Mill Drill

[rodney mitchell]

How many of you have a mill drill instead of a drill press? How is it working out for you in your woodworking? I am seriously thinking about getting one instead of a new drill press. What kind do you have and are you happy with it? Is there anything (woodworking wise) that a drill press will do and a mill drill won't? In other words, any downside at all in owning one instead of a drill press?

Thanks!!

Rodney

[Richard Keller]

Rodney,

I have the General Int'l 75-850M1? as well as a drill press. I don't use it for woodworking though - I use it as a mill. It works quite good for that. I am happy with the quality, etc. of it. The only thing that I can see a drill press over it is height capacity. Most mills can only take up to 12-16", unless you go really big, which is not much height for most wood projects. Also a mill is much more $$ that a drill press. My mill was added a loooong time after the drill press. I bought it strictly to make repairs to the wood working machines.

Downsides? Not sure if there would be any - other than aforementioned height limitation. It does a great job in metal, I can't see why not in wood.

Richard.

[rodney mitchell]

Thanks for the reply Richard. I forgot to mention that I am talking about a benchtop sized mill drill.

Rodney

[Keith Outten]

Rodney,

I own a Grizzly bench mill/drill. I have owned several drill presses and the only thing I would trade my mill/drill for is a larger mill/drill.

You just can't beat the XY table and the capability it adds to the machine. I almost always use my mill/drill for routing keyholes in plaques plus other routing chores. The machine is powerfull enough to handle most any size hole saw and drilling metal or wood is effortless. Because it is built for machining metal woodworking on the mill/drill will never tax the machine and it is unlikely any runout at the chuck will ever be a problem. Side loading jobs like routing are not supposed to be done on a drill press but a mill is designed for this kind of work.

I built a really heavy welded stand for my mill/drill. If I need to drill tall projects I can swing the drill head to the side and use a 90 degree angle plate off of the table to fasten the piece to be machined.

I wish I had a power feed for the table :)

.

[Bruce Boone]

I use a full size milling machine for my drilling. The only drawbacks I see to a mill drill might be the workholding and travel. The larger ones should address both of those concerns.

[Gary Keedwell]

Years ago when working as a machinist, I would bring wood parts to work to "mortise" on the Bridgeport (vertical milling machine). when I didn't feel like setting up a router at home. I could do more in a few minutes than I could in a couple of hours in my basement wood shop.
If I had the height in my basement I would buy a Bridgeport. Their a dime a dozen now that the CNC machines are dominant in the machine shops. Boy, talk about accuracy....

Gary K.;)

[rodney mitchell]

Yeah, the grizzly is one of the ones I have been looking at. Pretty cool machine.

Rodney

[Keith Outten]

Bruce,

I made a plywood auxilliary table (T-design) that I clamp in my milling vise to hold plaques. This allows me to use my wooden hand clamps to hold plaques to the table and a host of other projects. Setting up a fence or positioning jig lets me route multiples, like plaques, real quick. A milling vise that tilts allows my T-table to be used to drill and route at almost any angle.

I also have a couple large pieces of aluminum angle iron that I have machined to 90 degrees that can be used for various configurations. These are clamped to the milling table and used for verticle jobs. What I need now is a rotary attachment for indexing. I haven't purchased one as I have been doing most of this kind of work on my CNC router.

.

[Bernhard Lampert]

I bought a full size vertical milling machine at a local auction for very little money. Works great for both wood and metal. I can drill, mill, route, etc pretty much anything. Supplies (endmills, cuters, etc) are cheap and plentiful. Only downside is the size and weight. One of the few purchases that I never regretted. You will find all sorts of uses for it.
..my $0.02
Cheers,
Bernhard

[David G Baker]

I have a small tool room mill made by Bridgeport and have used it several times on wood. There are some things that work much better with a mill than with a drill press. I also use a xy vise on my smaller drill press. It really comes in handy at times.
David B

[Rob Blaustein]

If I had the height in my basement I would buy a Bridgeport. Their a dime a dozen now that the CNC machines are dominant in the machine shops. Boy, talk about accuracy....

Gary K.;)
Hey Gary--anything around our area? I've always thought it would be fun to have a used milling machine. Where I'd put it is another story.

I learned how to use a milling machine way before I got into woodworking and since I got into woodworking have wondered why that type of machine wasn't featured more prominently. I guess height and weight are concerns, as has been mentioned, and maybe the lack of need for the sort of tolerances machinists typically have to deal with. But I often get frustrated trying to set up a piece of wood on my drill press without a table that moves in the x-y plane.

Is speed an issue? Most routers spin up to 25K--way faster than a typical milling machine I think.