New Mill Score

[mjs128]

My wife doesn't get why I am so excited so I'll share here. I was just about to pull the trigger and get a Harbor Freight mini-mill and all the required accessories to make the machine useful and at the 11th hour I found a Clausing 8520 mill in great shape, including a Clausing clamp, a rotary table, all the collets, 2 newer Jacobs chucks and some small tooling all for $400. Best part is this thing was 25 minutes from my house so no shipping or freight!

The mill is a few inches to tall to fit in the corner I had cleared out so I need to make a shorter base and even found a guy to buy the original base for $100. I don't care who you are, that's a deal in my book!

Time to learn how to use this thing.

 

[shamrock12]

You'll need to post a picture or else this didn't happen at all

 

[justanengineer]

Those are pretty nice lil machines and DEFINITELY a mile better than the Chinesium machines, my brother's got one. Maybe bc of the size but I'm always tempted whenever I see one of those, an Elgin, or a Hardinge cheap. I usually see the Clausings either ~$500 or $2k depending on the seller's motivation, either not too much or a ****** fortune.

 

[vhol5]

You ****!!!!!!!

 

[HanShotFirst]

OMG that's a fantastic deal!!!! The 8520 is a magnificent little mill and they typically go for around 2k. A friend of mine has one and they're just beautiful. I have the competition to the 8520, a Rockwell 21-100. The two are roughly the same size, extremely similar but I have to say, I think the Clausing is a slightly nicer mill than my little Rockwell...and I just LOVE my lil Rockwell!!!

Every 8520 I've seen has been 3 phase but you can either run a converter or switch it over to a treadmill motor. I'd personally go with the phase converter, that's what my buddy did with his and it all runs perfectly.

IIRC the "correct" mill vise was a Palmgren 3" that was included with your mill from the factory.

Congratulations, and you probably get the biggest "you ****" of the year!!!

 

[Warrenator]

Yeah, you ****.... I have been looking for one on and off and never seen one under $1000. (SoCal.)

 

[Adam.C]

Next purchase should be a good surface plate and preferably a big one. Then yoga arms, a spindle model and a mag base. And you'll need a good DTI 0-30-0 and a tenths indicator 0-5-0. Master squares after that. Beware of Shars!

 

[Trey T]

need some photos

 

[mjs128]

I'm traveling for work but here is a pic from the original sale post.

 

[Ironhorse74]

You ****!!! Those are great little mills. What part of the country?

Brad

 

[Daveco]

Those little Clausing mills are probably the most useful "non full size" mills that are realistically available. You got a totally no regrets good deal!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Maui]

I attended a local auction where the shop had that exact same mill. I believe it sold for $2,200. For that price you could buy a full size used Bridgeport, so I didn't really see the point. But they do sell for a lot of money. You got a great deal if it's in good working order. Did you run it before buying it?

Maui

 

[sometoyotaguy]

Very nice! I hope you're able to get it set up, and some use out of it.

 

[kazlx]

I attended a local auction where the shop had that exact same mill. I believe it sold for $2,200. For that price you could buy a full size used Bridgeport, so I didn't really see the point. But they do sell for a lot of money. You got a great deal if it's in good working order. Did you run it before buying it?

Maui

They sell for a lot of money because people want the capabilities of a mill, without the size requirements of a BP. They are pretty decent little machines, run on 110V usually and don't take up much room. Very popular with home shop guys.

 

[zkling]

I wouldn't get rid of the factory base. It works very well for the machine. They are a nice machine if used within their designed capabilities.

 

[Packard V8]

They sell for a lot of money because people want the capabilities of a mill, without the size requirements of a BP. They are pretty decent little machines, run on 110V usually and don't take up much room. Very popular with home shop guys.

I'd agree with the above.

$400, with all the tooling, was a steal deal. $2200 was more than twice what I'd pay for a Clausing. I got mine for $900 and it's an easy conversion to a single phase motor, but a VFD or treadmill conversion would be best.

jack vines

 

[HanShotFirst]

I'd agree with the above.

$400, with all the tooling, was a steal deal. $2200 was more than twice what I'd pay for a Clausing. I got mine for $900 and it's an easy conversion to a single phase motor, but a VFD or treadmill conversion would be best.

jack vines

I'd take every Clausing I found for $900.00, I've never seen one anywhere near that cheap; maybe it's just where I live, but I see you're in the west also, so I don't know. I paid $1,200.00 for my Rockwell and have already passed up $2,100.00 for it. I've seen the small Clausings and Rockwells going for over 2k a lot but it's mucho rare to see them under the 2k mark. I felt like I got awfully lucky on my Rockwell and I grinned all the way home and I'm still grinning.

Yeah the smaller mills are VERY nice when footprint is a concern. Birdgeport and Bridgeport copies are everywhere which is why you can get them so cheap all the time. The smaller mills even though less capable are more of a hole in the market and as such can command a greater price.

 

[HanShotFirst]

Beware of Shars!

The China/Taiwan stuff can be good, and it can be junk. I've bought non-critical stuff from Shars such as collets and I was quite happy. I can't remember if I bought anything else from Shars. I might have bought a set of 1-2-3 blocks there, I don't mind Chinese 1-2-3's.

Tools4Cheap.net sells a lot of China stuff that's pretty good stuff and he stands behind it. If I were going to buy something made in China, I'd check with him first because he's a vendor I trust. He also has a good selection of Aloris tool posts Aloris accessories.

I'm a very practical kind of guy, I buy what I need; I do this to make money, not go go into debt. So I'll buy something from China if the quality is right, and if it's not something I'm betting the house on. I have a Kennedy chest full of Lufkin & Starrett stuff, but I use some Chinese made things more often than I use my US made stuff. My day in day out dial indicator is the cheapie Harbor Freight model that mic's out exact with my Starretts, and it's even holding up very well.

To be honest, every machinist I know uses the Harbor Freight cheap dial indicators, magnetic indicator bases, parallel bars, and dial calipers. I'm the only guy I know who's using old Lufkin parallels and an old Lufkin dial caliper (just so used to reading a dial). At some point I'll break down and buy a set of the Harbor Freight parallels just so I can have a set of thin parallels.

I stick with Starrett on the micrometers though, I'm not up to trusting China on that yet. I don't know any machinists who use Chinese micrometers, it's Starrett or Mitoyo everywhere I look.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

You got a great mill for a great price. You'll have a lot of fun with it.

 

[HanShotFirst]

Oh and a note on Starrett; the new stuff often comes from China. So know the COO when you think about buying a Starrett; just doesn't make sense to pay the Starrett premium if it's coming from China...regardless of how good it actually is. Brown & Sharpe (as far as I know) are all still made in the US. And Mitutoyo is absolutely top notch quality also, but made in Japan.

 

[mjs128]

My mill was originally 3 phase but is now set up with a 1/2 HP 110 delta motor, should be fine for the small stuff I do but nice to know I can easily upgrade if my projects grow. The base is too tall for my space (remember footprint is why I went small mill) but not a biggie, I'll make a nice one for it. All in all the mill runs fantastic with just about zero run out. All it really needs is a good cleaning and a tramming since I had the head off and I am ready to make chips.

Just an FYI the seller also has a grinder and a really nice lathe he is looking to unload at equally great prices. Located in the Chicago area

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/machines-for-sale.37401/