Any Enco 8x36 mill owners?

I owned one for a couple of years. I got mine from W.T Tools. Heres the link:

It's $2,895. If you ask nicely they will probably give you a 10% or

15% discount. BTW, this is a three phase machine and includes the VFD.

I converted mine to CNC. It's a great machine. I moved and sold the machine to a friend (He loves it also) then bought a Bridgeport clone from W.T. Tool for the new shop. I converted that one to CNC also. Here's a link:

Gang,

Another suggestion lead me to take a quick look at Grizzly as a price check, and the machine below jumped out as unique. I think I know much of what you will say, but please have a look at:

and rip it to shreds (or not) as you deem appropriate. The price and weight are pretty attractive. The x-travel stinks, but that's not what usually hurts me. The cross travel is excellent. I assume it is suitable to Al at best???

Among the pluses of my mill-drill is spindle/table capability. I do not even want to know how high it will go. Every so often, I crank it up a bit, and it gets pretty ominous looking. The 8x36 I mentioned falls a little short there, and I have not seen a riser block for it (haven't looked very hard yet).

Bill

A friend of mine has a very similar mill. It's not bad, but the 8X36 is much better. For instance, the G9959 does not have a an adjustable ram. You have, however, hit on the biggest weakness of the 8X36, it's table to spindle distance. Given the limitations of each I would much rather have the 8X36. In almost all cases where it was a problem I was able to overcome the 8X36s short spindle to table distance by creative setups. The 8X36 is also called a baby Bridgeport. It is very, very similar to a Bridgeport (although it has no head knuckle or power spindle feed, neither one of which I missed).

I would get either the 8X36 or a full sized Bridgeport clone.

I understand at least some of what I could do with that, but how much does it add? Does it help to compensate for cross-travel limits? At what cost?

Can you give some examples of what you mean? I deal with that now, but mostly in relative distance; I am not kidding when I say my mill-drill gets scary tall :)

Fair enough. Capacity vs. money and weight. Where's that anti-grav unit I ordered?? :)

Thanks!

Bill

I believe that by extending the ram and swiveling the head you can actually get the spindle off the table edge. This could be helpful when you want to work on a the end of a long part clamped to the front edge of the table (the part would be verticle). And yes, it does compensate for shorter X travel.

For example, when I had to ream a hole in a tall piece I cut off some of the shank of the reamer to get the distance I needed from the drill chuck to the part.

My advice is to spend the absolute most that you can afford and get the heaviest mill with the biggest working envelope available for that money. You will never regret getting a larger and heavier mill, but at some point will regret getting a smaller and lighter one.

As I just posted in a reply to Nick, storm damage is a realistic scenario. I do not have to be able to move a mill far or often, but I would want to be able to do so. If I buy something that will have to stay where it lands, I want to give that some serious thought. Ron, the guy who first taught me how to run a mill, says he has dragged BPs by himself. However, a BP might move by itself on Ron's command (nicest guy you'd ever want to meet, but one scary looking dude), so that might not count. Other folks report everything from "no problem" to "don't try it". Looking at the various reports, something happens between 1500 and 2500 lb.

Bill

You really can move a BP by yourself if you know how. You use a Johnson bar (a long pry bar) to lift the front about an inch or so. Then, put a piece of round bar or heavy pipe under it. Do the same in the rear. Now you can manhandle it around. As a pipe comes out from under one end of the base put it back on the other end of the base. As long as the surface (hopefully concrete) is relatively smooth and level you will not have a problem. I have not personally done this, but when my Baby Bridgeport was delivered by my rigger (a small guy without huge muscles), I was astonished at how easy it was for him to move it exactly where I wanted it using this method.

Bill Schwab fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

My Cincinatti #2 with the table and head on tips around 3-grand.

I had a truck wrecker strongarm my Cincy #2 off the flatbed, and put it just inside the door threshold of my building. Then I finished the wall, and put in a door .

With a fair collection of stout, long pry bars, fulcrum blocks, and 4' long x 1.5" steel rollers, I was able to move it single-handed to the final position.

It wasn't so much hard, as it was a "thinking job". THINK what'll happen if it slips off the rollers. THINK where your hands and toes are at all times. Think, think, think -- and when you thunk it all, think some more.

I'm not a big guy -- 'bout 180 wet, and a year away from 60; but it never taxed my strength, just my fear-factor.

LLoyd

Lloyd,

That sounds about right for what I would need. I suspect I would feel better "thinking" (good point!) it across the garage using a crane and dollies vs. rollers. If I can find an appropriate tool at a reasonable price, I would certainly consider buying it.

Thanks,

Bill

I used the Enco 100-5100 equivalent for a while. Its work envelope is about the same as my Clausing and the R8 spindle is more useful. The main parts were reasonably well made although the little fittings were junk, and it needed some tweaking. But overall it was acceptable for non-critical prototype work (deliverables and flight hardware always went to the main machine shop anyway).

I have an older version. Other than being a little cramped under the spindle and in the Y-axis, it's a great machine. I fitted mine with a VFD and X-axis power feed.