Drill Press To Mill/Drill???

[Renegade1LI]

I currently have a Grizzly G7948 drill press, which does the job with a table & fence I can drill fairly accurate holes. Being pressed for space I'm thinking of getting rid of it & getting something like a Grizzly G0759 mill/drill, so I can use it to drill & do some machining. I am not a machinist but just got a lathe & figured a mill would be a good fit, seems like the two go together. The price seems ok, it does come with a 3 axis DRO, but would be nice to have a power feed as well. I'm in no rush so looking to hear some advice & opinions, is it worth it or just get a dedicated mill? I really don't think I will be doing any serious machining jobs, more like parts fab & repair type stuff.

 

[lis2323]

If you get a mill drill do NOT get rid of the DP.

WAY quicker for drilling normal fab work 90% of the time.


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[darkzero]

I agree. I have a mill/drill but I still kept my little Craftsman 8" benchtop DP around. So much quicker to use.

Right before the pandemic hit I "upgraded" to a 12" benchtop DP & gave the 8" to my brother. Once we were on lockdown I spent the time to "rebuild" it. I don't have much room either & is why I went with a benchtop DP, I put it away when not needed. Even with having to pull the DP out from it storage spot it's still quicker to use than the mill/drill.

 

[larry_g]

If I had a choice of only one then the MD would be it. I have two mills and 4 drill presses of different sizes. 90% of my hole making is on the mill or the lathe. The drill press is a lot of the wood drilling.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Renegade1LI]

I'm starting to think I should keep the dp & just add the mill, I really hate getting rid of tools.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Does anyone have a grizzly or precision Matthew’s mill? I’m kinda leaning towards new, i don’t know enough about them to buy and rebuild an old one, if i has more free time maybe. A few old bridgeports around here looked pretty beat up and they wanted to $$$. I bought a grizzly G4003G lathe and it’s more than good enough for me do any recommendations for a mill?

 

[lis2323]

I'm starting to think I should keep the dp & just add the mill, I really hate getting rid of tools.

Get rid of the DP and you will DREAD having to drill holes if you want to rely on the mill.


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[Renegade1LI]

Get rid of the DP and you will DREAD having to drill holes if you want to rely on the mill.


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I'm thinking to keep the dp, plus I have it dialed in pretty good, typical griz. Any thoughts on a grizzly mill?

 

[lis2323]

I'm thinking to keep the dp, plus I have it dialed in pretty good, typical griz. Any thoughts on a grizzly mill?

I realize you had already decided to keep the DP. I was just agreeing with your decision. [emoji1]


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[Indexmill]

Huh, I am surprised by the answers.

I have both a mill and a DP. I am quite happy to use the mill to drill. I made a "table" to go in the vise that is just a 12x12x1/2" aluminum plate bolted to a piece of 3x1 aluminum bar. Just clamp it in the vise and there's the drill press. The front edge was cut so it is square to the machine which makes lining **** up a breeze. Easy to tilt it in the vise for angles. Easy to use c-clamps to hold work to it; or not. Seems to work fine for me.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Huh, I am surprised by the answers.

I have both a mill and a DP. I am quite happy to use the mill to drill. I made a "table" to go in the vise that is just a 12x12x1/2" aluminum plate bolted to a piece of 3x1 aluminum bar. Just clamp it in the vise and there's the drill press. The front edge was cut so it is square to the machine which makes lining **** up a breeze. Easy to tilt it in the vise for angles. Easy to use c-clamps to hold work to it; or not. Seems to work fine for me.

That’s why i was looking for advise/suggestions, I’ve never used a mill before, but i don’t disagree with keeping the dp, just tight on space. Just want a decent machine to learn on, make broken parts with, not looking to do big jobs with it. Going with a new is preferred, this way i can get right down to using it.

 

[ez-duzit]

I would never give up my drill press(s). Nor would I trade my knee mill for mill/drill. And Grizzly would not be my first choice. Get a real mill. Don't be in such a hurry to buy something you know nothing about. Learn enough about mills so you will know when a decent used one comes along.

 

[marinusdees]

You can add power feed to the mill. Or, you can buy a mill with power feed. Your choice. That being said, I added power table feed to my Chi-com mill. Best thing I ever did.

 

[Renegade1LI]

You can add power feed to the mill. Or, you can buy a mill with power feed. Your choice. That being said, I added power table feed to my Chi-com mill. Best thing I ever did.

Seems like power feed and dro are nice to have, I’ve been looking at precision Mathews at least their Taiwan. The griz is a little cheaper, but made in China.

 

[matt_i]

Take a look at the G0755, the head is attached to a Z-way like a bed mill.

Much better choice imo to keep the head or the knee on a dovetailed way or even linear rails.

Also my belief is if you need a power feed on a knee mill you probably need a CNC machine. The DRO is the most powerful addition to a manual tool because it eliminates errors from the table positioning from wear and not accounting for lost motion correctly, and its a heck of a lot easier to be able to zero anywhere via a button and switch inch/mm systems via another button press.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Take a look at the G0755, the head is attached to a Z-way like a bed mill.

Much better choice imo to keep the head or the knee on a dovetailed way or even linear rails.

Thanks! I will take a look

 

[Gunfixr]

If you have a fairly steady hand, some practice will make power feed unnecessary. A dro is nice, not required.
I'd keep the dp. I have both, for somewhat "sloppy" jobs, the dp is quicker, easier.

 

[lis2323]

I would never give up my drill press(s). Nor would I trade my knee mill for mill/drill. And Grizzly would not be my first choice. Get a real mill. Don't be in such a hurry to buy something you know nothing about. Learn enough about mills so you will know when a decent used one comes along.

Agreed. Good advice.

I have a mill drill and knee mill. I wouldn’t think twice about selling the mill drill.

DP’ s on the other hand are the daily drivers in my hobby shop as I am NOT a machinist. [emoji4]




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[theoldwizard1]

The problem with mill/drills or tilting mills is tramming them. Once you move it, you start all over again. DRO are useless if you have not trammed the spindle and table and readjusted the zero.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Agreed. Good advice.

I have a mill drill and knee mill. I wouldn’t think twice about selling the mill drill.

DP’ s on the other hand are the daily drivers in my hobby shop as I am NOT a machinist. [emoji4]




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Very impressive, For a hobby shop ! Looks like you have everything layed out nice and have lots of room.

 

[gnpenning]

Agreed. Good advice.

I have a mill drill and knee mill. I wouldn’t think twice about selling the mill drill.

DP’ s on the other hand are the daily drivers in my hobby shop as I am NOT a machinist. [emoji4]




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Like the table adjust on the standing drill press.

 

[ez-duzit]

3--neat shop.

 

[GeoBruin]

I have the G0759 and I'm curious about what could possibly make drilling any easier? It's literally a drill press except you can lower the head on the column instead of raise the table if you need more/less room. Also, if you want to drill multiple holes at known distances from each other, the ability to use the xy table (and in my case the DRO) is priceless.I do have a nice keyless chuck which certainly helps too.

Is the idea that it's quicker to clamp something to a DP table than to clamp it in in a mill vise? I suppose that could be the case but I also think it saves a lot of time having the vise already square to the table and being able to drill holes and just move the table over to the next position rather than having to pre-measure and mark the holes on the material.

As for its milling capabilities, it is certainly no Bridgeport but understanding its limitations (and mine) it has never failed to deliver what I have asked of it and it has forced me to focus on setup, layout, tool selection, feeds and speeds, etc.

 

[shawhite]

I have the G0759 and I'm curious about what could possibly make drilling any easier? It's literally a drill press except you can lower the head on the column instead of raise the table if you need more/less room. Also, if you want to drill multiple holes at known distances from each other, the ability to use the xy table (and in my case the DRO) is priceless.I do have a nice keyless chuck which certainly helps too.

Is the idea that it's quicker to clamp something to a DP table than to clamp it in in a mill vise? I suppose that could be the case but I also think it saves a lot of time having the vise already square to the table and being able to drill holes and just move the table over to the next position rather than having to pre-measure and mark the holes on the material.

As for its milling capabilities, it is certainly no Bridgeport but understanding its limitations (and mine) it has never failed to deliver what I have asked of it and it has forced me to focus on setup, layout, tool selection, feeds and speeds, etc.

Every time you lower the head or raise the table you should re tram the head to table to remain accurate. This takes time you wouldn’t have to spend if you just centered punched the house when you laid out your design and used used a drill press rather than the milling table.

 

[bwringer]

Very impressive, For a hobby shop ! Looks like you have everything layed out nice and have lots of room.

What is this alien "lots of room" concept? I don't recognize this state of being...

I mean, that looks like there is room for a person to walk. What's up with that?


OMFG, there's a twist tie on the floor. What a depraved slob...

 

[Renegade1LI]

What is this alien "lots of room" concept? I don't recognize this state of being...

I mean, that looks like there is room for a person to walk. What's up with that?


OMFG, there's a twist tie on the floor. What a depraved slob...

The diamond plate is a nice touch!

 

[matt_i]

Every time you lower the head or raise the table you should re tram the head to table to remain accurate. This takes time you wouldn’t have to spend if you just centered punched the house when you laid out your design and used used a drill press rather than the milling table.

Something doesn't compute here.

Tram = make spindle normal (perpendicular) to the table which you do with a machine where the head can tilt and/or nod, an right angle "arm" clamped in the spindle, and a dial indicator mounted at the distal end of the arm.

On a round column machine the actual tram is set by the way the column's bottom mounting flange is scraped into the base.

A more accurate statement would be to re-indicate a known X-Y coordinate to establish where you used to be vs. where you are now, before you started moving the head.

Having spent a lot of years messing with a manual mill, there's something around a 6" distance between a sweet spot for generic milling and generic drilling. So many milling-machine projects involve squaring up some kind of rough stock and then creating a precise hole pattern that matches something else, so you get to do both. Not many projects involve pure milling and if you're pure drilling you can use the DP. If you want just 1 machine I recommend one with 3 dovetailed ways. Machine shop projects are inherently slow due to all of the steps involved, and if you can pick up speed without sacrificing your quality, the payoff is literally every time you use the machine.

 

[lis2323]

OMFG, there's a twist tie on the floor. What a depraved slob...

GJ member is duly embarrassed. Errant janitorial service has been terminated and replaced. [emoji3]


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[mark8040]

Does anyone have a grizzly or precision Matthew’s mill? I’m kinda leaning towards new, i don’t know enough about them to buy and rebuild an old one, if i has more free time maybe. A few old bridgeports around here looked pretty beat up and they wanted to $$$. I bought a grizzly G4003G lathe and it’s more than good enough for me do any recommendations for a mill?

Renegage,
I've had a new Precision Matthews PM 727V for about 8 months now. I've called them a couple of times and found them to be very responsive. Link below...

https://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/pm-727v/




I'm a card-carrying noob when it comes to machining and mills. I picked this one because it was 120V, had a transmission (don't have to move belts to change speeds) and it was variable speed. I also liked that it has about 17" distance between the spindle and the table to handle taller work since I intend to use it for drilling accurately.

I kept my drill press and use it for most of the daily drilling that comes up but I did upgrade to a keyless chuck which I really like.

To be honest, I'm haven't used the mill much yet. I'm still gathering measuring instruments and tooling. I bought it with the DRO already mounted but I didn't like how the cables were much too long and were just bound and zipped-tied to the back of the machine. I cut them to length, put new plugs on and cleaned up the installation.




One of the things I'm still trying to figure out is out the guys who have Youtube channels keep their mills so clean! Obviously there is quite a bit of metal shavings when milling, I was just surprised how much time it takes to clean everything up!

I'm having fun with it and the few things I've whipped out have turned out really well. I've picked up some scrap aluminum to play with and I'm still figuring out speeds and feeds, haven't broken any tooling yet. I'm happy with my decision!

 

[Renegade1LI]

mark8040, I am seeing a lot of good reviews on PM, they don't have packages like grizzly but it's nice to have options.

 

[larry_g]

mark8040, I am seeing a lot of good reviews on PM, they don't have packages like grizzly but it's nice to have options.

What are these "packages" that you are referring to? Are these the additional tooling packages that they put together that go for additional cost? If so then that is not a good reason to go with Grizzly. Most of us when starting out have been starry eyed over these packages of tooling only to find out that they are not of the best quality and are soon replaced with quality tooling. Tooling up a mill easily doubles the cost of getting into the game. Over time you may find that the machine is the the cheap part. Poor quality tooling can easily discourage a newcomer to the hobby so be careful on this part of the venture.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Renegade1LI]

What are these "packages" that you are referring to? Are these the additional tooling packages that they put together that go for additional cost? If so then that is not a good reason to go with Grizzly. Most of us when starting out have been starry eyed over these packages of tooling only to find out that they are not of the best quality and are soon replaced with quality tooling. Tooling up a mill easily doubles the cost of getting into the game. Over time you may find that the machine is the the cheap part. Poor quality tooling can easily discourage a newcomer to the hobby so be careful on this part of the venture.

lg
no neat sig line

Larry, thats why I'm doing my do diligence, getting advice & reading reviews & I'm not in a rush. I definitely understand good tooling & I don't mind spending for better quality, I appreciate the advice!

 

[lis2323]

Just as an example here is a pic of my FREE 1/3HP 1950’s ATLAS table mount DP drilling 5/8” holes in this 1/2” thick sprocket yesterday.

I took my time to secure and align my work. 3 holes in well under two minutes.




I spent a bit of time refurbishing my “free” DP but my point is you don’t necessarily need to spend the big bucks. This is all I used in my farm shop for 40 years and I built a lot of stuff.


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[Renegade1LI]

Just as an example here is a pic of my FREE 1/3HP 1950’s ATLAS table mount DP drilling 5/8” holes in this 1/2” thick sprocket yesterday.

I took my time to secure and align my work. 3 holes in well under two minutes.




I spent a bit of time refurbishing my “free” DP but my point is you don’t necessarily need to spend the big bucks. This is all I used in my farm shop for 40 years and I built a lot of stuff.


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Looks good! nice job & it seems to work well, like I said I'm not in a rush going to wait for a good deal to come around, they always do. Definitely keeping the DP though now I want to find some old iron & restore it, probably same with a mill, I heard of a few shops closing & there may be a nice bridgeport available soon, I'll find room for it if the price & condition is right.

 

[lis2323]

Looks good! nice job & it seems to work well, like I said I'm not in a rush going to wait for a good deal to come around, they always do. Definitely keeping the DP though now I want to find some old iron & restore it, probably same with a mill, I heard of a few shops closing & there may be a nice bridgeport available soon, I'll find room for it if the price & condition is right.

"Not in a rush"

Good position to be in. [emoji106]


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