Help Choosing New Mill!

B

bsmith918

Registered
Registered
Joined
Feb 8, 2015
Messages
7
I'll start with a little information about myself and what I plan to use a mill for. I have a decent little shop at my house. I mainly fool with guns, but who knows what else I will dabble in. I have also consider knifemaking at some point in the future. I have a lathe, welders, bandsaws, cold saws, and tons of firearm specific hand tools. I have built quite a few AKM's from demilled kits, as well as AR pattern rifles, and Garands. I have worked on quite a few others too. I also dabble in refinishing. This includes spray/bake finishes, blueing, and parking. I would like to try out case hardening at some point.

With the above said, I am now looking to get my first mill. I had originally planned to get a PM-25, but then the 727 showed up. After thinking about it for a long while, I decided to go ahead and get it ordered. Unfortunately, they were sold out and will not have any for a few more months. They will have the 932 back in stock much sooner and I do like the larger table size, overall weight, and x-axis power feed. The pdf model is likely not in my budget and not something that I see as a huge deal to me at this time. So, should I wait for the 727 or go with the 932? I am also looking to future proof myself with this purchase. I have also looked into the Charter Oak 12z. Does anyone have an opinion of this machine? I have emailed some with Matt and will likely stick with a PM machine. Also, any opinions on the vise and other accessories in the $199 accessory kit? If there are better accessories in this class, let me know. Thanks for any/all of the help!
 
If you have the cash for the 932 or 940 and you can handle the weight and electrical requirements, get one of them, they are a more capable machine.

PDF is something you really want to get in my opinion. when you are boring a hole, it makes getting a consistent surface finish easy. it will also helps wen drilling a lot of holes, or when you are drilling in a difficult material.
 
Capability wise, the CO 12z is similar to the PM940. There is a Charter Oak sub-forum buried under 'Other Machines' I think if you want to peruse the threads. I'm in there putting ball screws on my 12z.

I have bought two machines from Matt at Precision Machine and one (the 12z) from Paul at CO. Service has been great from both, and given my experience I'd buy from either again.
 
The weight and electrical is not an issue. The standard 932 is already pushing my limited budget on this machine, especially since I had planned to get the PM25 originally.
 
Accessories....I purchased a PM25 last summer early, The 4" vise in the package, (value $79.00 or so). The first thing I did when the machine was set up and clean, was to check the parallelism between the table and the top of the vise rails.......not good, out .005 side to side, out .002 or 3 front to back. I flipped it upside down, on two 1 2 3 blocks, clamped it down and skinned the bottom. It was out, also hollow by .006 or 8 in the middle. It took about .015 to clean it up, I assume it was machined as green iron, not yet stabilized. It's been fine since, the jaws are both square with the base/table, the mechanism clamps down on the rear jaw as it tightens. Oh, I shimmed the back jaw.001 to make it parallel with the movable jaw. I guess I could have shimmed the movable jaw, but didn't.

My experience with Matt and his staff has been really great, far better than I would have expected if they hadn't been praised highly here.
 
I have the PM932 and have been happy with it. I was looking at the PM25 also when I purchased my mill and am glad I went with the larger mill. The only thing I would recommend if you can stretch your budget is to buy the DRO from Matt and have them install it. The DRO makes life a lot easier.
 
Thanks for all of the opinions/ideas so far. I'll certainly take a look at them all.
 
coolidge said:
I recommend the PM-935TV
Click to expand...

From the 727 to a 932 to a 935TV... $1800 to $2400 to $5400...

Our motto "Your money is our money" :D

Coolidge is right, the 935 is a nice choice, and a knee mill is much more useful than a square column mill. If it was me, knowing what I know now, I would jump straight to the 935TV. But then I am crazy like Coolidge...:black eye:

But back to you original question, I think the step up to the 932 is worth it. Go for it.

wrt to the 12Z, coolidge used to have one and gave it away and now he has the 935TV.... my advice is to stick with PM. If you like the size of the 12Z, then consider the 940M. When you compare prices, remember the old adage "you get what you pay for". Matt has a great reputation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top