Is there such a thing as a good mini mill?

I have a Sieg X3 variant from Grizzly (G0463). It has been a great little mill as long as you don't feed it more than it can chew. I seldom run any endmills larger than 1/2"... I once tried to face-mill some 6-4 titanium with a 2" indexable cutter... it did not go well. :eek::D It is a champ at slotting guards... and with the DROs, has been great for balisong work. Further, I've got plans to start my first frame-lock in the near future, and I expect the mill will be able to handle all the tasks associated.
I agree with the advice given earlier; buy the biggest mill you can afford and can fit/move into your shop. I needed to fit mine into a small space in my tiny shop... and had to carry it down a flight of stairs to get there... those were my main constraints. Yours are probably different.
I am, overall, very happy with my mill and couldn't imagine my shop without it... but, were I to move into a larger, ground-floor shop, I'd buy a bigger knee mill in a second.
Erin
 
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Travis Fry said:
I won't likely use it for anything non-knife related...
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Travis, I said the same thing to my Dad, who was a machinist earlier in life. He just laughed and said "get the biggest you can afford":

I had no prior machining experience. So, having a mill changed the way I think about what I can do in the shop, and opened up a variety of ways to solve problems that I hadn't had before.

Here's some non-knife stuff that I used mine for already:
- replacement file slides for a desk a local charity had donated
- channel for water cooling a horizontal platen (aluminum)
- drill-press style fixture for the milling machine (G10)
- replacement control/swivel blocks for a kayak rudder (aluminum)
- new insert for SwagOffRoad Portaband stand (aluminum)
- a little key for a towel dispenser (aluminum)
- a custom picture hanger (aluminum)
- foot pegs for my dad's motorcycle (aluminum)
- modifying magnetic tot-locks to work on drawers (steel and plastic)
- soft jaws for the mill vice (aluminum)
- a magnetic mount plexiglass chip shield (aluminum)
- converting a little 4" veritcle DRO into a height gauge for a router table

So, for me, I have been very glad to have the mill. I've actually used it more for non-knife stuff than for knifemaking.

Tait

My 3 year old daughter wanted me to add some smileys:

;);):eek::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Kevin Wilkins said:
The Picomax 20 from Fehlmann in Switzerland is the king of table top milling machines. The king do have his price though...
www.fehlmann.com/
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Yah, I think it's hilarious that the Chinese copied a Swiss Jig Bore for the RF-30/Round column mill drill.

I've love to see the Chinese version of the Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 :D
 
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