HF Mill Drill

epanzella

epanzella

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The round column HF Mill Drill is $1200 and I have a 20% coupon that gets me this machine for $960. What is the consensus on the usefullness of this machine? I currently do all my milling on a lathe and this would be a step up for me. I have zero room in my shop so I would have to get rid of my drill press and put the mill drill in it's place. A more expensive mill is not an option for me right now and I'd like to pull the trigger on a machine before all this tariff business raises the price on these mills. Any opinions welcome.
 
Might help to provide a link to the machine in question.
 
You can make it work but if you're patient you can get the same machine used for ~$600.

Remember, it's a hobby. You've done the right thing by coming here and asking, patience is your best friend here as there are many more machines out there than people using them. My shop is also pretty tight but I just opened up 10' of wall space by moving stuff that hadn't been touched in years. If we don't have permission to do what we want in the garage what do we have?

Btw, I see you're in Connecticut. There should be lots of used equipment available there....

Cheers,

John
 
mikey said:
Might help to provide a link to the machine in question.
Click to expand...

Probably just like this one someone posted here on the complete other side of the country.

eugene.craigslist.org

Milling Machine (Harbor Freight)

Chicago Pneumatic Milling Machine 33686 30" by 60" steeltable stand with lots of tooling runs great $850 or best offer CALL or TEXT LANCE:
eugene.craigslist.org
 
matthewsx said:
You can make it work but if you're patient you can get the same machine used for ~$600.

Remember, it's a hobby. You've done the right thing by coming here and asking, patience is your best friend here as there are many more machines out there than people using them. My shop is also pretty tight but I just opened up 10' of wall space by moving stuff that hadn't been touched in years. If we don't have permission to do what we want in the garage what do we have?

Btw, I see you're in Connecticut. There should be lots of used equipment available there....

Cheers,

John
Click to expand...
I've been looking at used for a while now. Most are 3 ph Bridgeports and other industrial machines. When ever I see a small mill drill the price is almost as high as new. For me it has to be something that can drill because the only available spot is where my drill press is now.
 
epanzella said:
I've been looking at used for a while now. Most are 3 ph Bridgeports and other industrial machines. When ever I see a small mill drill the price is almost as high as new. For me it has to be something that can drill because the only available spot is where my drill press is now.
Click to expand...

Well, you can drill one heck of a hole with a Bridgeport....

But I get what you're saying. I struggled with space issues in my shop (garage) since I downsized from 4800sqft of commercial shop five years ago. I just recently improved the situation a little by putting some stuff into storage, not ideal but I can rationalize that space at my home is premium for my hobby and it works with a longer term plan to get rid of that stuff.

As for the machine yes it will drill holes, probably better than your drill press. But I suspect you'll find that it's not really a replacement for a drill press in the long run. Sure, you probably almost never have to drill into the end of something two feet long but when you do you'll want the drill press back. I actually ran into the same issue with my old Gorton mill, once I put a drill chuck into it I usually couldn't fit the part I wanted to work on so ended up back at the drill press anyway.

Ultimately what works for you will depend on your projects and skill more than your space and the machine. That's what we do as hobby machinists, solve problems. If you have the money and can wait the 5 to 17 weeks for delivery I'm sure the RF30 clone you're looking at will be fine. I assume you'll get the R8 spindle so lots of tooling available relatively cheap. Get a good vise and make some chips....

Cheers,

John
 
Agree with John, unless your drill press is tiny I would try to keep him
Also, there's a reason they call it "Horror Fright" LOL ;) the quality can be iffy
Mark
 
I agree on buying a used round column. The HF one is the ones that other vendors passed on such as Grizzly ect. If the used ones are a Taiwan machine it’s better machine. IHMO I’d try to fit a Bridgeport in if at all possible. The smaller ones with the 42” table will not take up an bigger space than the round column mill drills. I seen a BP clone of that size at an auction last year and it really wasn’t much larger than a floor drill press.

You can work around the 3 phase. I use a Phase A Matic static one on my Lagun. That way I didn’t have to rewire my mill up.


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