If you had 1000 dollars what mini mill would you buy?

[Brian in PA]

OK guys I have been doing some checking on the web for a good mill to buy and there are so many out there! I appreciate the replies on my other thread, but I would like to see some more ideas on good mills. There must be 50 different ones:confused::confused: As always, thanks in advanced!

Brian

[ihbuilder]

none :p I'd buy a good used BP ;) :p

Brian , I made a mistake buying a mini , so I don't know how much help I'll be :o
to mess around with , any 1 will work .

[Brian in PA]

No problem Steve, Thanks anyway. I don't have Bridgeport funds,:p besides I don't want a big one, just some thing that I make parts on instead of using a file and air grinder!:eek::eek:

Brian

[ihbuilder]

How long can you wait ? we should have talked more on this last sat. I'm just not sure yet on unloading mine till I know my cnc mill is running at full potential . If I could get the cincinnati I saw on mon. ( takes the same tool holders as my cnc mill :) ) I'd sell my lil 1 .

[9W Monighan]

Brian, You should be able to get a Bridgeport for $1000-$1500 that may suit you. You may have to do a liitle work on some of the one there right now. Google: ''HGR"

[Heavy Metal]

Brian -
I know Steve (IHB) isn't real happy with his Taig - for what he does - but I've been working my little Taig pretty hard and it just keeps on cranking. Just throwing that out there in case you end up making a deal with Steve on his. Granted I'm only doing aluminum and doing pretty small parts. I got a real good deal on mine fully CNC'd w/ Microproto controller and including a HEAVY steel frame work bench and fully enclosed with a nice plexi cabinet and chip chute/tray. For milling my small aluminum parts I really haven't found anything yet where the rigidity of the mill or the motor power was my limit except or the stuff with bigger end mills that I don't do much. Steve mentioned fly cutting being a problem with his and I ended up needing to do some last weekend on a big chunk of aluminum plate. Whole operation went real smooth taking like .01 or .015 on each pass. Real nice finish...ran smooth as butter. Obviously a bigger mill could've hogged through a deeper cut...but, hey if you don't have the money then take extra time. I think having the Taig bolted down to the big steel frame bench is part of the success with mine.

Now...not saying I wouldn't like a bigger mill and I might start looking soon but the Taig has worked out well so far. ****...I've worn a drive belt out making parts with this thing already.

One other note...I also had a MaxNC closed loop servo CNC mill and IMO it was too lightweight for any kind of metal work. Don't want to knock the company or anyone that uses them but I sold mine and kept the Taig.

Guess that's my two cents. Keep in mind I'm relatively new to machining in general.

Joe

[ihbuilder]

Joe , for what I'm getting into , the tiag is to small . It is a good lil machine but has its limits . I'm glad I got it when I did , it beats the dremel :p . But as always with me , I out grow what I think will work at the time I buy it . It'll be a lil while till I let it go . It's nice to have a manuel mill in the shop for 1 of's . In my thinking it still needs to be replaced before it goes by a cinci or BP . but we'll see how the cnc mill works . My wife got tired of hearing me cussing last night and ordered my vise and converter :D . HMMM I'll have to cuss some more maybe a cnc lathe next :rolleyes::p:p:p:D:D:D

[pugs]

Well, lots of people make some really cool thing with mini mills. Myself, I don't think I could handle one of them, have a 7x10 mini lathe that I absolutely hate, but my dad thinks its great for little stuff like turning necks on bullet cases.

With your budget, I would look for a slightly bigger benchtop mill like the Rong-Fu type size. They also make good candidates for future cnc conversion. But if you think a mini mill will work for what you want to do then go for it.

[derailed]

i bought a microlux mill and lathe from micro-mark
i dont regret it
it all depends on what you want to do with it
first thing i did was swap the chuck to a collet
not a large work area compared to large mills but i have made 4 foot long frame rails with it
your limited to your imagination and materials you can scavenge up
lol

[Brian in PA]

Thanks for all the help guys!