New Mill

Hi
I have the money for a new mill, but do i get a MT4 or a R8 or a ISO30 quill.
do i allocate money for a powered quill or not, the money would buy a powered Y , or not.
It will have a powered, X, & powered head (bad back) like a PM 940-PDF
possibly a 3 Ph motor & a VFD

What would you do

Jeff,

R8 tooling is very common around me (southern California) so that is what I went with.

I own a Bridgeport step pulley mill from 1976. It's a very useful machine but I would gladly trade it for a #40 or #50 taper mill any day. I think you will want power feed in at least one table direction. You can always add more power feed as needed.

If you are talking about a powered quill like a Bridgeport, well, they are handy but not used that often. I only use the quill power feed for boring with a boring head.

Not sure if I answered your questions but I hope I've helped a little.


Matt

jeff_g1137 said:

Hi
I have the money for a new mill, but do i get a MT4 or a R8 or a ISO30 quill.
do i allocate money for a powered quill or not, the money would buy a powered Y , or not.
It will have a powered, X, & powered head (bad back) like a PM 940-PDF
possibly a 3 Ph motor & a VFD

What would you do

Click to expand...

R-8 is probably the most common tool holding system for small machines, and thus is inexpensive and very available world wide.

As Inflight said, the powered quill is really only used for boring. Given your bad back, a powered head is good and I would want to add an X- power feed.

A VFD and a 3 Ph motor would be nice to have, but not a necessity.
.
.

If you check different brands of milling machines you will find most use R-8 tooling. R-8 accessories are in abundance.
My mill is new,3 months of use. I have powered X axis only and rarely need powered Y axis.I added digital scales for the X and Z axis.This was almost a necessity for my work. I bought them from General Tool & Supply.Good prices ,fast shipping,and if I recall no shipping charges.
mike

jeff_g1137 said:

Hi
I have the money for a new mill, but do i get a MT4 or a R8 or a ISO30 quill.
do i allocate money for a powered quill or not, the money would buy a powered Y , or not.
It will have a powered, X, & powered head (bad back) like a PM 940-PDF
possibly a 3 Ph motor & a VFD

What would you do

Click to expand...

Depends on what you want to do with your new mill. I basically have the same machine, size wise, without the PDF. If I was doing a lot of boring it might be a nice feature but I don't, so I don't miss/need it. If you are going to be boring a bunch Harley Davidson cylinders (for example) you might do well to get it.

I have power feed on the X-axis, and a belt drive with a 3hp 3 phase motor and VFD. More than enough power for this size mill. When I was considering the ISO 30 upgrade, a machine shop owner/friend suggested that I stay with the R8 as it is more common and he doubted that a mill this size could utilize the ISO 30 given it's size/mass. Wasn't a big deal to me so I didn't research it further and stuck with the R8. I too have a grumpy back but the non-powered head mechanism on mine is pretty easy to use. I have tried using the quill for fine Z movement on mine to see if I might want to switch the DRO Z-axis scale to the quill instead of the head but on a recent project where I was milling a pocket about 1.5" deep I didn't like the flex I was getting by having the quill extended like that. This thing ain't no 1.5 ton knee mill that's for sure, but I have not found anything I can't do with it. So far. But to be honest I don't push my machines like some folks do. Biggest end mill I've used to date is a 3/4" but that was one time. I mostly use 5/8 as the biggest and go down to 1/8" or a little smaller.

Again, I would look at what you want to do with the mill and figure out what features/functions you want to accomplish that.

Another vote for R8, there are quick change tool options for R8 and collet systems. As Bill said your intended use is a factor. If I was planning to use the mill for production, making multiples of something and it would require frequent tool changes which would require me to raise the head, change tool, lower, touch off to set the tool height, a bunch of that repeatedly I'd want the power up/down feed on the Z axis head plus quick change tooling or a power drawbar. I would also want a DRO probably on both the head and quill.

If you just plan on mostly doing manual mill one off type stuff for fun, if you are in no big hurry e.g. machining is a relaxing hobby then you can dial back the options. I'd still want a power up/down feed for the head and a DRO. DRO's are awesome, I have them on both my lathe and my mill. Being able to hold .0002 on a machine in this price range is pretty cool. X axis power feed would be mandatory for me. I have 26 inches of X travel and that is a whole lot of cranking on a hand wheel.

I have the same mill as Bill, I too have the 3ph motor and VFD and consider it well worth the money. Bill converted his to belt drive I still have the gear drive. Bill's belt drive is a lot quieter and I think his top spindle speed is 5,300 rpm. My geared head is LOUD and I max out about 3,200 rpm. Bill do you actually run yours at 5,300 rpm mine is a bit scary at 3,200.

I run mine above 4k with the real small endmills but to really utilize those setups properly I need to get a fogbuster installed. It's on the Buy List.

All those gears in mine whirring at 3,200 I kind of expect it to BLOW APART at any moment.

Hi
So it is looking like R8 for the quill, X power feed, head power feed,
DRO & 3 phase motor, VFD will come later.
I was going to keep the gear drive with a VFD, do not think i will need more than 3000 rpm,
i will be milling steel most of the time, do i need more than 1600 rpm.
The manufacturer of the mill is Weiss from china, but i am trying to see if i can get a Knee mill like this

http://www.warco.co.uk/milling-machines/39-super-major-milling-drilling-machine.html

a bit on the small side, but there is a big price increase to the next size mill.

Not a bad looking machine.

Different speeds and feeds produce varying results/finishes on different materials. You don't 'need' a high-rpm head for most work. Especially if you are dry machining. If that machine will do what you need, go for it.