Benchtop Mill

[morrillm06]

I am looking for a small mill for my garage, I don't have a ton of space and I also have access to a full size Bridgeport at work. I have looked at the 1900 dollar unit from harbor freight but I am skeptical. Who else makes a decent small mill for lets say less than 2500

thanks guys

 

[Maui]

Are you interested in something like this?

https://rochester.craigslist.org/tls/5241063912.html

Or are you looking for a vertical mill?

Maui

 

[rsanter]

What size objects do you want to do?
If it was me and I had access to a Bpost at work I think I would look at some of the CNC desktop mills
Would give you good capability both ways

Bob

 

[theoldwizard1]

Check out the web site, LittleMachinShop.com. They sell bench top mills, lathes etc. They admit that there's are similar to the HF ones, but the have spec'd better motors, controllers etc. so they do cost more.

I did some research on these last year and this is what I found

• You can quickly spend a lot on accessories, many of which are mandatory before you make one chip !
• These work well of plastic and aluminum. You can cut steel, but your feed rates must be slow and your tool sizes must be small.

While learning machining can be fun, it will take some time (and failures) before you will be proficient. You might be better of spending your money on machining service done by GJ members.

 

[spongerich]

I have one of the Chinese RF-45 benchtop milling machines. It's OK. Accuracy isn't brilliant but it does have a pretty good work envelope for the amount of room it takes up.

My other vertical mill is a Clausing 8520 knee mill. It's a little like a 1/3 scale Bridgeport and other than the limited space under the spindle, it's superior to the RF-45 in almost every way.

Prices vary a lot and they seem to be going up. I paid $1100 for mine about 18 months ago and it was in good condition and came with a full set of collets. If you can find one, they're great machines. Don't know how far you're willing to drive, but there's one on Buffalo CL now for $1800 - http://buffalo.craigslist.org/tls/5241083993.html

I'd avoid the round column mill-drills. If you need to reposition the head, they're a PITA to re-align. The square column ones don't have that issue and they seem a little more rigid.

Lastly, depending on what sort of work you want to do, small horizontal mills don't take up much space and they're surprisingly versatile and capable. I have one of the little Atlas ones and it'll do more than you'd expect given its small size.

 

[Dave455]

Loads of options out there, but decide if you want vertical of horizontal and go from there!

If you really want to buy new, I'd look at the smaller Eastern european machines rather than the Taiwanese. They seem to be much more capable, and there are a lot more small machines than there used to be!

Personally, I'd go the secondhand route. Not sure what's around in the U.S. but while medium size machines go for good money here in the U.K, you can get smaller stuff for reasonable prices. Centec are pretty much what everybody starts with, but if you hunt around you will find small Marlow's, Harrison's, and even older Austrian made Emco's. The latter are vastly underrated machines in my opinion!