Mini Lathe Millling Attachment - Worth It?

[grepper]

I would love to get a mill, but the $1K cost would have a less than desirable effect on my discretionary income. So, I was looking at milling attachments for the mini lathe from LMS and MicroMark.

I am looking to make small parts and gears, not axel parts for my Jeep or anything like that.

Does anyone have experience and opinions about these? Do they work well? Are they worth it? Would I end up just wishing I had saved the $$ and put it toward a mill?

 

[great white]

I have the milling attachment for my old 10" atlas.

Worth every penny.

Mostly use it for small motorcycle parts.

Limited in what you can make though. It has it's limitations.

But still, worth every penny.

With the caveat of; for the work I do.

 

[royesses]

I have the milling attachment for the mini lathe sold by LMS. It is very limited. I would save the money and get the Harbor Freight mini-mill using a coupon when on sale. I think I paid about $349.00. You can do so much more with the mini mill. I paid $239 for the attachment that I used once.

 

[grepper]

Interesting; conflicting opinions. Both however seem to agree that the attachment is quite limited in its capabilities.

 

[Franko]

I agree with Royesses. I have a HF mini mill and it is a nice little machine for what it does. Plus, it has the advantage of having a real x-y table with slots. There are several useful upgrades for it as you can afford to upgrade.

 

[grepper]

Franko, or anybody else that has one: Out of the box, is the HF mill useful enough to be actually useful, or am I going to have immediately drop another $400 in upgrades in it to get it to work well?

Thanks for the assistance. I realize that with hours of searching around, watching YouTube and reading reviews I could more or less answer that question myself, but it’s really nice just to be able to ask someone who has one!

 

[pebbleworm]

I like my HF mini mill. It needed a good going over when I got it, but that was really just a good way to get to know the machine. I just deburred what had burrs and filled the bottom of the column with some boat hull epoxy because from reading it seemed like a good idea. It has worked fine for me, and with a sale and a 20% off coupon it was less than $500.00 US delivered. Once you use it a bit the Z-axis glitches show up but I have decided a simple counterweight will solve a big chunk of those. It is an excellent drill press and for me, a good mill. I am pleased with it.

I have a milling attachment for my 6" Craftsman lathe and keep thinking I should sell it to help finance other tooling but I keep finding uses for it- holding awkward parts, boring bars, some short milling jobs and who knows what will come next. It's a handy gadget and I will keep it.

 

[Franko]

My HF mini mill worked fine right out of the crate. I added a pneumatic counter spring but the stock setup worked ok. I also put a LMS belt drive on it because it is quieter, but the stock one worked fine.

 

[great white]

to add to my comment: if i could buy a mini mill for 250-300 bucks, I would. Nothing under about a grand (new or used) around these parts so the milling attachment on my lathe works well enough for the jobs i do (paid just over 100 bucks for it).

I agree it definitely is limited in capability, but I can still get what i need done.

You won't be turning out any quality brackets or facing pieces on it though.

You'll also need collet system of some sort for your lathe and an assortment of cutters to fit, so its not just the milling attachment you need to buy....

 

[grepper]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll probably get the HF. There is a HF store 30 minutes from where I live.

great white - I like your sig. I got a chuckle from it.