Mill Suggestions

P

Patrick Martin

Joined
Oct 2, 2018
Messages
8
I'm looking for mill suggestions. I prefer the smaller ones because its going in my garage. I have been looking at the following mills:

Sherline Deluxe Ultimate Machine Shop

Precision Matthews PM25 with DRO

Little Machine Shop 4190 HiTorque mini mill deluxe with DRO

Looking at using the mill to make folder parts. I have no machining experience but I have been learning all I can from Youtube. My budget is around $4000 with tooling. I like the PM25 but not sure if I want to wait 3 months for one to come in stock. I also like the little machine shop one with the tooling package close to the price of the PM25. Is there a big difference in precision from the Little machine shop 4190 to the PM25? Let me know what you think.
 
I have a manual Taig. Wonderful little device. Way too small.
And do what Numbers said and get power feed. DRO is really helpful, too.
 
I bought a mill first, realized later a lathe was maybe more useful for me, but just depends on what you want to make. No insult intended, just fwiw.
 
Whatever you end up with, I'd get a DRO for sure. It's not that you can't make good parts without one, it's just that it makes it about 1000x more convenient than having to zero and keep track of multiple dials for every single move you need to make. If I had to pick between a DRO and a power feed, I'd pick DRO hands down.

As for which mill, I'd personally shop around for a used full size knee mill. They really don't take up that much more room than bench top mill once you factor in the stand or bench space that they're sitting on or in front of. Yeah, it's gonna be a bit tougher to move where you need to get it, but once it's moved, you're done. It'll likely be 3 phase, but you can solve that with a $100 VFD.
Another plus, is that you can sometimes find a used mill that comes with a DRO, power feed(s), vises, tooling, etc... for well under your $4k price tag.

Small mills are better than no mill, but there are times when I find myself wishing that even my full sized mill was larger. I couldn't imagine getting by with a smaller one. YMMV.
 
I wanted the PM too. Didn't want to wait 3 months though. I ended up with the LMS 3990 (which seems to be the 4190 w/o the built in DRO). When I bought mine they were out of stock online. I ended up finding my mill down in Tomball, TX (I'm in Pittsburgh). My dad went and picked it up and drove it up to me. It had the IGaging DRO, X axis Power feed, and a few other bells and whistles. I am happy with this mill, it does everything that I need it to do as far as making titanium framelocks/liner locks. Would I trade it today for a PM-25MV? Yes I would. Do I find myself wishing I had the PM-25MV? Not really, like I said this one will mill stop pin tracks, do precision drilling, mill lock back reliefs, and mill pocket clips. That's all I need my mill to do, so I'm happy with this one.

Good luck in your quest!
 
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I bought the PM-25. Well built piece of machinery. I added the DRO using TouchDRO and it worked okay. I found a decent amount of slop in the screws and wanted ball screws. Got a CNC conversion and put it in. Works great but I do miss the ability to just turn a handwheel and do something.

Now I just need to figure out how to make it easy to swap back and forth.
 
Ok well made a decision. Going to go with the Precision Matthews PM-728VT with DRO. Also getting the stand, 11 PC ultra precision Collet set, clamping kit & the 4 inch homge ultra high precision milling vice. I will probably add the power feed at a later date. I looked at the Bridgeport’s mills but they are just a little too big for my garage. Now just have to wait for Precision Matthews to let me know when they get some in. Good news that model is the next model that’s due in hopefully end of July or beginning August.
 
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