Gunsmithing looking for a mill/drill any ideas

[tjonh2001]

im looking for a mill/drill for my garage. looking to spend about 1500-2000 on mill before tooling up. this will be used to remove bedding and minor milling. i can run 220 but dont want converters, ive been looking at the grizzly G0619 but im worried it might not have enough travel.

anyone have a nice mill/drill that they would recomend? also any specific tools that i should order right away?

 

[treebasher]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

Take a look at the IH Mill. It is a copy of the Rong Fu mill on steroids.

http://www.ihcnc.com/index.php

It is a little more than what you want to spend but seems to be worth the extra cash.

 

[Mark Housel]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: treebasher</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Take a look at the IH Mill. It is a copy of the Rong Fu mill on steroids.

http://www.ihcnc.com/index.php

It is a little more than what you want to send but seems to be worth the extra cash.</div></div>

Very cool that there is an American company making something like this.

I'd be interested in hearing Mr. Dixon's, or some of the other CNC guru's take on this.

I really know zero about CNC (other than being a computer programmer for a couple decades) but to be into a CNC machine for <15K seems a good deal?

 

[treebasher]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

You can buy just the standard mill without the CNC controls:

http://www.ihcnc.com/pages/bed-mill.php

 

[LRI]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

For a home shop/hobby guy a good ol dinasauer bridgeport is hard to beat. I visited a 2nd hand dealer last week and they had several old 'j' head models for around 3k.

You can NEVER have too much travel in X!!! When it comes to stock work.

Cnc is great but to do the really cool chit you really need software or the brain of steven faulkin. The software isn't cheap.

Then there's tooling, fixtures, etc.

Cool ass stuff though and it can spoil ya rotten once you have it and become fluent.

Good luck!
C.

 

[Mark Housel]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

Mr. Dixon,

Do you haven any opinions on these machines specifically?
The price certainly seems like something that a 'mere mortal' could consider.

The one thing they don't mention much at all about on their web site is software or the controller electronics.

I know nothing about CNC software but seems like I have heard somewhere that every CNC machine is slightly different in that regard.

IOW, a program that works on one machine may not work on another?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Cheech]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: tjonh2001</div><div class="ubbcode-body">im looking for a mill/drill for my garage. looking to spend about 1500-2000 on mill before tooling up. this will be used to remove bedding and minor milling. i can run 220 but dont want converters, ive been looking at the grizzly G0619 but im worried it might not have enough travel.

anyone have a nice mill/drill that they would recomend? also any specific tools that i should order right away? </div></div>

I have one of these. Great machine. and the CEO is a member here aswell.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Combo-Lathe-Mill/G9729

 

[nitehawk01]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

I have a mill/drill and hate it. Once it is set up for a single operation, you are good to go if you don't take a real heavy cut. If you need to adjust the head for a second operation, you loose your index with a round column. I want something with at least a square, dovetail column. A knee adjustment would also be super. The combo units are inconvenient. Seems whenever you want to use the mill, you have to tear down a lathe setup and vice versa. Separate units seem to work out better. Just my opinion. Worth about what you paid for it.

 

[rbent]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

I would look into a used bridgeport, you can find scremaing deals on them from time to time. They are everywhere, a great machine, very versatile, and you can find parts for them. I've seen late '80's Series II machines lightly used, DRO and 3-axis powerfeed with lots of tooling go for under 3k. Just keep you eyes open and look for used machine salesmen.

 

[Iggy]

Re: looking for a mill/drill any ideas

IHCNC has a full turnkey CNC setup for $10K???

I'm looking to buy a mill in a new shop we are building for my current job to do a lot of repairs in house. Is this a good company?