drill press/mill question

V

verbel

Joined
May 25, 2003
Messages
72
Hello,

I have been looking for a drill press for a while and while doing so I was reading about various small mill machines. I was curious if I could use one for both purposes? I was thinking of maybe a sherline 5400 or one of the models at http://littlemachineshop.com. It will mostly be used to drill holes for handles in steel and wood as well as milling small pieces for guards. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
The Harbor Freight mini-mill has a loyal following, and AOL newsgroups to join if you get one. They are nice, but consider getting one and learning with it. Many people, myself included will take one and completely rebuild it with new paint, better knobs and handles, smooth out the ways, add bearings, more rigid etc.
 
Some people use them.
If I had so little room that I had to do it on a desktop and put it in a drawer later, I would use one.
But I would do everything I could to go bigger.


The sherlines are so small, and so expensive for what you get


In terms of milling machines bigger is better.
Mass provides rigidity


Have a look here, even the "mini" is larger than a Sherline
http://www.grizzly.com/products/category/480000
Edit - looks the same as what Higgy posted at HF


Go for a square column, or knee mill instead of a round column.
Go for an R8 tooling spindle
 
look at precision matthews mills. they seem to be a very good value with excellent quality.
 
I bought the Harbor Freight Mini Mill and put a belt drive on it upgrading it and also making it far less noisy. Other than the nylon gear teeth these are good machines and the belt drive add on does away with a lot of that. I got into it for about $650 total after that addition and purchase of the mill. I would suggest Sherline I think is how its spelled. Had I seen those first I'd have that instead.
 
i have a mini mill and no drill press. mill can drill a drill cant mill (safely ) i use the heck out of the mini and now i have added a bridgeport for larger work
 
Any mill is better than no mill.
I have a mini mill and a round column mill.
Getting the round column mill is one of the smartest things I've done in 17 years of knife making.
Just get one you can afford.
Upgrade as possible.
 
butcher_block said:
i have a mini mill and no drill press. mill can drill a drill cant mill (safely ) i use the heck out of the mini and now i have added a bridgeport for larger work
Click to expand...


Thanks for the advice everyone. Butcher what mini mill do you use?
 
I've used a Sherline since 1997, cut hundreds of guard slots and other stuff. It is very high quality, very impressive and very small. :)

I didn't really need larger, but bought a LMS mill a year ago to cut nail nicks. It's not quite the quality of the Sherline, but it's considerably larger and better than most of the other Asian imports.

These mills do fine as a drill press, but I'd rather have a drill press for drilling holes...
 
I am/was a career machinist/fabricator. I've used machines large and small, new and old, CNC and manual. The mini Mills are definitely limited, but knifemaking happens to be one thing they are particularly well suited for.

I would always encourage someone to get a full sized machine, but that isn't always an option. I have a Grizzly g0463, and I have had mixed results in general machining tasks, but for knifemaking it has been a perfect match.

I definitely plan to have a Bridgeport at minimum, but for now I'm stuck with single phase garage class machines.
 
I don't know how I managed to forget to say my original thoughts on that last post but I did. In answer, Verbel to your original question about a mill drilling I'd say it can but no. That is my answer no. You need both a drill press and a mill. The mill is just too dang slow moving. It has finer gears and simply does not go fast enough for me personally. My little bench top hobby drill press fills that void and it was cheap. You see them everywhere and its one you can easily replace the chuck in with an upgrade, which I did of course. So really, today if you want a drill press for $50 you can get one that drills a good straight hole with depth control fairly decent. The mill is nice but unless you are laid back like all get out and slow moving in general you might make one work. I'd never get by with just that myself.
 
I worked in the Tool, Die and Mold industry for about 15yrs and ran conventional/cnc mills for a time. Drills and mills are just different animals. They can cross over(mill to drill is safer by far) but for the price of a decent drill(especially used) keep them separate. Buy a machine suited for the task... there are reasons you will see both in any respectable machine shop.
 
For precision a mill is best for tapping or drilling. If it's a often repeated task make up some jigs and use a drill press. One thing I really need to caution you on is to make the drill solid and mount it firm to the floor and rig some clamps on the table. As has been said before, rigidity is crucial. There's nothing quite like getting a drill stuck into a piece and having it swing around or having the machine tip over.
 
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