need a new mill

B

Bd180

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Hi guys my name is Bill, I`m looking for a replacement for my knee mill and I`m pretty shure I want a Industrial Hobby clone any one know of suppliers other than Charter Oak. Nothing against them just want to caparison shop. Thanks Bill.
 
Well Bill I have the Precision Mathews PM935TV knee mill and I am very happy with it. Should you have any questions on the PM machines you can Private Message RayC on this board as he is Matt's representative on this site. He is very knowledgeable.

I am sure others will chime in with their brand of choice.

Rick
 
I replaced my G0704 with the Precision Mathews PM 935 TS and I want to do a happy-dance every time I use it. I’d think long and hard about going away from a knee mill. The bench mills w/o a knee can be great, but barring unforeseen circumstances, I’d never go back.

-Ryan
 
I can attest to what Ryan said about going away from a knee mill to a benchtop, I would reconsider that. I work with a knee mill (BP clone) at work and had a 3-in-1 machine at home until a few months ago. I had originally decided to going with the Precision Mathews PM932PDF which is a RF-45 size (benchtop) but couldn't wrap my head around the idea of going not having/using a knee mill. I then ordered the PM935TV, same as Ryan. and I am awaiting shipment at the moment. It is a 2/3 size Bridgeport clone with a full-featured Bridgeport head. It also has 12" of Y-axis travel which is unheard of in this size machine.

Mike.
 
I appreciate the input guys but 5-6 k for a mill is out of my price range. So that leaves me with used Bridgeport/ clone or Charter Oak automation new industrial hobbies clone . Travels are 26x12 x 22 x4.75 for $2500 plus shipping. Some of the used stuff I've been looking at in that price range scares me.
 
Bd180 said:
... or Charter Oak automation new industrial hobbies clone...
Click to expand...

:))

Just a small quibble with that statement. It is not a "industrial hobbies clone".

Industrial Hobbies sold their business, and the new owner renamed it "Charter Oak". It is the same machine that was sold under the Industrial Hobbies label.

Now if you wanted to call it a "Rong Fu 45" clone, that would be accurate, although it has been heavily modified over about a decade with beefed up table and head swivel.

Machine Tool Warehouse in Ontario used to sell one of these, had the gall to call it "Industrial Hobbies Clone" on their website!

Why is Charter Oak/IH the only RF45 machine you are looking at?

Grizzly sells their G0755 for $2250, which is a good deal, as it has both power headstock elevation (which is important on a mill/drill), and x-axis power feed (which is very nice to have). Grizzly does sell a couple cheaper mill/drills, but I think this is the best choice of the bunch. This is the same machine that Precision Matthews sells as the PM-932M for $2200, although it also includes a quill DRO (also very nice to have). I don't think you can go wrong with either the Grizzly or the PM variant.

Another good alternative is Enco. They have had their RF45 machine on sale for $2200 (for about 3 months now), and 20% off coupon sales come along about once a month. Occasionally, their RF45 clone also shows up in their sale flier as "free shipping", and than you slap a 20% off on top of that, and you got a good deal. No power feed or headstock elevation, however.

My vote (since we are on the Precision Matthews forum) would be the PM-932M over the IH. Why? Matt has been in business for a decade, with tons of satisfied customers. Charter Oak is just starting out... hard to tell where they will go, but they are the 4th owner in the past 6 years. Grizzly of course has been selling machine tools since 1983.
 
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Pm932 travels x22" y8" z5" head 17" , Charter oak x26" y12" z4.75 head 22" plus heavier colum and base. Price range under 2500 plus ship. The charter oak machine is not a rf45.
 
Ugly dog I looked at that cincy emailed the guy to find out what type of tooling it uses no answers yet. Thanks for the lead.
 
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