Setting the mill on it's new base

Back home, I prepare the board for the mill. Six round rubber bumpers were attached to the backside of the board to dampen vibration and prevent the mill moving around during cut.


The mill was placed on the board to have the hole locations punched out.


Then I started to screw up... My laziness got me to just drill the screws in using the punch marks as guides. After the 2 front screws went in, I saw that the screws pushed the alignment out. While trying to remove the screws to start over, one of them stripped.


I tried using the screw extractor with a hand drill - didn't work. Never did get that to work before anyway. I was thinking, if I can drill off the head from the shank of the screw with a slightly bigger drill than the shank, I should be able to remove the screw and not damage the mill base. I carefully measured the shank of the screw. Slightly more than 4mm. Took a 4.5mm drill and drill away. Light sewing oil was used to keep the heat down. In less than a minute, the head came off. Hahaha! It works!


This was what's left on the board:


The threaded shank was rather stubborn. It just refused to come out. So out came my brand new Proxxon IB/E with it's cutting disc. The idea was to cut a slot for the screw driver to be used.


The cutting disc stood the cut but didn't withstand the slight knock on the mill base...


Now I'm able to carefully remove the screw shank without major damage to the board.

I'll use the other side of the board to start over. Small holes will be drilled this time to guide the screws. I'll also be drilling 2 additional holes for the bolts holding the column to the base so that I don't have to remove the base from the board for future adjustments.

More pics in the next instalment. Got to get ready for church.

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