Question about small milling machines

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Vince_O

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I've been wanting to get a small milling machine, don't have room or power for a Bridgeport, ext. This being said, I'm no machinest, nor do I know anything about it, so I would like your input on these machines. In have a SB9 now in my shop, mostly doing repairs on old garden tractors.

I don't know anything about milling, or milling machines. So what could a person do with a small unit like this?

Epay 171647504418

CL. https://athensga.craigslist.org/tls/4853482733.html
 
Don't buy the eBay one. It's a home made mill. Consisting of two phase II cross slides and a taig headstock.
 
Check out the small Harbor Freight table top mill. For small projects such as you described it will probably do most if not all of the things you might encounter working on lawn and garden equipment and small engines. A slightly larger machine will usually have more features, more power and be more rigid which yields deeper depth of cuts and tighter tolerances on parts you make. Look for factory built machines like HF, Grizzly, Bolton, Precision Mathews and others, they offer them in smaller machines that will do quite nicely and still leave you some room to grow as your skills improve and you venture into bigger and harder projects.

Bob
 
For those prices, you can do better. The round column mill drills routinely go used for ~400, and small older mills can be found in that range. I bought a complete Atlas MFC for ~500. It as dirty and had some surface rust, but was complete and working, with little wear. Don't be in too big a hurry and do some research. Use the Ebay sold listings feature to see how much people are actually paying for these small mills in your area. East coast and Midwest prices tend to be lower than west coast.
 
I would echo the "don't rush" advice. If you are just scratching an itch and don't have an immediate need, scan Craigsliist for a few months. There are some very nice floor-standing mills that don't take up any more room than a mill-drill (when you count the bench space) but are much nicer to use. Machines to be on the look out for are Clausing, Rockwell, or a JET 8x36 machine or its equivalent from Grizzly or Enco. There are also Chinese and Taiwan clones of the little Clausing mill which would still be better than what you're looking at. Hell, even a Bridgeport round-ram Series 1 is not that big and often go cheap because they are not a "favored" model. Admittedly, good used machines can be tough to find, but give yourself a chance to get lucky. Even used machined that need a bit of work are probably a better deal than a new cheap Chinese mill because the Chinese mill will probably need work anyway, and the used American machine is more deserving of restoring.

One other bit. Look for (or at least don't rule out) 3-phase machines because there are fewer buyers and VFDs are pretty cheap and easy to hook up.
 
The round coloum mills are very capable for the cash they cost but do have a few limitations, for example the head moving relative to work when the heads raised and lowered, tramming isnt easy.

on the postive its very versatile and good value.

I am currently lusting after the real small bench knee milling machines i think they look proper tasty for smaller work.

Stuart
 
That guy on ebay has been trying to sell that thing for a coons age. Kind of runs counter to the old saying, "there's a sucker born every minute", cause no one is buying that contraption. For his "buy it now" price, you could get one of these - http://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill-Drill/G0758 - shipped to your door. I'm looking for a small mill my own self, and like the others advise, I'm taking my sweet time and looking high and low for that once in a life time deal...

Mark
 
I can't give advice regarding mills, but I can offer my perspective. I too have a South Bend 9" lathe. I think you and I both know that a larger lathe would be nice, but at the same time, the SB9 is a wonderful machine. It is capable of doing lots of good work.

Do a google-image-search for "rong fu 31 mill ". They have been made by the thousands, and sold under everyone's name, like enco, harbor freight, and many others. They pop up on craigslist fairly often (once you have the image of what they look like in your mind, you'll start to see them everywhere). They are a "round-column-mill", and they have some disadvantages, but, just like the SB9, it is a wonderful machine capable of doing lots of good work.

In my humble shop, the SB9 and the RF31 go together like peanut-butter and jelly. It's like they were made for each other. I admit I lust after bigger machines, but it will be a long time before my skills outgrow these two machines.

Lornie
 
There is an RF25 version as well, 1/3 smaller, runs on 110v and much easier to move:
http://www.micro-machine-shop.com/rong_fu_rf_25_mill.htm

Nice things about these mills, they use generic, very quiet AC induction motors and a simple pulley system rather than those noisy hi-lo gear systems with DC motor and associated trouble prone control boards.
 
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