Yes or no on this milling machine?

Jason280 said:
but price is right with the converter (under $1k).
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I agree. The fact that it actually comes with a rotary converter is a plus that I wouldn't be able to pass by at that price.

Jason280 said:
Question is, am I potentially jumping into a machine that will be too much of a headache?
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That's really only a question each individual can answer for themselves. For me personally I don't have any problems with any of the issues you've mentioned thus far. I personally don't even care about the DRO. I'd buy it even if it didn't have the DRO. If the DRO can be made to work that's just icing on the cake for me. The other two issues you've mentioned with the power feed control and changing head speeds do not concern me at all, I feel that I could deal with both of those issues fairly easily.

So it's really up to what the individual considers to be a headache.

If I was in the market for a mill this size, I wouldn't hesitate. I'd just pick it up straight away,. I've been looking for over a year now for a mill about that size and I find that they are difficult to find for under a grand even with no DRO, no table feed, and certainly no rotary converter.

If I was presented with what you've shown here I'd just grab it before somone else does. But again, that's just me. One man's gold is another man's junk, etc.
 
The DRO and power feed don't really concern me, I am mainly concerned with potential damage in the head. I know when we tried it, it seemed to be on the lowest speed.
 
Is there a reason you think there might be a problem changing speeds?

Edited to add:

It's just a matter of understanding how it works, as described in the video. It's not hard to do once you understand how it works.
 
The current owner initially told me of the speed change issue, and he wasn't able to get the speeds changed via the back gear while I was there. That being said, I'm honestly not sure if he was doing it correctly or not.
 
If you don't have a machine buy it, this machine comes with more than mine did and it comes ready to run
 
I actually have a small Grizzly G0704, but have been looking for a larger Bridgeport style mill. I've only had the Grizzly a couple of months, but have already seen where having a larger mill would be more useful.
 
Jason280 said:
The current owner initially told me of the speed change issue, and he wasn't able to get the speeds changed via the back gear while I was there. That being said, I'm honestly not sure if he was doing it correctly or not.
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I see. It is possible that there could be something broken in the back gear mechanism. Again, even if that were the case it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Absolute worse case scenario is that you might need to make a replacement part or gear for it to repair the back gear functionality.

It would be nice if you could discover the source of the problem before you buy. But I have to say, that at the price you're getting it for even if you had to do without back gears it would probably still be worth it. But I have a hard time imagining that it would be something that couldn't be repaired. That style of machine is pretty basic mechanics.
 
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