Is there a cheap way of acquiring tools for the mill (e.g., cylindrical edge finders, collets, drill bits, end mills, etc)?
Oops, it was in this thread...
I highly recommend NOT buying the cheapest of the cheap cheap no-name stuff. Cheap collets are prone to having high runout. The Sherline is a small machine, so you're probably using small tools. If you have 0.002" runout in your collet and are using a 1/8 2-flute end mill that's expecting a 0.001" chip load... you may well have one flute taking NO cut, and the other taking 0.003"- 3 times as much as you expect. Really easy to break tools "for no reason" like that. Even if you don't, tool life, surface finish, and dimensional accuracy will all suffer.
I don't know what collet types you need. For ER collets, I've found Techniks to work well for me. IIRC they're... $15ish each. I got mine on eBay. You probably only need a couple? 1/8, maybe 3/16 and 1/4"? You're not working with much power, so the larger tools aren't going to buy you too much (non-zero, though- larger tools for facing and/or more rigidity for deeper pockets is useful even if you can't put more power into them)For end mills, I don't use HSS, so can't speak to that. For carbide, any of the following places will get you good tools at reasonable prices:
onlinecarbide.com/
www.maritool.com/
www.carbidetoolsource.com/
routerburr.com/
Double-ended end mills can save you a bit on cost. For drills, I really like the PCB drills. At that last link, you can get them for cheap. The nice thing about them (in addition to being cheap) is they have a common 1/8" shank size, so you can use the same collet you use for end mills to hold them instead of a drill chuck (one less thing to buy, no drill chuck eating a mile of Z height).
For workholding, I've found the screwless "grinding vises" to be excellent. I've heard that even the cheapest of the cheap of these are actually pretty OK, but can't vouch for that. I got mine here:
littlemachineshop.com/collections/screwless-vises
Just make sure you get clamps that can hold it down.
I haven't tried these, but supposedly the Xin Dian self-centering vises are shockingly good for their price:
xindianprecise.com/collections/manual-self-centering-vise
If you're flipping parts over, you can avoid having to re-center in one axis at least... two if you also use a work stop.
Other assorted tools: IMO buy as you go and buy nice used stuff. eBay can be good for this, but also if there are industrial surplus auctions near you a lot of times you can get the common stuff dirt cheap, since a lot of that customer base already has the basics you're looking for. Searching "<name of big company around me> surplus" may turn up auctions that a lot of large companies regularly have to get rid of stuff.