Posted: 8/17/2009 6:28:44 PM EDT
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been looking at getting a small mill for a while, looking mostly at the sherline mills...they seem to have a good reputation and would be capable of doing everything i would need it to do, features, price range, etc. they sell a metric and an standard version, this is where i have no real idea where to go. Would appreciate any input on both the sherline mills and the metric/standard issue. http://www.sherline.com/packages.htm i am looking at the 5400A package seen a little past half way down the page. |
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Quoted: Id say buy the inch versioin. and I'd say be really really really certain that you want a tiny, wimpy, flexible mill.... bought a benchtop, ran one project, sold it immediately. Repaced with a bridgeport, then augmented with a Fadal....... what are we talking about price wise for something like you ended up with? This is strictly for playtime and such, it won't be doing a ton of work. |
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You have some reading to do:
www.roderuscustom.tzo.com then go to www.littlemachineshop.com What sort of projects are you into? Small ones? Hobby? - if so, do NOT buy a Bridgeport industrial-grade mill; that would be akin to taking a howitzer to kill a moskito. There are far too many career machinists & snobs who insist "Bridgeport or NOTHING!" and who have never tried anything smaller. |
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That is what I use. Works for handguns and AR receivers; ie I added a side-charging handle to a DPMS upper using such a mill. Those mills are featured at the the sites I posted.
Quoted:
Never owned a Sherline but from what I see they are just too small to do much of anything bigger than model trains and such. I got one of those Harbor Freight mini mills and that's about the bare minimum I'd care to use for basic pistol work. |
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Quoted: You have some reading to do: www.roderuscustom.tzo.com then go to www.littlemachineshop.com What sort of projects are you into? Small ones? Hobby? - if so, do NOT buy a Bridgeport industrial-grade mill; that would be akin to taking a howitzer to kill a moskito. There are far too many career machinists & snobs who insist "Bridgeport or NOTHING!" and who have never tried anything smaller. awesome links bud, this is the kind of stuff i needed to know. The absolutely largest thing I would be doing would be an AR receiver, mostly stuff that is much smaller than that. |
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I own a shop fox 36 inch lathe and mill combo. I purchased it because of very tight space requirements (must fit under the stairs to attic).
It is a conventional lathe with a mini mill on top, right in the middle. The mini mill is slightly better than useless. It is flexible and vibrates with tooling such as fly cutters and larger end mills. It is damn near impossible to do any steel part of any sort or size. Aluminum is better. There is a big plus to this particular machine. It has power feeds for the lathe and they can be used on the mill. Kinda nice. I could use it to flute a barrel because of the long lathe ways give the mill table good travel. However the mill table is tiny. Uggg. I am not unhappy because it does fit in the triangle shaped space under the stairs. Something a large Smithy or Grizzly won't do. Plus, it was the lathe I really needed. If I spent a day and made some braces for it, the vibration might be reduced and the capabilities increased. 
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