Milling machine oppinion

[Wagon173]

So after a mishap with my milling attachment I've decided to get a mill with part of my tax return. Even if it did work the way I expected it to, it's just kinda a pain in the butt to set up. Bring on the I told you so's. haha. I'm trying to keep it under 800 bucks. I'd like something that maybe me and one other person can lift at the heaviest and I'd really like to have a power feed on the table though I could live without it. Maybe a decent one that is upgradable? I've been looking at the one on lms but wondering if anybody knows about a bigger and better one on the same budget. Thanks for your help guys!

 

[Tin Falcon]

Unless you stumble on a deal the ones from LMS and micromark are about the best to be had in that price range. is that total expenditure. I expect you already have lathe tooling, drill bits etc.
IHO you need at least a vise a set of end mills and a collet set to hold the end mills rule of thumb easy to spend on tooling what you spend on the mill but you do not NEED it all at once.
the beauty of the ones from lms and micromark is they already have some upgrades like 500watt motor vs 350 watt, a belt drive and a few other improvements. the mini mill is about 150 lbs but easily breaks down into two pieces to move. IIRC LMS ships it in two crates.

or you could buy a grizzly have more for tooling and upgrade to pulley drive and a better motor down the road.
Tin

 

[Wagon173]

Yea, I was looking at grizzly but it seems like the one from HF is almost identical and I can get it for 400 bucks. I really like that the lms one has a solid column. I think I may go with that and continue to comb craigslist teasing myself until my return goes through. I already have endmills. I learned, unfortunately, the rule on spending what the machine cost on tools with my lathe lol. I've spent about double what it's worth. Hopefully since I didn't have anything and was starting basically from scratch I can be up and running on half what the mill costs this time. 800 is about all I want to drop right now. Maybe I'll beef up the budget far enough to squeese in the collets and a clamping kit. Anything more though, it'll have to wait until later. Who would have thought weddings were so expensive?! If we could have had a redneck wedding like I wanted, I could have a shop that would make you all jealous! haha

 

[Tin Falcon]

I do not think I have heard anything really bad about the HF mill but expect to put more time and money into upgrades. also do not expect support from HF in the way of spare parts or tech assistance. you will have to go to grizzly or LMS for that.
Tin

 

[Bob Bailey]

IMHO another thing to consider is the amount of spindle run-out. Two mills may come out of the same factory, but how do they perform? I believe JET provides documentation showing test results. . I'm not sure but I think Grizzly provides test results to.
I would check HF to see if they provide test results.

 

[datosi81]

I bought my Grizzly mini mill about 2 months ago, and while I'm very happy with it, if I had to do it over again I'd get the mill from LMS. I think the belt drive and solid column alone are worth the extra money, not to mention the larger table and extra travel. And having an R8 spindle would have saved me a good chunk of money on tooling, especially in the long run.

 

[purpleknif]

Been a machinist for over 30 years. I got a real bull xj9512. I love it. I read about the issues with the x2's and x3s and I've got to say I haven't had any problems. Its a heavier and a more solid machine. Check it out.

 

[weez]

I bought the HF mill about 4 months ago and have been happy with it (although it is the only mill I have owned or used so I can't compare it with others). I believe the HF and Grizzly mills are the same, the only difference being Grizzly's better support. This wasn't a big concern with me as these mills are quite popular so there is a lot of support available from other users and replacement parts are available from multiple sources. HF has a lower cost, and cheaper shipping than Grizzly so that is why I got the HF mill.

 

[RichD]

Hi,
I have a grizzly X3 and I'm pretty happy with it. I've had it for about five years now. It is heavier than the X2 and more rigid.

I have run an older Brown&Sharp horizontal/vertical mill and also a large Cincinnati Vertical. These hobby sized mills are just that...hobby machines. They'll all work fine if you stay within the limits of the machine in regards to feedrates, depth of cut, etc.

The X3 leaves a good finish if you take your time with it. I've cut some 14DP gears with it in aluminum (2nd picture) as well as cutting the flutes in my home made hob (4130 steel...first picture).

I also fly-cut the cylinder heads off a Nissan Maxima with it. The head was longer than the travel by about a 1/2 inch, but my home made fly-cutter was big enough to cut it in a single pass.

I use a 12V electric window motor for the table feed.
Regards,
Rich

 

[Wagon173]

I'm still not really onboard with the grizzly, not that I've really heard anything bad about them. God knows I can't judge any of them as I haven't actually used one, but I've found a micromark a couple hours down the road on CL for 500 bucks with all the collets and a 20 pc set of end mills. I was heavily leaning toward the LMS one, but if this is still for sale when my taxes come in, I'm going to jump on it The 12 volt motor as a power feed seems like a really neat idea though! How did you rig it?