Who made this mill?

[calstar]

I've seen these once in awhile on cl, branded under different importers names, looks pretty decent for a garage/small shop space. Anyone have any info on these? If I remember correctly they were made in Taiwan in the mid to late 70s and early 80s, but thats all I know about them. Any info would be appreciated. The pics are of the same mill, just different lighting conditions with a cell phone camera.

thanks, Brian

 

[lens42]

From the color, it might be Enco. Does it look like original paint? This style mill was/is sold by HF(red), Grizzly(green), Jet(yellow), Enco(gray), etc.

I owned the Grizzly version (G1004 I think). Even though it was Taiwan made and not China, it wasn't finished that well. Main plus was lots of vertical working room. Minuses are no ram, poor sliding surface finishes, and often rattly bearings.

New ones are way overpriced compared to BP copies, but it can be a good deal
At the right price. Still much uch better than a mill-drill bc of the knee.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[george wilson]

Be careful of those. I bought 1 to use in my wife's jewelry business when she rented a shop across town from my own shop. The leadscrews jumped in the bronze nuts if much pressure at all was put on the leadscrew. I discovered the nuts were threaded only about .015" deep. The mill was not worn,either. The nuts were made that way,so the maker could thread them more easily. No parts from Enco. I wasted about $40.00 buying nuts from Grizzly who sells an identical LOOKING mill. They did not fit. I bought some precision Acme threaded rod from MSC(another $80.00,in INCH form,intending to make new nuts for them to run in. I'd have had to also make new dials. But,My wife quit renting the shop,and worked at home again where I already had a complete machine shop.

As I alluded to,the leadscrews were metric,too,leaving several left over thousanths on the dials. Made the table a PITA to move an accurate distance. Normal dials are calibrated in an even .200" per revolution,so you can easily move the table a good distance accurately by counting revolutions.

I ended up selling the blasted thing to someone who had more use for it. It WOULD have been a useful machine had the Chinese not cheated on the nuts. They are prone to make sneaky cut backs like that. It's a toss of the dice. Fortunately,my Taiwan Bridgey clone has been a fine machine,and I haven't bothered to replace it with a real Bridgeport.

 

[12bolts]

I have one of these mills. Although mine is not a Grizzly but a rebranded machine, another member on here, (whose name escapes me atm) gave me an owners manual pdf for a Grizzly G1004/G1008.
Mine performs satisfactorily. Are you looking at buying the mill in the pics?

Cheers Phil

 

[calstar]

. I have one of these mills....Are you looking at buying the mill in the pics? Cheers Phil

Yes, I'm considering it, have an enco mill/drill and am looking to upgrade to a small knee mill soon. My space is limited, a full size BP/clone won't work. Its 100 miles away, haven't talked to the owner yet, I'm not in a rush to find one, if it works out thats fine but if it doesn't thats ok too. This spec sheet look like it applies to your mill? http://cdn0.grizzly.com/specsheets/g1004_ds.pdf Do you ever feel the lowest rpm of 270 is ever an issue(meaning not slow enough)? Asking price is $1100 which seems high to me, like to get it down given the apparent condition, but hard to say until I see it personally.

thanks, Brian

 

[blacksmithden]

That looks like an older version of my mill. Mine was branded Craftx which is sold by Busy Bee here in Canada. They no longer sell the exact model, but mine is a B48 or B048. Chinese made, and sold under many names by the sounds of it. Mine does what I want it to. It's never going to be a high production machine, but it's plenty heavy enough for hobby use.

 

[12bolts]

Hi Brian,
Yep that spec sheet is mine down to a T. Mine is branded Herless but as far as I know thats just an aussie firm that imported asian machinery and put their own name on them.
I havent found the low end speed to be a problem yet but that may just relate to my selected work. I make stuff for myself and mates and the odd paying job, in plastic, ally, bronze/brass, steel & cast iron.
Mine has metric dials, and the quill is MT3. Best thing I ever did was fit DRO's to it The 1 shot oiler works ok but I had to make a new pump for mine, (the old cast housing broke). Mine had a tough upbringing before I got hold of it, and the fine quill feed has a couple of sticky spots on the worm wheel. I have done a bit of work to smooth it out, but its still not the best. The table movement is good and smooth, (they have adjustable gibs) as does the knee. They use a split cast iron nut on the x axis for backlash adjustment, and mine is cracked. I am going to make an acetal replacement one day. You can easilly see the nut from underneath with the help of a torch. Cant help with $ value. I paid $500 for mine about 10 years ago, but that was at a big clearing sale with only 1 other (phone) bidder. I got at least another $1k worth of tooling with it. Just right spot right time. For home use I would recommend it, what sort of work do you have in mind for it? Are you mechanically minded, I am happy to go into more detail on fault finding/checking if you want?

Cheers Phil

 

[12bolts]

Just had a 2nd look at the pics and yours appears to be missing the oiler.

 

[nickmckinney]

I have the Enco 8x30 version of that mill circa 1993 build. I paid about that for mine and it was still basically new. At that price from the pictures if it doesn't come with a boatload of tooling I would pass unless the smaller space factor is a requirement. I have no problems with mine holding a decent tolerance but the 0.125" per revolution does suck on the dials. While I am looking to get a larger 10x54 I will still keep this one, the lighter table is much faster/easier to move the Z around so for small odd jobs it is a faster machine IMHO. I thought all were Taiwan, I would probably pass on a mainland Chinese copy if so. Looking at the pictures I think yours is the smaller version of mine.

 

[blacksmithden]

I have the Enco 8x30 version of that mill circa 1993 build. I paid about that for mine and it was still basically new. At that price from the pictures if it doesn't come with a boatload of tooling I would pass unless the smaller space factor is a requirement. I have no problems with mine holding a decent tolerance but the 0.125" per revolution does suck on the dials. While I am looking to get a larger 10x54 I will still keep this one, the lighter table is much faster/easier to move the Z around so for small odd jobs it is a faster machine IMHO. I thought all were Taiwan, I would probably pass on a mainland Chinese copy if so. Looking at the pictures I think yours is the smaller version of mine.
View attachment 79415

You're right Nick. My mistake...I said Chinese.....mine was made in Taiwan as well.