Do “I ****” or did I underestimate what is missing? Grizzly MiniMill

[gba2331]

I went to the last day of an estate sale, hoping that the MiniMill would still be there…and it was! But after listening to other potential buyers discuss what was missing ( and they passed), I wasn’t so sure about purchasing it. It seems to be missing the spindle and a few other parts that hold the tooling, so I made a lowball offer and after some negotiation I got it for $200 - so, do “I ****!” or am I clueless?

 

[rmack898]

Even If you got the mill for free you can’t self ****

 

[Lucid Moments]

Even If you got the mill for free you can’t self ****

Depends on how flexible he is.

 

[signcrafter]

Have you looked to see if the missing parts are available and how much they are?

 

[RivennHewn]

Show us the math.

Add up all the missing parts, plus tax & shipping .

Generally speaking, suckage comes from “cutters and accessories included’

 

[LB-1911]

do “I ****!” or am I clueless?

Newbies......You guys need to learn, NO SELF *****. "You ****'s " can only be handed out by members who deem it necessarily so. Members decide whether you got a good deal or not, and in finding that a good deal was gotten, you will therefore receive numerous YOU **** Awards from many members.

You will now have to redeem yourself, by finding a few more good bargains and presenting pictures to senior members for decision.

Or some horseshit like that.

 

[vavet]

The first rule of suckage is thou must not solicit suckage or engage in same.

 

[Old Man Roger]

He didn’t self ****, he simply requested a ****, nothing we all haven’t done since puberty.

 

[cvairwerks]

Most of the parts still show to be available, but you are going to be dropping a couple hundred bucks on them, depending on what all is missing from the spindle.

 

[Lassen Forge]

If you're claiming self-suckage, then you DO ****, and not in a good way...

Depends on how flexible he is.

Thats the kind of suckage self suckage is....

 

[kyrbz]

It's a Grizzly branded Sieg X3. Parts are alway easily available from Grizzly or Little Machine Shop. At the most it's missing R8 collets and a R8 spindle for a drill chuck, perhaps a draw bar? All easily sourced and relatively inexpensive. A set of 12 R8 collets from Grizzly is $54. I use a R8 quick change collet on mine which is currently $320 with a set of 16 collets. The Sieg mills have skyrocketed in price lately, so that's a screaming hot deal. Obviously it needs a vice as well.

 

[alfadan]

That black thing on top should be a cover for the spindle and drawbar. If its like mine, behind that is where the motor should be. It seems odd someone would take the spindle out and reassemble everything.

 

[rdoty]

I doubt that it is missing the spindle. Look into how mills work - the spindle has a special tapered opening for holding tools in precise position and a long bolt from the top - the drawbar - that screws into the top of the tool holder and locks it in place. There are standard tapers that go by names like R-8, R-3, 5C, etc.

You need to find out what taper your machine has - check the Internet - and then start buying toolholders and tools in that taper. In general, all toolholders in a given size are interchangeable. If your machine is an R-8, for example, any R-8 tooling should fit.

This machine is a Grizzly G6019. It is discontinued, but the closest current model is $1,600. It has an R-8 spindle. To use it as a drill you need a drill chuck with an R-8 taper like Grizzly H8263 - 1/32"-1/2" x R-8 Keyless Drill Chuck with Integral Shank or for a lot less money Grizzly G1432 - Drill Chuck Arbor - R-8/JT6 and a drill chuck of your choice.

Amazon and Ebay are good sources of cheap semi-accurate tooling. Probably as good a place as any to get started.

If the mechanical condition is as good as the cosmetic condition you got a good deal.

Since it sounds like you are new to mills, a book like The Milling Machine for Home Machinists would be a great place to start.

 

[kyrbz]

One thing I would suggest when you start using your mill is it's variable speed. Before turning the mill off, I always drop it down to the slowest speed. If you don't do this, It will make a loud pop when you turn the mill back on. There's a toothed belt that turns the spindle and my thoughts are you are going to increase the life span of the belt by reducing the speed to the slowest setting when turning off. A higher speed start creates the loud pop sound and increases the stress on the teeth of the belt. Just my 2 cents from having one for a long time. I would also highly recommend getting a Spindle Spline Wrench. It will make changing collets much easier

https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4803&category=

 

[kyrbz]

Some reference pics for you


The spindle spline wrench that Little Machine shop sells and the factory hex wrench for loosening the drawbar. The drawbar on my mill had a flange above splines that prevented using the wrench. I had to machine off the flange to make wrench work. They might have changed the drawbars on newer X3's so you don't have to do this




R8 drill chuck




An R8 quick change collet set. In real use I don't see the quick change system being much faster than standard R8 collets. You still have to use 2 wrenches to change collet. Only difference is you don't have to tap and unscrew drawbar to change collets

 

[mike93lx]

Not a lot of places for a group of dudes to get together and talking about self sucking so much. Safe place we have here

 

[alfadan]

Disregard my missing motor comment. Mine is a HF X1 clone.

 

[gba2331]

Thanks for the helpful comments and humor, I’m glad my wife has zero interest in power tools.

 

[laser3kw]

I’m glad my wife has zero interest in power tools.

Ohhhh.... now I see why you came here looking for suckage
BTW - you did good .

 

[gba2331]

Ohhhh.... now I see why you came here looking for suckage

Now THAT’S funny!

 

[HenryAZ]

I have that same machine. One aftermarket add-on I find indispensable is the quill stop (depth stop), sold by Priest Tools. It saves a lot of time from having to move the head up and down the column.