Grizzly 0758 vs. Little Machine Shop 39990

J

Jason Fry

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Jun 5, 2008
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I'm thinking a mini mill is next on the list of tools. I've found these two that have risen to the top.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill-Drill/G0758
A little bigger than the LMS. Grizz has spindle speed and vertical quill travel DRO built in.

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=3990
The best Seig X2 out there. "Good" version of the Harbor Freight and Grizzly mini mills.

Cost is roughly the same, about $1000 to my door.

Any thoughts or experiences you have to help me choose?
 
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I have the little machine shop solid column mill. I really like it and it does primarily what I want and is accurate. It will in no way replace a full size machine, but for machining bolsters, cutting guard slots, and flattening scales it does a fine job. It is not rigid enough to take very large cuts in steel though, .020" to .030" depth with a 1/2" cutter is about all mine wants.
At the same time I would not get rid of mine based on the handiness alone.
 
Just two more to possibly consider would be the Grizzly G704 and G759. The G704 comes with a digital display for the quill, and the 759 is the same basic machine with full DRO already on it.
 
I have an hf x2 size on loan from a friend that I helped convert to cnc. I'm moving up to a g0704 as soon as posible. I always hate when people tell me this very thing but I'd wait until you can get a more capable machine. It's not a lot bigger, and it will need work but it's good to have more capacity. unless you're making indexable fixtures for every task that might need repeating it's nice to at least have part of the table dedicated to a vise you don't have to remove and re-locate and still have plenty of room. It's nice to have more rigidity and etc, etc.
 
canid said:
I'd wait until you can get a more capable machine.
Click to expand...

I have heard this before also, of course. My main issue aside from funding is space. I'm working out of a 1 car garage filled with typical garage stuff. Don't have room for a Bridgeport. My logic is this... an analogy. I can catch fish from the shore of the lake. I could buy an aluminum jon boat, which ain't much as far as boats go, but gets me off the bank. I could buy a Bass Tracker, a fully rigged aluminum boat, with features and useful modifications. I'll never not want a fully rigged fiberglass bass boat, but maybe I don't have money or room for one. But at the end of the day, fishing out of Bass Tracker beats fishing from the bank.

That's kind of where I am on this thing. Don't want the bare bones bottom of the line Harbor Freight, but can't afford or fit in my shop much more than a midsize mill. At the end of the day, any mill I can find beats slotting guards with files, or building slipjoints without relieved liners.
 
I have the G0704 which is made by the same company as the G0758 (Weiss). It's very nice. I'm also in half a 2 car garage and have space limitations. The long table on the G0704 sticks out further than I'd like most of the time. It's also too heavy for me to move without removing the table and head.

If you're not interested in CNC I would go with the G0758 over the SX2. The only downside is the column handle being in an awkward place. If you wanted to CNC it then be aware that the G0758 is pretty new and I don't think there are conversion kits or instructions for it.
 
I imagine cnc conversion of the g0758/9 would be very similar to that for the g0704. I can't say, but perhaps enough to use the kits made for the latter, with or without some modification. The castings look basically identical.
 
i have a plain jane mini mill with belt conversion and even now that i have my bridgeport the mini mill gets more of the odd jobs
if it is larger or really small and tolerances are tight the BP is used
 
canid said:
I imagine cnc conversion of the g0758/9 would be very similar to that for the g0704. I can't say, but perhaps enough to use the kits made for the latter, with or without some modification. The castings look basically identical.
Click to expand...

They look the same but it's all scaled down about 2/3 the size of the G0704.

The way the Z axis is set up on the G0758 seems to me a little easier to convert. But a lot of people want to do it with a kit.
 
I went to Grizzly and looked close at their mini mills, then came home and order the LMS mill. Grizzly is pretty good stuff, but I feel the LMS is a little better quality. Had mine a couple years now and it does all this knife maker needs to do.
 
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