Grizzly bench top mill or?

[Ron Bontz]

I need to get a small mill or mill drill with the R8. I need to do some precision drilling and slotting on a small scale. I have read to stay away from the drill mills on round columns because they loose center every time you move the head. Ok that makes sense. So now I am looking at a Griz. G0619, 6 x 21" mill drill. Any machinist out there that know any thing about this machine or one that is comparable? My knowledge of milling machines is minimal at best. Thank you.

[Terry Beadle]

I also like http://www.lathemaster.com/Lathemast...%20Machine.htm

Grizzly has a good machine for a small shop IMO but Lathemaster, I think, is a bit better.

Both are good machines.

The one limitation I don't like is the 2 inch quill movement. However, it's not a show stopper as it's not frequent that a small shop has to work through 2 inches of metal.

How thick is the material that is to be slotted and what material is it?

[Ron Bontz]

A mix of wood and soft metal. Brass, alum. etc. The longest piece of metal is 4" but can be drilled from both sides. As long as the head does not shift, as in a drill press column, I can lower the head to finish the boring. Ultimately nothing earth shattering. I just want the dead on accuracy for slotting wood and the small amount of milling.

[Terry Beadle]

How thick is the metal?

If it is less than 1 inch, you will have no problems but ( isn't there always a but? ) don't expect to be taking 250 thou passes through the material. More like 10 to 15 thou at a time. These two are small shop models and not a 2000 pound 3 phase behemoth. So you should consider how much of this lite milling you will be doing and buy a machine that will make the time that it takes to mill steel/brass/aluminum etc.

Regarding the wood, I've got a Chinese knock off drill press with a good quality x - y table and a decent vice. I use it with end mills on cherry and rock maple with great success. Very good to do flat bottomed mortises too. One thing I recommend in a drill press is a good cutting depth setting rail so that you can tune in a few thou at a time if you use it on softish metal ( brass or bronze for example ).

Good luck and enjoy the process.

[Steve knight]

I found a way to align up my round post mill/drill. I stuck a laser to it and about 15 feet away setup a simple plumb line. got the machine accurate set the laser to the middle of the string. so when I move the head I use the laser to setup the mill. works well and it is fast.

[Ron Bontz]

You would think they would have already started making them with lasers by now.

[Ron Brese]

Prior to going to a knee mill I had a round column mill. A DRO and a vise with a rotating base was the key for me. If I moved the head I could indicate the back jaw of the vise very quickly with the DRO by just rotating the vise. I then went to an Industrial Hobbies mill. The head on the IH mill moved up and down on a dovetailed column, however the gear head was just too noisy. I still had the round column mill after I got the knee mill but I used it so seldom I finally just sold it.

Ron