Question for HF and Grizzly Mini-Mill Owners

[Burchtree]

I've got the Mini Mill/Drill (499) jobby from Harbor Freight and when I turned it on last night, the motor was louder than I expected. Do any of you have loud motors on your mills, or is it just mine? It is a whole lot louder than any of my drill presses and even the old Shop Smith. Also, the chuck doesn't seem to spin true, the spindle looks fine, but I can see the chuck oscillate a touch. Should I just exchange this for another (HF is only about a mile from the house), or is the motor noise normal and chuck fixable? (I'm not even sure how to take the chuck off either).

Thanks --

 

[R.Duncan]

Michael, I'd take that thing back if it were mine. The spindle should not have any wobble and the motor shouldn't sound bad from the start either. I went through the same things you are going through with my Grizzly and had to have my entire machine replaced 3 times and the motor on the last one had to be replaced before it was a month old. Good Luck !! Ron

 

[Burchtree]

I figured that was going to be the case. Of couse, the spindle looks to spin true, but the noise is annoying. :grumpy:

 

[Wulf]

The chuck you got with the machine isn't very good. Most folks recommend getting a better one. Check out LittleMachineShop.com for chucks and accessories.

My harbor freight mini-mill, by the way, is pretty quiet.

 

[Burchtree]

The more I think about it, I'm wondering if it's just gear-noise I'm hearing as it is gear-driven. Of course it's hard to tell because I'm not sure what it's supposed to sound like.

 

[R.Duncan]

Michael, I have a friend that has one of the small gear driven mills and it sounds like a bucket of bolts when it's running. He's had his for over a year and really likes it. You just have to put up with the gear noise on these small mills. Ron