it.

My plan was to use my engine hoist to lift the crates out of the bed of the truck. Which is what I did, I just had to modify the hoist to get some extra height out of the hoist. To get that height I welded a new jack mount above the original mount on the hoist.

The crate weighed 978 pounds and not trusting my welds 100% I left the C-Clamp on when I lifted the crate out of the truck bed.

Once off the truck I removed the crate and used the ratchet straps to get the machine ready to set on the stand. But first I had to put the stand together.

After getting the stand put together and positioning the stand I was ready to set the machine in place. The Granite has 5 lift handles around the base of the machine for lifting and it made it easy to use the ratchet straps to lift the machine in a level position. these handles slide out of the base so they aren't in the way once the machine is moved into position. I used 4 of the lifting handles.

After setting the machine on the stand the next task was to bolt it to the stand. I used 4 grade 8 bolts to take care of that and then broke out an old, very accurate machine level and spent an hour or so making sure I had it as level as I could get it.
After getting it leveled I needed to mount the power supply. I had seen pictures of some mounting locations away from the machine, which would be nice to help keep it clean but I placed the machine so that I have plenty of access all around the machine, so I had to mount it to the machine.

The standard mounting location is on the back side of the machine, to the right of the bed, below the head stock of the lathe. The supplied four screws take care of it.
After all of that I took some time going over the machine with the manual opened to make sure I knew where everything was located and then I made sure I lubricated the machine thoroughly, as the manual called for with a non-detergent 30w motor oil.
All machines are run in at Smithy, but the manual lays out a run in sequence that doesn't take too long to complete. After the required run in procedure was complete I got to thinking that it may be a good idea to make sure that the machine had been properly cleaned at assembly and I decided to remove the gibs on all of the ways and give them a good cleaning and make sure that the ways were burr free, as I had heard was the case with some people. I found them to be fairly clean and smooth but it was a good step to take. Kind of a cheap insurance and something that I should have done just to be sure before I had run the machine for the first time.

I'm back

I have been busy at work and have been moving slowly on my casting activities. Since I last posted I have switched gears a bit and purchased a Smithy 3-in-1 Lathe/Mill/Drill, the Granite 1324 Max. the reason for the purchase has nothing to do with my casting activities but I have come up with several projects that need the larger capabilities of the 1324. having the 1324 WILL make things much easier when I do get around to making the Gingery machines with the foundry, so I figured I was coming out ahead anyway. For those of you that don't know about Smithy, they make a number of 3-in1 machines as well as stand alone Milling Machines and Lathes, both manual and dedicated CNC. From the research I did prior to buying it seemed that all of the reviews I read pointed to the Smithy machines as being the best 3-in-1 on the market. The 1324 has a 13 inch swing on the Lathe with 24 inches between centers which should work for the vast majority of the work I may need to do.The machines are in the light industrial category which will work for me as well. I will add some pictures of the new equipment soon.
I will still be working on the casting projects, I just will be side tracked a bit.