Would you buy....

GunsOfNavarone said:
Man...my first choice is on here. PM 727 DRO!
PM727
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For what it's worth, if I could afford it I'd be all over that. It's a lot of $$, but you might be able to talk him down too. That has everything, DRO, X drive, clamping kit, collets, vise and who knows what else. All that stuff new would be close to $3k with shipping. It's too bad so many have low opinions of old RF30, mine has served its purpose for me and I don't feel like it owes me anything seeing how I only paid $400 for it well used and abused. I do jones for nicer mills but I've not done anything yet the RF can't handle.
 
Denver definitely seems to be a tough market. I’m not knocking the smaller Mills my first mill was an RF clone I had such a hard time with it (I’m sure it was mostly me). my BP clone has been a dream to operate. I look at that PM for 2400 and think damn another grand or two and I’m in a decent knee mill. I’m a single father so my priorities differ from most.
 
Yeah, I went to PM’s website, everything included in this (and there is the whole cost of shipping AND the machine isn’t even available right now) but it safely we’ll over 3k. Talked to the seller last night and kinda worked a way for him to hold it for me. I have to rent a trailer and drive 1.5 hours so it will have to wait until Sunday. If all goes well I’ll pick it up then.
I will say, there would be a great value to learn on something cheaper/older, so it has been leaning in two very different directions, but when I saw my original first choice became available 1 hour I went to look at the RF30, I knew it was a sign from the spaghetti monster in the sky! I’ll report back Sunday!
 
GunsOfNavarone said:
Yeah, I went to PM’s website, everything included in this (and there is the whole cost of shipping AND the machine isn’t even available right now) but it safely we’ll over 3k. Talked to the seller last night and kinda worked a way for him to hold it for me. I have to rent a trailer and drive 1.5 hours so it will have to wait until Sunday. If all goes well I’ll pick it up then.
I will say, there would be a great value to learn on something cheaper/older, so it has been leaning in two very different directions, but when I saw my original first choice became available 1 hour I went to look at the RF30, I knew it was a sign from the spaghetti monster in the sky! I’ll report back Sunday!
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It is weird and kinda cosmic how deals show up. You would have been kicking yourself if you'd bought the 30 clone and then seen this 727. Hindsight is always 20/20 but I take a fatalistic view that if it didn't work out it wasn't meant to be. I looked long and hard trying to match up what I was trying to do with what was on CL. It gets really tiring to weigh all the factors all the while my TAS ( tool acqusisiton syndrome) is wanting me to spend more and all the folks for and against the RF30.

Around here crazy deals show up pretty regularly, I mean insane. But they are huge. Like right now there's an old Monarch 15x72 lathe, complete and working for $600. BP's and their clones for $1800 all the time. Where I got my Atlas 7b shaper (paid $125 for it)they had an Index mill, complete and working for $350 along with an American horizontal mill for $350. There was a Boyar&Shultz 6x18 for $400.

But I don't have the room and really not the pressing need so ultimately the old real '78 RF30 I ended up with that nobody ever drilled into the table. But looked like they decided to drop stuff from 3' onto it, weirdly does what I need. It sits a lot, same with my 9x20 but when I need them they enable to me to get 'er done. The one criteria that nobody ever mentioned before was the excellent one Superburban mentioned. If you are working on anything smaller than a six pack. Never thought of it but that's exactly where I'm at. That weird spot that's larger than a mini mill can handle and don't need a BP for.
 
Ok, I guess this is important info that I breezed over. For me making billet parts is my goal. I can’t even think of anything I’d make over that 6 pack size!! I mean, can someone give me an example? So mini mills are limited to the “less than 6 pack” size? Even when the table moves 20” by 8”?
 
???, confused.....are you thinking the RF30/727 class of benchtop mill drills are mini? I guess to the knee mill guys they are, but there's a class below that is much lighter/smaller that I think of as mini. But that's just me.........
 
Sorry, I guess I’m not sure what constitutes as a mini mill (or a lathe for that matter) in the simplest term, if a mill is under 1000 lbs, perhaps it’s mini?? I wouldn’t want to lift that though!!
 
Wow! Sounds like a drill press. I consider my G0602 lathe a mini....maybe I’m wrong about that as well. Guess I’m buying a big boy mill, no mini’s for this guy!
 
The six pack reference was just a quick example that I could think of for height, It can do taller, but then you get into having to move the head, which with the round column, as you know, changes things a bit.

I re-bored an air compressor pump with mine. Had just enough travel to do where the piston rings traveled, then I lowered the boring head spindle, to get around lowering the mill head.

My father in law, rebuilt many lawnmower engines, and the closest thing he had to a power tool, was an plug in electric hand drill, held in one of those mounts that allows it to somewhat work like a drill press. He use a hand powered drill to chase threads, and even tap threads a few times.

The only real limitations are in your mind. Never say it can't be done, I just take it as a challenge.
 
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