Mill purchase

[Signal10]

I'm looking for any opinions on purchasing a mill. I'm always fabricating brackets for vehicle equipment installs and sometime have to order vehicle specific brackets on equipment. I think if I was to have a milling machine I could make some of my own brackets and I think it would be a great machine to add to my shop. With that being said I'm going this weekend to look at a Bridgeport Mill and was wondering if anyone has any advice on a mill that would be used on a part time basis. Or any other models I may want to consider.

 

[zkling]

Budget? A Bridgeport is a very common universal use knee type mill. The bridgeport name has become to the machine tool world as Kleenex. It is not the best at a lot of things, but a good compromise for many functions. Realize within the Bridgeport line there are a lot of differences between models. They are probably one of the most supported and recognized machines, but many a machines exist that are far more capable. Condition and tooling is more important than a specific model IMHO.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Keep in mind that tooling for a mill will cost more than the mill itself, easily.

 

[Signal10]

Budget? A Bridgeport is a very common universal use knee type mill. The bridgeport name has become to the machine tool world as Kleenex. It is not the best at a lot of things, but a good compromise for many functions. Realize within the Bridgeport line there are a lot of differences between models. They are probably one of the most supported and recognized machines, but many a machines exist that are far more capable. Condition and tooling is more important than a specific model IMHO.

Budget, I'm really green on this but I was hoping to find something 3500.00 or under. I won't be mass manufacturing parts it will be a here and there kind of thing. But the one thing I've learned through the years when you have a tool you find more ways to use it.

 

[pb57]

I just bought a brand new Acer after doing much research. I used to have a very nice Bridgeport that was a good machine. I talked to a lot of people that had the Acer in their machine shop and liked it better than the Bridgeport. I would not hesitate to be looking for a used Acer as well. I paid 10 grand for mine equipped with a Newell DRO. I have just spent another 1500.00 dollars on a 6" vise, collets, a set of mill cutters, parallels, edge finders, v blocks, 10" Phase 2 Rotary table with adapter plate for chuck and 8" chuck, 3" boring bar and a set of boring bars. You can save some money buy buying Asian made items which I did after doing much research again so I wasn't buying junk.
Any questions let me know. Paul