- Joined
- Sep 22, 2017
- Messages
- 139
For years I have wanted a mill for hobby use, my needs are very minimal, typically making a small part for one of my obsolete pieces of equipment and the occasional part here or there to support my other hobbies. For the past several decades I've usually just gone at a piece with a file until it met the need, which has worked for all these years, though admittedly it's been a limitation. I'm not trying to justify the expense of the mill, I'm fully aware that I'm probably not going to recover the expense of the mill and tooling and am happy enough to consider it sunken costs of my hobbies. In all the years, I can't recall needing to precision file/mill anything larger than perhaps 4"x6"x6" and even that is likely twice the size of the largest part I've actually made by hand filing. I'm very used to taking a long time to manufacture parts, so speed is of little concern as it's nearly impossible to be slower than my hand filing/grinding.
I live out in the boonies in an old house, so I don't have access to the finest power. My workspace is powered for 120v, but I could have an electrician drag 240v in from the house, which I've previously considered for other purposes (bigger air compressor, welder, etc). My workspace isn't large, basically an unused bay in the garage, so space is available but at a bit of a premium. Between my space, power, and need, I don't think a larger mill is feasible.
I see the mini-mills based on the Sieg X2 line and I'm pretty sure one of these would handle the physical dimensions of 99% of the parts I'll ever make. My usual materials are wood, plastic, aluminium, and mild steel and the most challenging action would be something along the lines of milling a keyway into a 2" shaft or fixing teeth on broken gears. I realize that once I have such a tool, I'll find more uses for it so I'm looking at the larger round column mills due to their greater size (specifically from HF because I'm cheap). I can't really justify anything larger, as it'd be more cost effective to let someone else machine the bits I can't make....that's likely true today as well, but I'm OK with dumping a bit of money into a hobby, especially over time. I'm aware of the issue of having to carefully recenter/zero the head should I make any height adjustments, but I don't think that will be a huge issue for me as the time spent isn't a commodity I'm very concerned about and most of my needs are pretty utilitarian. I've searched and read a lot on both the X2 mills as well as RF-30/31 and clones, but there's always things that don't get considered until inflicted with the tool and it's limitations.
I'm budgeting upto about $1500-1750 for the mill and tooling now. The mill will cost around $1100 leaving around $500 for initial tooling. I can spend more if there's significant gain compared to the expense, but I've not seen anything else that had features I just couldn't live without; DRO would be nice, but I've been using dial calipers all along so I don't see any loss in still not having having something else.
For tooling, I'm considering ordering one of the R8 mill packages from LMS, but I'd be interested in hearing about alternatives from the economy brigade; I'm not above making tools to make tools if I can find plans/examples to work from. I have a 10x48 lathe with some basic tooling, it's an older 1903 Seneca Falls in reasonably good condition for a machine of such vintage.
For anyone not familiar with the machine, this is what I'm considering:
HF #33686 1.5HP Milling/Drilling Machine
So what say you, wise denizens of hobby-machinist.com, does it seem like I've considered my options or am I overlooking something? Anything else I can say to make it clearer on what I'm expecting? Am I setting myself up for failure or disappointment? What have I failed to consider? Would I be better served with an X2?
Your input is kindly appreciated, thanks.
I live out in the boonies in an old house, so I don't have access to the finest power. My workspace is powered for 120v, but I could have an electrician drag 240v in from the house, which I've previously considered for other purposes (bigger air compressor, welder, etc). My workspace isn't large, basically an unused bay in the garage, so space is available but at a bit of a premium. Between my space, power, and need, I don't think a larger mill is feasible.
I see the mini-mills based on the Sieg X2 line and I'm pretty sure one of these would handle the physical dimensions of 99% of the parts I'll ever make. My usual materials are wood, plastic, aluminium, and mild steel and the most challenging action would be something along the lines of milling a keyway into a 2" shaft or fixing teeth on broken gears. I realize that once I have such a tool, I'll find more uses for it so I'm looking at the larger round column mills due to their greater size (specifically from HF because I'm cheap). I can't really justify anything larger, as it'd be more cost effective to let someone else machine the bits I can't make....that's likely true today as well, but I'm OK with dumping a bit of money into a hobby, especially over time. I'm aware of the issue of having to carefully recenter/zero the head should I make any height adjustments, but I don't think that will be a huge issue for me as the time spent isn't a commodity I'm very concerned about and most of my needs are pretty utilitarian. I've searched and read a lot on both the X2 mills as well as RF-30/31 and clones, but there's always things that don't get considered until inflicted with the tool and it's limitations.
I'm budgeting upto about $1500-1750 for the mill and tooling now. The mill will cost around $1100 leaving around $500 for initial tooling. I can spend more if there's significant gain compared to the expense, but I've not seen anything else that had features I just couldn't live without; DRO would be nice, but I've been using dial calipers all along so I don't see any loss in still not having having something else.
For tooling, I'm considering ordering one of the R8 mill packages from LMS, but I'd be interested in hearing about alternatives from the economy brigade; I'm not above making tools to make tools if I can find plans/examples to work from. I have a 10x48 lathe with some basic tooling, it's an older 1903 Seneca Falls in reasonably good condition for a machine of such vintage.
For anyone not familiar with the machine, this is what I'm considering:
HF #33686 1.5HP Milling/Drilling Machine
So what say you, wise denizens of hobby-machinist.com, does it seem like I've considered my options or am I overlooking something? Anything else I can say to make it clearer on what I'm expecting? Am I setting myself up for failure or disappointment? What have I failed to consider? Would I be better served with an X2?
Your input is kindly appreciated, thanks.