Posted: 3/7/2014 11:48:06 AM EDT
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I’m done dinking around with my Harbor Freight bench top 3-in-1 combo machine. Looking to get a more serious milling machine…something between these hobbyist bench top models and an industrial sized Bridgeport knee mill. Something that runs off residential power (110/220 1-ph), weighs 600-1200 lbs, and would disassemble so I could move it piece by piece into my basement workshop. I don't have a very big workshop.
There doesn’t seem to be much out there, but something like a Grizzly G3102 probably fits the bill best out all I seen so far. Looking to spend around $3000 initially and would like to get as solid, accurate mill as I can. Figure I could add extra stuff later (power feed, DRO…maybe even CNC). Anyone been in my shoes before and have some wisdom to share. |
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I am eying the Grizzly G0762
http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0762 I wanted the extra table travel without going to a fullsize machine. It is a new model and I am holding off till I see some reviews of it. |
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Quoted:
I am eying the Grizzly G0762 http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0762 I wanted the extra table travel without going to a fullsize machine. It is a new model and I am holding off till I see some reviews of it. I saw that one too, but wasn't sure if the VFD to run off 3-ph was worth the extra cost and complexity. |
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Quoted:
I saw that one too, but wasn't sure if the VFD to run off 3-ph was worth the extra cost and complexity. Quoted:
Quoted:
I am eying the Grizzly G0762 http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0762 I wanted the extra table travel without going to a fullsize machine. It is a new model and I am holding off till I see some reviews of it. I saw that one too, but wasn't sure if the VFD to run off 3-ph was worth the extra cost and complexity. I can answer that. It is another reason I chose that one. It does use a 3ph spindle motor but uses the VFD to convert 1ph to 3ph. Common practice to do this plus you get a much better motor that is fan cooled. I was doing this with 3ph motors over a decade ago and don't understand why other milling machines don't take advantage of it. A VFD is not a reason to shy away from a machine. It doesn't really add to the complexity of the machine. It is transparent to the user. I just noticed it uses a Toshiba VFD which is a good drive. |
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The Clausing would be nice, but if I ever found one up for sale, at a good price and local ....would be like hitting the powerball jackpot. Ended up pulling the trigger on a Harbor Freight 40939
It's a 6x26 bench knee mill. It's looks to be about the biggest mill I'll find that can be disassembled and hauled into my basement. When researching I found a few different sellers with pretty much the exact same mill: Harbor Freight Grizzly Penn Tool Wholesale Tool ect.... I highly, highly suspect they are all made in the same chinese factory and they just slap a different coat of paint and name badge specific to the customer. No one could touch Harbor Freight on the price (plus use of 20% coupon). I actually point blank asked the guy at Penn how their machine is different from the HF...he denied knowing anything about HF. |
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Quoted:
The Clausing would be nice, but if I ever found one up for sale, at a good price and local ....would be like hitting the powerball jackpot. Ended up pulling the trigger on a Harbor Freight 40939 It's a 6x26 bench knee mill. It's looks to be about the biggest mill I'll find that can be disassembled and hauled into my basement. When researching I found a few different sellers with pretty much the exact same mill: Harbor Freight Grizzly Penn Tool Wholesale Tool ect.... I highly, highly suspect they are all made in the same chinese factory and they just slap a different coat of paint and name badge specific to the customer. No one could touch Harbor Freight on the price (plus use of 20% coupon). I actually point blank asked the guy at Penn how their machine is different from the HF...he denied knowing anything about HF. I'm pretty sure they're all made by Sieg. |