I am getting a milling machine

Looks cool, I dont know much of anything about them except I want one. There was another brand that was about the same price that everyone here seemed to recommend but I cant remember the name of it.
 
Seems like many folks that have the tilting head feature don't use it and they speculate that this makes the unit less stable.
 
Dan Pierson said:
It's probably a too late, but I'd go for this one instead http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=3960&category=1387807683. It's the same basic machine, but Little Machine Shop has been the go to place for upgrades and accessories for these for years now and this basically puts all of that together (without the more-harm-than-good tilting column).
Click to expand...

Yep, I'd go to Little Machine shop and get the one with fixed column. Actually, that's what I plan to do if I don't run across an old higher quality machine first.
 
CM, get your butt outta Fres-tuckey and head up here. A friend of mine just passed, he was a gun smith and his widow will be selling his two bench top mills and 3 lathes. He has some of your grandfathers tools and jigs too. I have dibs on one of the lathes, but there are two nice ones, a craftsman 12" and an Atlas 10". One mill is a horizontal mill he modified, too.


-Xander
 
http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PM-MV-BenchMills.html

these guys offer the same mill as the grizzly, but as I understand, they do a nice "fluff and buff" to make sure the machine ready to be put to work and is within usable tolerances. Worth the extra couple hundred bucks or so IMO.

Besides that, I've heard at least one or two horror stories from Grizzly customers when it comes to service, or even just getting something as simple as an accurate shipping time. I'm not sure where their at on that particular mill right now (it also may vary based on your location/proximity to a store that already has one in stock), but I've heard of guys waiting upwards of a year or so to get one of those mills from grizzly.

Precision Matthews OTOH has service second to none from several reviews I've read...

Just my $.02.... take it for what it's worth. When I save enough, I'm going with Precision Matthews.
 
I have the littlemachineshop mill and it works well for the price. I ordered mine on a Thursday and had it Monday morning. Keep in mind that you'll need accessories, cutters, etc. so prepare to spend some money.
 
Ray is absolutely correct. I'd heard that you should expect to spend about the price
of the mill on tooling and accessories. Didn't believe. I was wrong.
 
Ray, when is the workshop in Visalia happening?
 
I've got the PM20 and it's a very accurate and sturdy small machine. Machinetoolonline is a good outfit also.
 
ordered the little machine shop mill last week, supposed to get delivered tomorrow, with an R8 tooling package. gotta say I'm pretty excited about it.
 
I do not own a milling machine but i use a bridgeport milling machine on a regular basis. The reason I see no need for a tilting head for milling blades:

- for one once e head it tilted it talks a skilled hand over 2 hours to get the axis perfectly vertical in retrospect to the milling table
- if you needed a machine with a tilting head you can simply mill an angled brace out of aluminum stock to the desired angle. I would take an untrained operator about 15-25 minutes. And one you have it cut you can re use it in the future

So to me if I was going to at home blade work a non tilting head would be the way I go. A for the people who say a tilting head is "less stable" I would like to see evidence of this. I have never found (when using the machine properly). A tilting head makes e machine less stable or accurate. Both tilting and non tilting headed milling machine should be giving you a tolerance or between .oooo5" and .ooo1" depending on e dial accuracy and the machine brand/type.

Hope this helped

Zach
 
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