Which Mill Should I Buy?

Laredo7mm

Laredo7mm

Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
1,240
Hey all, I was hoping to get some advice about what kind of mill I should buy. My shop is set up in my basement so a full sized mill is out of the question. I actually just sold a full sized one and I am going to use the proceeds to buy a small bench top model.

I am mainly going to use the mill for slotting guards, drilling holes, surface facing billets, and one day maybe try my hand at folders. Pluse it would be nice to have a lathe too.

The ones I am considering are:

The RongFu RF-31 Link

The Enco 16 3/8 Link

The Sherline 5400 Link

The Smithy 1220XL Link

The Enco 3 in 1 Link

I have not used or seen (in person) any of these machines so i really don't know how well they are built. I have some decent expierience using full sized mills and lathes, so hopefully i won't be completely lost when I goto using one of these mini machines.:)

Anyway, if any of you have owned, do own, have seen, have used, etc. or have heard anything on these machines, i would appreciate your advice.

Thanks in advance.
 
Are all these mill drills comparable in quality? I think i am going to go with the Rongfu or the HF machine. The HF will save me about $180 over the Rongfu, do you all think it is worth dealing with HF for that amount?

Are they all basically made by the same people?

Hummm, an extra $180 to go Amboyna shopping with...:D
 
That I can`t say because I`m only about little more
then an hour from a H.F. I don`t know how far you are
from Ind. but there is a H.F. in the north part of
the state,
 
Laredo, I believe that ALL those mills are produced by the same factory. Just given different coats of paint, or decals, depending who the distributor is.
Harbor Freight is fine to deal with. If you ever need spare parts, and HF does not have them. You can get them from Enco, Jet, Grizzly, etc.
That machine will run you about $150.00+ in shipping, if you don't get free freight like HF offers.;) :D

Edited to add; many years ago, I got this identical mill from Jet Equipment Company. I could have kicked myself in the a$$, when I found out, I could have saved myself several hundred dollars, on the mill and stand, plus freight, if I had gone with HF. Live and learn I guess.:(
 
honestly, for slotting guards, drilling holes, surface facing billets, and one day maybe trying folders, you could probably get by with a $399 mini-mill from harbor freight. these have good reps for smaller work like home-gunsmithing, hobby-work and probably knifemaking. this is what im looking at getting, (mostly because i cant fit a large mill in my house at this time)

anyhow, take it for what its worth.

go here for more info:

http://www.roderuscustom.tzo.com

and go to their forum.
 
Hey all, thanks for your help.

I just bought the Rong Fu off of eBay. Ended up only $50 dollars more than the HF model with shipping.

Now, what do you all know about CNC conversions? :)
 
they are expensive :)

once again though, the link i provided has way more info than this site on milling and upgrades (including DRO's and CNC) - dont get me wrong, i love this site too :P

drop by for a while...its pretty neat.
 
I have an Enco variable speed table top mill in my shop that I use quite often. I am quite happy with it. If you are thinking about a similar machine, I would recomend the machine that I bought over the belt drive. I have found that changing the belt set up to change speeds is such a pain that most people tend to run everything at one speed, or at least try to. This leads to a lot of broken or damaged tooling. The only thing that I would add or change is the motor. When my motor finally goes, I plan on replacing it with a DC variable speed motor to add even more speed options.
 
Which of the CNC Mini-Mills would people recommend?

The Sherline mill looks pretty good. The examples shown are all high quality. The software provided is Windows. I see people here have used it to mill mild steel & titanium.

The TAIG Mill looks more powerful, but the examples are all pretty coarse. The software is DOS.
 
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