Which of these mills would you buy?

Is there a reason the 8×30 knee mills did not make your cut ? I have one and its great.
The 6×26 mills have a restricted space between the nose and the bed, and people often make a 4"-6" riser between column and head to address this issue. The 8×30 does not have this problem.
Most of my projects would be smaller to start with....I am thinking. But I'm sure as soon as I would get a smaller one something would come along where I would be kicking myself for not getting the bigger one. I wish there would be something that was closer to me so I could see it in person. Looking ,maybe something will turn up. With the government looking to outlaw 80% lowers I'm sure that is impacting the market.
 
I've got a 9 X 49 BP clone and find that I often use almost all the Z axis it has. And I rarely work on anything of size. I'm glad I don't have a bench mill because of the Z travel limitations on most. With the table travels locked it is quite ridged. 3 HP on the spindle means no shortage of power. I really like having the variable speed rather than belt change. Makes it easy to run the tooling at about the correct speed rather than the fooling around with belts. A vote for bigger.
 
Checked out the PM website and they look good. I have to browse around on their site some more. Why would the knee mill type be better. It seeme the others have similar capabilities. Knee mill table setup =more stability?

Largely personal preference. I've seen some good argument that the bench mill style can be more rigid, but a lot of people like having a knee. My only prior experience was with a mini-mill (Sherline). It took a little getting used to but I have found I like using the knee to bring the work up, rather than bringing the head down. You do pay for it, either of the mills you listed or the 3 PM mills I suggested give you a lot more mill for the same money, or less money in the case of the 728.

Mitch has a good point on the spindle to table on the G0729. I have a 4" riser on my Clausing, which gives me 15-5/8" spindle to table, vs 12-1/2". For small projects that won't be an issue, but that space goes pretty quick when you get a vise and tooling in there, even more so if you are using a rotary table, spin indexer or dividing head on the table.
 
Checked out the PM website and they look good. I have to browse around on their site some more. Why would the knee mill type be better. It seemed the others have similar capabilities. Knee mill table setup =more stability?

With the notion:: "The quill is for drilling and the knee is for milling" I get better bored finishes in my mill by raising the knee than by dropping the quill into the feature. This is do to geometry--the quill has roughly 3" diameter part moving up and down. The G0730 knee has a ~12" tall by ~11" wide set of ways, saddle and gib which is roughly 4× by 3× larger for a massively bigger moment of inertia (a measure of stiffness). It is much easier controlled because it weighs so much more (hint no back-play in the knee whereas there is in the other axis.

I use the knee a lot, I use the quill only for drilling (or light cuts).
 
Hi Grover- I'm guessing you've had your fill of cnc and just want to do manual machining for a while?
Have you looked at the Precision Mathews line of machines?
There are a lot of older cncs available though if you have room.
-Mark
Well I finally decided I better settle on something as this decision process is taking over my life. So I decided on the Grizzly G0761 as it would be good enough for all I will have to do. I went to their website to order and WTF? I last looked at the mill on Thursday ,now on Friday the price increased by $450! Called them and they said tough luck. I know.....that's life.
So I went the PM site and took a hard look at all their offerings. I previously had the notion that they were just overpriced but considering that Grizzly upped their prices and PM didn't PM's seemed like a deal for what they were offering!
I decided on the PM832 with everything but the DRO. That was Friday after they closed for the day. I ordered on the website as I thought they might follow suit and raise their prices on Monday. I was still torn between the PM833T, the PM832 and the PM940 with the hardened table and ways. I liked the hardened ways on the PM940. I liked the one shot oiler on the PM833T, but the PM832 was really all I needed and it would be easier to have delivered than the PM940, and I wanted to get the price locked in.

I figured if the price didn't go up on Monday I could probably change the order seeing as all the machines I was interested in were on back order anyway.As they they say I did a deep dive on all of the information available on you tube, forums ect.over the weekend!

On Monday I looked and their prices did not go up. I called them and they allowed me to change my order to the PM940M-PDF-Hardened Ways and 3 Axis DRO. It is not that much harder to move than the PM832. I really like the hardened way option. After researching the DRO option I figured I needed that for sure and $700 more was not that bad to have them install and add that to the 3 year warranty.

Grizzly's G0755 is now $4300 which is basically a PM 832. No PDF, no hardened ways, no DRO. I am getting the next size larger PM mill with the hardened ways, PDF, and DRO installed for $700 more ($4999). A very good deal! I feel that just the upgrades over the G0755 without the DRO is worth $700 so I'm getting the DRO for free(almost). It won't be here till fall probably. It will take me that long to clean out my garage. Then relax and go fishing while I wait for my new toy.

Thanks for all the help making this decision!!
 
You'll pat yourself on the back, once you're up and running.
 
I just looked t the specs, good range of movement. At half the weight of a knee mill & in two pieces, much easier to move. Also a lot cheaper than a knee mill. Do You give up being able to tilt the head? I have used that for horizontal boring. Fall is a long way away!
 
I just looked t the specs, good range of movement. At half the weight of a knee mill & in two pieces, much easier to move. Also a lot cheaper than a knee mill. Do You give up being able to tilt the head? I have used that for horizontal boring. Fall is a long way away!
Head tilts 90*left/90*right I believe.......Head Swivel: Side To Side, 90 Degrees (from machine description)

Actually if I had the machine here right now I would be tripping over it. I am in the process of thinning out/transferring possessions and moving to my property in Northern Wisconsin for retirement. I am already retired. Lots to do at this point. But no reason to rush.
 
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This is a good hobby to have living in northern Wisconsin.
 
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