- Joined
- Mar 13, 2014
- Messages
- 46
Hi there guys,
Please, share your experience since I am a total newb in this!
I have a lathe and have been in need to do some milling for some time now. Of course I have been looking at the ubiquitous ZX45 knockoffs, but, must admit that I am no fan or their built quality. My lathe is a nice vintage italian machine, nicely built, a joy to use. The new chinese drill-mill will be nice, but the rough castings, rough ways scraping and unfinished surfaces put me off a bit.
Anyhow, an old used german milling machine came up for sale in what seems to be a reasonable price. It is a Hermle FWH 630, something like this:
It seems lovely, with vertical attachment, power feeds (controllable speed of power feed!) and all. It is, sadly, a bit smaller in working envelope compared to the ZX45, but this is not my main concern.
What I would like your advice on is, can you DRILL on a machine like this??
Well, of course you can drill, but, can you drill easily? In this picture, apart from the three wheels for X, Y, Z, we can see a huge control similar to the ones the drill/mills have for controlling the quill. I imagine this is used for 'rapid' movement of the table in the Z axis for drilling. The levers are that long, since lifting the table will require a lot of leverage, I assume.
So, if I am correct on my assumption, that thing is for drilling. But, can you drill nicely or the weight of the table will take away every kind of feeling. Imaging using a spotting drill to start a small accurate hole by lifting the whole table...Well, does anybody have a personal experience on this? What do you think?
(and, in general, ZX45 or this nice vintage machine?)
Sorry for the long post, looking forward to your advice!
BR,
Thanos
Please, share your experience since I am a total newb in this!
I have a lathe and have been in need to do some milling for some time now. Of course I have been looking at the ubiquitous ZX45 knockoffs, but, must admit that I am no fan or their built quality. My lathe is a nice vintage italian machine, nicely built, a joy to use. The new chinese drill-mill will be nice, but the rough castings, rough ways scraping and unfinished surfaces put me off a bit.
Anyhow, an old used german milling machine came up for sale in what seems to be a reasonable price. It is a Hermle FWH 630, something like this:
It seems lovely, with vertical attachment, power feeds (controllable speed of power feed!) and all. It is, sadly, a bit smaller in working envelope compared to the ZX45, but this is not my main concern.
What I would like your advice on is, can you DRILL on a machine like this??
Well, of course you can drill, but, can you drill easily? In this picture, apart from the three wheels for X, Y, Z, we can see a huge control similar to the ones the drill/mills have for controlling the quill. I imagine this is used for 'rapid' movement of the table in the Z axis for drilling. The levers are that long, since lifting the table will require a lot of leverage, I assume.
So, if I am correct on my assumption, that thing is for drilling. But, can you drill nicely or the weight of the table will take away every kind of feeling. Imaging using a spotting drill to start a small accurate hole by lifting the whole table...Well, does anybody have a personal experience on this? What do you think?
(and, in general, ZX45 or this nice vintage machine?)
Sorry for the long post, looking forward to your advice!
BR,
Thanos