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AR15.COM
10/31/2009 9:06:58 PM EDT
anyone have a source (besides ebay, i checked) for decent used mini/benchtop mills?
10/31/2009 9:14:06 PM EDT
[#1]
Grizzly.

Not sure what you want to do with it but they come in many sizes.

Had a Sherline....way too small and weak.

Had the largest Grizzly....that worked pretty good.

None are close to what a Bridgeport can do.

ETA: Used? No sources here. Sorry
10/31/2009 9:18:45 PM EDT
[#2]
This is the BEST mini mill out there on the cheap.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40939
10/31/2009 9:24:22 PM EDT
[#3]



Quoted:


Grizzly.



Not sure what you want to do with it but they come in many sizes.



Had a Sherline....way too small and weak.



Had the largest Grizzly....that worked pretty good.



None are close to what a Bridgeport can do.



ETA: Used? No sources here. Sorry

only somethin for smallish projects.  brackets, 80% recevers, etc, etc.



like this:

http://www.micromark.com/MICROLUX-BENCHTOP-MINI-MILLING-MACHINE-ALL-INCH-MINI-MILL,8102.html?sc=WGB&utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=GoogleBase





 
10/31/2009 9:24:44 PM EDT
[#4]
If you have a local harbor freight, you have some advantages in buying there.



One, if it doesn't work it's an easy return for exchange.

If it quits within 30 days, easy exchange.

You can buy a cheap extended warranty, which means replacement if it quits.



Grizzly would be my second choice.



All depends on what you want to do with it I suppose.
10/31/2009 9:25:40 PM EDT
[#5]
I had a harbor freight 3 in 1 machine. Chinese junk.
10/31/2009 9:27:33 PM EDT
[#6]



Quoted:


If you have a local harbor freight, you have some advantages in buying there.



One, if it doesn't work it's an easy return for exchange.

If it quits within 30 days, easy exchange.

You can buy a cheap extended warranty, which means replacement if it quits.



Grizzly would be my second choice.



All depends on what you want to do with it I suppose.


post above yours =).  i like building things but im not gonna cnc my own heads or anythng




 
10/31/2009 9:29:12 PM EDT
[#7]
This is the big Grizzly I had.

Benchtop

10/31/2009 9:29:31 PM EDT
[#8]



Quoted:


I had a harbor freight 3 in 1 machine. Chinese junk.


yea, well you also bult the cheapest gun ever






theres a few decent reviews of the HF mini mill but they dont offer the ability to change angles.



 
10/31/2009 9:35:32 PM EDT
[#9]
Quoted:

Quoted:
Grizzly.

Not sure what you want to do with it but they come in many sizes.

Had a Sherline....way too small and weak.

Had the largest Grizzly....that worked pretty good.

None are close to what a Bridgeport can do.

ETA: Used? No sources here. Sorry
only somethin for smallish projects.  brackets, 80% recevers, etc, etc.

like this:
http://www.micromark.com/MICROLUX-BENCHTOP-MINI-MILLING-MACHINE-ALL-INCH-MINI-MILL,8102.html?sc=WGB&utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=GoogleBase

 


That should be fine, using light cuts.


10/31/2009 9:37:03 PM EDT
[#10]



Quoted:





Quoted:

I had a harbor freight 3 in 1 machine. Chinese junk.


yea, well you also bult the cheapest gun ever






theres a few decent reviews of the HF mini mill but they dont offer the ability to change angles.

 


What? that 1911 wasnt cheap, damn parts were spendy.



I didnt (and wouldnt) use a Harbor Freight mill for any gun smithing.  They have too much play in the guides and are only accurate to about .01" which aint very good.  



Just buy an old Bridgeport and call it a day.



 
10/31/2009 9:40:17 PM EDT
[#11]



Quoted:





Quoted:




Quoted:

I had a harbor freight 3 in 1 machine. Chinese junk.


yea, well you also bult the cheapest gun ever






theres a few decent reviews of the HF mini mill but they dont offer the ability to change angles.

 


What? that 1911 wasnt cheap, damn parts were spendy.



I didnt (and wouldnt) use a Harbor Freight mill for any gun smithing.  They have too much play in the guides and are only accurate to about .01" which aint very good.  



Just buy an old Bridgeport and call it a day.

 


know, it was more in the way you built that i was commenting on



 
10/31/2009 9:40:20 PM EDT
[#12]
Quoted:

Just buy an old Bridgeport and call it a day.
 


Honestly, that's the way to go.  Anything less will be a constant pain in the ass.  Leaving you
with that nagging feeling you should have bought more mill.

YMMV


10/31/2009 9:54:35 PM EDT
[#13]



Quoted:



Quoted:



Just buy an old Bridgeport and call it a day.

 




Honestly, that's the way to go.  Anything less will be a constant pain in the ass.  Leaving you

with that nagging feeling you should have bought more mill.



YMMV





BP's are expensive, even used and i dont need a big one





 
10/31/2009 9:15:12 PM EDT
[#14]
Quoted:

BP's are expensive, even used and i dont need a big one

 [/quote]

Lagun's are not bad either. But they are still a fairly large machine (approx 3000#)

The Grizzly above IIRC is a Taiwan built machine,  they also have a China built machine for less money (Not recommended).

I've bought several machines from Grizzly (they have a showroom in town) , I wouldn't touch their Chinese junk, the Taiwan stuff isn't bad.
My band saw has cut over 1/4 million lbs of factory steel bundles (angles,  tubes and flat bar), and is still going strong.
10/31/2009 9:15:22 PM EDT
[#15]
Nothing worse than a piece of shit equipment that won't do the job.
Get a Bridgeport up front and save yourself all the aggravation and " I should haves "....... With size and weight comes stability and accuracy.... even if you are making smaller parts, a proper milling machine is going to make a big difference.
You'll get tired of a toy very quickly.
10/31/2009 9:21:46 PM EDT
[#16]
For bentops check out CNC sites like CNC zone. Those guys do alot of tinkering and have some good ideas. If you are looking at a mini mill, they are often called a x2 and usually price is all that separates them. If you start looking at x3's you might aswell go rf-45.
10/31/2009 10:09:20 PM EDT
[#17]
Have a look here:



http://littlemachineshop.com/
10/31/2009 10:32:41 PM EDT
[#18]
This one is suiting me fine until I can do the work needed to my shop to get a full size Bridgeport

There are definite limitations, but there is ways to get around them,  just takes a lot longer.  

10/31/2009 10:39:19 PM EDT
[#19]
Quoted:

Quoted:
Quoted:

Just buy an old Bridgeport and call it a day.
 


Honestly, that's the way to go.  Anything less will be a constant pain in the ass.  Leaving you
with that nagging feeling you should have bought more mill.

YMMV


BP's are expensive, even used and i dont need a big one

 


Look at used equipment sales.
10/31/2009 11:40:02 PM EDT
[#20]





Quoted:



This one is suiting me fine until I can do the work needed to my shop to get a full size Bridgeport







There are definite limitations, but there is ways to get around them,  just takes a lot longer.  





http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu24/bob243_photo/www/92109010.jpg



grizzly?





btw: http://www.littlemachineshop.com/Info/minimill_compare.php





 
11/1/2009 12:30:03 AM EDT
[#21]
Quoted:

Quoted:
This one is suiting me fine until I can do the work needed to my shop to get a full size Bridgeport

There are definite limitations, but there is ways to get around them,  just takes a lot longer.  

http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu24/bob243_photo/www/92109010.jpg

grizzly?


 


Looks like a grizzly x3. You mentioned angles so if that mill looks good they make a super x3. The next step is RF-45 and knee mills this size and up. To get angles you can also do different setups as long as you have the room/stability on the z.


I only picked grizzly links because i was there but most in this size are all made in china at the same place. Many can be had at HF when on sale and a 10-20% coupon( if they still hand them out) or other places cheaper. There are other small mills but for the price you might as well buy a real mill.

If you buy any mill especially china mills don't just plug it in and expect it to work like it's a drill press. Tear it down clean it and check it then set it up and learn your mill/feed rates/materials.

ETA: You're on the right path re: lms.  
Do some reading here if you are set on a mini mill http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=164
11/1/2009 12:40:59 AM EDT
[#22]







Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:



This one is suiting me fine until I can do the work needed to my shop to get a full size Bridgeport



There are definite limitations, but there is ways to get around them,  just takes a lot longer.  
http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu24/bob243_photo/www/92109010.jpg




grizzly?
 

Looks like a grizzly x3. You mentioned angles so if that mill looks good they make a super x3. The next step is RF-45 and knee mills this size and up. To get angles you can also do different setups as long as you have the room/stability on the z.
I only picked grizzly links because i was there but most in this size are all made in china at the same place. Many can be had at HF when on sale and a 10-20% coupon( if they still hand them out) or other places cheaper. There are other small mills but for the price you might as well buy a real mill.
If you buy any mill especially china mills don't just plug it in and expect it to work like it's a drill press. Tear it down clean it and check it then set it up and learn your mill/feed rates/materials.
ETA: You're on the right path re: lms.  



Do some reading here if you are set on a mini mill http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=164




ive been readng minilathe.com, fignoggle, lms, and others.  there was something i had found about the arbor or something but cant find it again.  no one else has whtever tidbit that one was.



ETA: found it!  "Buy a new drill chuck and arbor (and you will need a new arbor, the
chinese one isn't truely a jt#33 and the new chuck will rock slightly
on it)"





 
11/1/2009 12:50:23 AM EDT
[#23]
Are you talking about some being sold with mt3 and others using r8 or the drill chuck?


ETA: never mind. Buy quality collets and mill holders also. If the run out is good they are ok
11/1/2009 11:58:02 AM EDT
[#24]
more info i found on weapons guild:

If you have the skills, equipment and time you can make any mill hold tenths.  Are you talking one of the baby HF mills or the slightly larger RF/Enco mills?





The slop referenced will be relative to the sliding fit of components and the length of the cut taken.   Think of it like scoring a goal in a hockey rink. The longer the distance to the target, the straighter the shot has to be.  The shorter the shot, the accuracy can dwindle and still hit the goal.  On almost all mills the table slides against a dovetail way held against it by a wedge or "gibb" which slides along maintaining pressure from the other side, both pulling the table against the back dovetail and downward towards the base of the mill.





The first task is to make sure that the bottom side of the table is flat and paralell to the top of the table and then that the top of the saddle (or whatever the table is sliding on) is also flat and paralell.  Once that is correct you move on to the dovetails making sure that they are also paralell.


I should mention that while you are checking these things you will find that they aren't really all that good on import mills.  Not to demean them, it's just a matter of economy.  You get what you pay for.  That's why you get one for a good price and fix it!





The "fix" can be as complicated as you can tolerate it.  By that I mean you can learn to hand or power scrape the metal to it's flattest condition or you can grind/sand/lapp as necessary to even out the high spots.  There are lots of forums dedicated to "scraping" if you want more info.


Here's the underside of a surface grinder table I worked up a year or two ago, It was out of paralell about .012" IIRC:






Re-marked to find the high spots. Only about .006" to go!






Table top when done:










the issue that was brought up was slop in the HF mills' guides causing the most precise cut to be +/-.01



I believe that that claim was over stated by a mill snob.  You can hand file accurately to a couple of thousandths, even a crappy mill will do .003"





The next issue to address is the positioning accuracy.  The slop between the nut on the bottom of the table and the screw that you turn to move the table.  Lots of fellows aren't aware that even the cheap mills have a split on the end of the bronze nut  and a screw that can be tightened over that split to remove slop.  This can only be done a few times before the nut is completely worn out though so make sure you keep that nut oiled!  Accuracy here is only as good as the leadscrew.  Top of the line accuracy would either require an expensive ground screw or a double nutted ballscrew as is used on CNC mills for zero backlash.  We don't need that kind of accuracy for home gunsmithing projects where you are going to dust it witha Dremmel for the final fitting.


Double-nutted ballscrew (no, not the bird  ;D):









Positioning accuracy is easily overcome by using dial indicators to measure distance moved instead of relying on the handle graduations.





-Mike