Local has an Atlas MF Horizontal Mill for sale

[tominboise]

Local ad for an Atlas MF Horizontal Mill. I am looking for a milling machine for home shop purposes and have been looking for a vertical mill. This showed up on Craigslist. Since I am a newby at all this, I don't know if I should consider this or not. My uses are hobby shop type home projects. For instance, I am building a finger brake and need to mill the edge of some 1/4" angle iron for the tooling. Etc, etc.

I read a few threads about these mills and like anything, they seem to be good for a lot of stuff but won't do everything.

Atlas MF Mill

 

[BGHansen]

I'd pass and get a vertical mill for your first mill. In my opinion, the Atlas horizontals can do some really small tasks, but a vertical mill is WAY more versatile. I bought the Atlas MFB pictured below for a specific job. I ended up coming up with a better way to do the task, so it's idle at this point. Also pictured is a small knee mill; Jet JVM-830 (8" x 30" table). These are similar to Clausing 8520, and a Rockwell model. Weigh in at maybe 1000 lbs. I'd look for something more like my Jet; naturally space is a consideration too. Of course, a Bridgeport (I have one of those too) would be better yet!

A lot depends on your projects, but another way to look at it is what machine(s) are currently offered in the marketplace? There aren't many (any?) sellers of currently produced hobby-sized horizontal mills. There are MANY sellers of verticals. That tells me that there isn't much, if any, of a market for a horizontal (though fence-walking here, they do have a place).

Bruce

 

[Aaron_W]

That is actually a pretty good price for that Atlas, they often are asking a lot more. For whatever reason Atlas and Benchmaster mills sell for a premium. You will find other similar size horizontal mills will often sell for less than $1000 because they don't have the name recognition.

Kind of depends on your needs and space available, but pretty much in agreement with Bruce. If you don't have the room for a bigger mill the Atlas might be better than a very small benchtop vertical mill, but with a little more room you could probably find an RF-30/31 round column mill, or something like a Grizzly G0704 or PM25.
The small knee mills like the Clausing and Rockwell mills tend to run $2500+ these days when you can find one, and even the imports like the Enco shown are getting up there in price.

 

[JPMacG]

I think the attraction of the Atlas is that it can be easily moved into a basement workshop. If you can accommodate a Bridgeport or similar then that is definitely the better way to go. The Atlas work envelope is quite small and the machine is light duty. But in general, anything you can do on a vertical you can do on a horizontal You just have to turn your thinking sideways. I rarely use my Atlas with the arbor. I most often use it with an end mill in the spindle, like a vertical on its side. Setup and visibility can be challenging.

 

[tominboise]

My shop is in my garage and I have enough room that I can fit a decent size knee mill like the Clausing 8520 in without too much trouble. I will keep looking for a vertical machine. I appreciate the responses to my questions.

 

[Aaron_W]

My shop is in my garage and I have enough room that I can fit a decent size knee mill like the Clausing 8520 in without too much trouble. I will keep looking for a vertical machine. I appreciate the responses to my questions.

There are far fewer small mills, than small lathes, so it is definitely a case where going bigger may end up saving you money.

I have a Clausing which is a great mill for me, because it is pretty much the biggest mill I could get into my basement. If I had, had more room I could have bought a larger Millrite for about the same money or a decent Bridgeport for about 1/3 more.

 

[JPMacG]

There was a time when I really wanted a Clausing 8520 or 8530. I had a plan for how I would disassemble it and ramp the heavy castings down the basement stairs. I spent several years looking but Clausings are very scarce and sell quickly. I eventually gave up. The Atlas has been good enough for most of my hobby needs, but it is definitely a compromise.