I haven't had too much time to work on the Pocket NC today, but I did want to get one thing done. And that is better organization, I would continuously have tools floating around my workspace and would often lose them. 

I saw a video by @saundersmachineworks, where he showed all his systems for organizing his tools using Kaizen foam. He's got a fantastic system, and I highly suggest watching it ("Ultimate Machine Shop Toolbox & Organization" on youtube). The basic idea is to lay your tools out on a piece of foam, then outline and cut out groves to fit each one snugly; this allows you to quickly look over and make sure you have all your tools in place and helps with putting them back in their proper spots. 

For mine, I've got calipers, both clamps, the setup Allen wrenches, a few files, the collets, and the metric screws that came with the Pocket NC. I also stopped by Wayne's shop (local machinist), and he graciously gave me an ER11 3/16" collet after talking to him about my difficulties with the 1/4" tooling. 

Huge thank you to @oakblades for sending me some handmade palette knives!

These are going to be useful for around my workspace for those small hard to reach places. They both look absolutely amazing and you can really see the care he put into these! Each one has a serial number, these are 3858 and 3859.

I've been super busy with work these past few days and haven't had much time to continue my education on CNC machining.

Since the new 1/4" collet came in for the Pocket NC, I can now use more significant tooling. I don't have any endmills for cutting aluminum specifically, so I'm in the process of picking up some new ones. I've been talking to Wayne (the local CNC shop owner) and asking him about the different aspects of the bits I could get. The one thing he keeps stressing to me is rigidity, which I haven't heard other machinists talk about much, but it makes a lot of sense. 

His premise is that you only want to get enough cutting length for what you're going to use. In this case, I will only ever use 100% of the tool diameter in the length of the cut/stepdown. So if I have a 1/8" endmill, I only want to have 1/8" LOC (length of the cut, or flute length) to get the most rigidity I can from it. Similarly, the flutes are also super important; the fewer flutes you have, the less stable the tool is and can be prone to deflection; however, the more flutes you have, the less chip evacuation you will get. So there is a balance you want, and he uses and suggests three flute endmills. It provides enough space for chips to evacuate with air coolant properly, and still have enough rigidity to prevent deflection.

Before I make the new clamp system (see the previous post), I needed a drill press for getting holes in the bar stock to attach to the vice. I've wanted to get a drill press for some time as it's super handy to have around, and I had to do some unfavorable hand drill setups, which I won't go into as it would send shivers down your spine.

I looked at local for sale places like Facebook marketplace and craigslist but couldn't find any in my price range ($50-90). I only needed a pretty small tabletop one, so I looked at harbor fright, I was amazed to find they had one for under $60 and perfect for my worktable! It's got a 5-speed system with a 2" drilling height.

While I was there, I also decided to pick up some other tools. I ended up getting a set of small files for deburring, a small hack-saw, and a metric threading kit, which was on clearance as the box was open (only found one part missing) for $50!

I was planning on threading the base plate that I would be getting from Design The Everything to attach my new clamp system. After buying it, I found they didn't have the specific threading tool for the screw that I'd be using, so I went to ace hardware to pick it up. I kind of regret buying the whole threading kit as it has tools primarily for larger sizes I would rarely if ever use.