Hobby milling machine

Buying a used machine will often give you the additional hobby of machine restoration. If you're up for it, you cou;ld get a lot more machine for your money.
As to buying a benchtop mill, I would try to go with a square column rather than a round column mill. Round column mills are limited in vertical movement to the quill travel before having to raise or lower the head to extend the travel, thereby losing registration. A square column mill operates more like a knee mill except the head moves rather than the table, giving you the combined travel of the head plus the quill without losing registration.
 
"Hobby use" is a bit broad Can you define your hobby work a bit.
Gunsmithing, Toy trains?
Plastic, steel, brass, aluminium
What tolerances do you aim for when machining
Members will chime in with good advice, but if you can clarify it a bit more the advice you get should be relevant

Cheers Phil
To answer that, I really don't know. Just stuff I might want to do, bicycle parts for instance. tool repairs. I do have some LGB trains and might like to fool with that some. I'm retired now and the woodwork I have always done is getting a bit heavy lately. I'm having trouble, with bad shoulders, lifting plywood sheets. so I'm not sure where it will go. I lean more toward practical things, rather than models. I want something relatively small for both space an weight, the used ones someone showed just seem awfully big. No mattter what, I'll probably make the wrong choise for what I neen to do. Isn't that the way it works?
 
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I agree with 12bolts in that a bit more info about what you want to do with the mill would allow the members here to give better suggestions.

At the very least I would suggest a mill that has a similar working envelope to your 9" SB. Not sure that fits in the 'under 2k' realm though.
that does make sense. I'm not sure what that is though.
 
Are you sure you need new?

Is your budget including necessary (or very useful) accessories? It just for the basic machine, and you will still have budget for accessories?

Any space or weight restrictions?



.
Bernie

I can vouch for tooling expense. Just buying a machine, new or used, the tooling to do a variety of milling/facing/boring/holding etc does become a significant expense.
IMHO, equal to or greater than the original purchase price.
I love every minute of it though :)
 
If your work envelope is sufficiently small, the Sherline machines are nice, particularly for learning on. I have the 5400 mill, and was quite happy with it for a number of years. I am still happy with it, but my work has expanded to sizes Sherline's stuff just can't easily handle.
 
I can vouch for tooling expense. Just buying a machine, new or used, the tooling to do a variety of milling/facing/boring/holding etc does become a significant expense.
IMHO, equal to or greater than the original purchase price.
I love every minute of it though :)
I've spent a small fortune on stuff for my lathe and still only have half the stuff I want.
 
To answer that, I really don't know. Just stuff I might want to do, bicycle parts for instance. tool repairs. I do have some LGB trains and might like to fool with that some. I'm retired now and the woodwork I have always done is getting a bit heavy lately. I'm having trouble, with bad shoulders, lifting plywood sheets. so I'm not sure where it will go. I lean more toward practical things, rather than models. I want something relatively small for both space an weight, the used ones someone showed just seem awfully big. No mattter what, I'll probably make the wrong choise for what I neen to do. Isn't that the way it works?

Of course it is. :)

I started with a Sherline lathe and mill, and moved up from there as my wants/needs changed. Some here will cry foul, but the machines I have now are actually bigger than I need for what I do. They are just too darn big, and these are not even 'big' machines'.

To just throw something out there for you, you might consider something in the PM25/30 or PM727 range. They are decent machines that can do quite a bit if you know what you are doing. Great for aluminum and light work in steel. If you stay within their work envelope and don't try 'hogging' steel with a 5/8" end mill (as some have done) you will find them pleasant to work with. And they can be mounted on a tool box (mine was on a 40" Craftsman) so they can be moved around if need be. Or you could get someone to make you a stand with heavier wheels on it which would be preferable IMO.

Just things to think about.
 
Well, everybody might cry "Heresy!", but I have something in mind if I can free up the space and the money. It's a small knee mill from Harbor Freight. It's listed at $1,900 but I figure if I wait and use a coupon I could get it delivered for around $1,600. I bought one of their mill/drills and it's been OK for me for what it is.
https://www.harborfreight.com/vertical-milling-machine-40939.html
Just be sure to plan ahead. I noticed that the listing said, "Item made to order. Average time to ship is 5 weeks with a maximum of 17 weeks. Customer will be contacted regarding delivery."

As for heresy - I guess it's all a crap shoot. I have a HF mini-mill (44991), and it's been just fine. Bought it instead of the equivalent Grizzly, because at the time, the Griz was only available with an MT3 spindle. I wanted the R8. Lots of "opportunities*" for the tweaks/improvements I've done over the years. I might well have as much (or more?) $$ in it by now as the cost of a larger/better mill. But the initial cost was low and the $/month expenditure rate has been reasonable.

* "Yes, Sir! Sir, we're faced with an insurmountable opportunity."
 
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