Enco mill questions recommendation

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catcalls

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May 7, 2012
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I need a new drill press, and I need a mill for I am trying to start making folding knives and will use it on fixed blades as well. On craigslist there is an enco 105-1100 in my area for $750. Have people had good luck with these? Is that price reasonable? More than reasonable? Thanks ahead of time!
 
Here's the problem with round column mills; you cannot change the height of the head and maintain spindle alignment. This becomes an issue when you are trying to perform multi-step work such as spotting, drilling, and tapping. I often need to change the height of the head between the drilling and tapping operations. I've owned several mills over the years including production CNC units. Though I certainly have a preference for a high quality machine, I am no equipment snob and I do believe there are some economical machines out there that will do just fine for many users. I suggest anyone thinking about a small mill take a look at some of the Grizzly square column mills. Other companies sell similar mills as well but, I believe Grizzly is doing more for maintaining QC on their machines than most other companies. That said, I have personally never owned a Grizzly machine so everything I know is second hand knowledge/research.

I would also suggest that a mill is really not a replacement for a drill press. There is a speed of workflow on a drill press that just seems to go away on the mill.

Bob
 
Agreed, a shop benefits greatly from having one or more dedicated drill presses in addition to a milling machine. I have two drill presses. One set up for drilling steel, the other is set up for drilling wood and other soft materials.

I also strongly recommend against getting a round column mill. If you want a nice small mill, check out the special version of the Sieg X2D that LMS sells. It has a few upgrades over the standard X2 mini mills, and doesn't cost a whole lot more. And yes, I count having a fixed column instead of a tilting column as an upgrade.
 
I go LMS or Grizzly square column. Mill & a drill press. I have two of each and would never want to use a mill as a drill press. Others do this and it works for them, but not for me.
 
my mini mill has been great (did the belt mod to it) i was in your same shoes needed both a drill and mill. i woudl do the LMS if i was doing it again. i have now in house a bridgeport for heavy stuff that i might use once a week or so but the mini gets used almost daily as a drill press (i still dont have a drill press as the mini is much better in many ways )
 
Ranger Bob's right about the round column mill issues. You outgrow one of those pretty quick; I did. You need a drill press and a mill, I agree. The only time in knife work that I've encountered so far that a mill is better for drilling is with folder pivots- a mill often has the potential to drill a perpendicular hole better than drill press.

If you have the space, I'd recommend biding your time and watching Ebay for a full size knee mill to pop up used. You are in a fortunate location, relatively, for machinery shopping. If you are will to drive a few hundred miles any direction for a mill, I'll bet something good will pop up within a month or two at most for $1500 or under.

As for the drill press, decent ones are a dime a dozen on Craigslist most places. I like buying machinery used, can't afford it new anyway and usually there's not much wrong with it that common sense and a little elbow grease won't fix.
 
catcalls said:
I need a new drill press, and I need a mill for I am trying to start making folding knives and will use it on fixed blades as well. On craigslist there is an enco 105-1100 in my area for $750. Have people had good luck with these? Is that price reasonable? More than reasonable? Thanks ahead of time!
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I just realized you're in Springfield Mo. Huge Grizzly store there. And a used machinery dealer, Holloway industries . I love to poke around that place, bought two hardness testers there.
 
I went to the grizzly showroom yesterday and bought a couple drill bits, and was looking at one of the smaller ones. It wasn't the smallest but maybe the second or third smallest. I have never heard of this Galloway place I'm gonna check that out. I'm still in highschool and play 2 sports so it's gonna be almost impossible for me to afford much of anything more than a grizzly, but want one that will last me a while and something I won't outgrow.
 
The G0758 from grizzly is what I was looking at. I plan on getting a good drill press soon, but was wondering if the drilling feature is something that would get in the way of what I would use it for, or if it would be handy to use sometimes.
 
I have the G0704, same as the G0758 only without the dros. I love the thing. I would skip the 0758 and get the 0704 and some inexpensive Accuremote scales for it, (Oh wait I did:foot::p) they are plenty accurate enough for knife work... well unless you are Nathan. :D:cool:
 
layout die and a scribe are far cheaper then a set of DRO amd more useful for the avg. maker. i have not one DRO in my shop and manage to turn out ok work (that said on my list of wants i woudl liek a DRO setup for my bridgeport )
 
catcalls said:
I went to the grizzly showroom yesterday and bought a couple drill bits, and was looking at one of the smaller ones. It wasn't the smallest but maybe the second or third smallest. I have never heard of this Galloway place I'm gonna check that out. I'm still in highschool and play 2 sports so it's gonna be almost impossible for me to afford much of anything more than a grizzly, but want one that will last me a while and something I won't outgrow.
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Holloway Industries, bunches of used machine shop stuff. North side of town, Prince Dr. But the owner is in his 80s' and really slowing down, I don't expect he'll be in business too much longer. Small mills don't last long there.
 
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