New to the Forum, New Tools and a Hello!

[fks4l]

Hello and good morning all!

Not sure if it's necessary here, but as I'm new to the forum I wanted to post a quick hello to everyone
I've followed several threads here for years and have learned a lot of tips/tricks for small projects and what-not, and as I've decided to "upgrade" my tiny shop a little, I figured it was time to join up

I'd been on the hunt for some mini/micro machines for a little while now, looking for deals/used/etc and finally have a few in and am getting set up!
First off, I'm well aware that I shouldn't have high hopes for these Chinese machines, but due to shop size and budget constraints, this is what I'm working with for now

Drill Press: 10" WEN with digital speed readout

Mini Mill: HF 44991

Mini Lathe: Grizzly G8688

So far, I've got the drill press and mill all completely torn down, cleaned up, and all necessary hardware loctited and torqued
For the mill, I've polished the gibs and ways, and have already installed some upgrades from LMS (While I had it apart, I figured why not) including the air-spring and belt drive conversion

The lathe is sadly still in its shipping crate as I wanted to finish setting up the mill before opening a new project.
Aside from tramming the table, any other advice on getting the machine set up? Any MUST HAVE upgrades before I start?

As far as the Lathe goes, I'll be stripping that one down, cleaning and tightening as well. Same questions there... Anything I should replace right off the bat?

Again, I'm aware of the limitations of these machines. I'm mainly looking to expand my abilities and be able to make small parts, fixtures, tooling etc that I need as other projects arise.

Thanks for all of your info over the years, I look forward to working with yall

 

[eKretz]

Closed topic. Welcome to the forum; if you've been reading here for years, you ought to be aware of the machinery discussion guidelines, and the rule that the lower tier import machines are verboten for discussion here. You are more than welcome to ask questions about how to do work and procedures, just not discussion of those types of machinery. I'll add a quote from the Machinery Discussion Guidelines in the sticky at the top of the page:

Note this is the is the Manufacturing Forum, not the home shop machinist forum. And while all levels of "how to" metalworking or woodworking questions regarding technique are welcome here, we are drawing the line at discussing manual "home shop grade" Asian machine tools and hand tools.

Note I said "home shop grade" Larger and/or higher quality Asian machines that might be used in manufacturing or job shop setting are ok to discuss.

The discouragement of HSM grade Asian machine discussion is partially because they have all ready been discussed to death here, and partically because they are not used (or at shouldn't be) in any manufacturing/job shop envirnoments.

For these machines, there are other sites such as the HSM Magazine forum, Chaski forum and various Yahoo Groups that are more appropriate.