HF Mill/Drill

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Had one similar, ran it for almost ten years without major problems. BIggest drawback with any mill drill and round column, if you can't get a balance in your tooling, you're going to do a lot of indicating to get things on center after raising/lowering the head. Another poster queried the spindle/table minimum, I don't remember it ever causing any problem, but there were times I wished the maximum was more.

The HF is identical to the one I had, including the cheesy handwheels, I made new ones, even that not a problem. I also added thrust bearings to both ends of the longitudinal lead screw, made it a lot nicer to operate. The thrust bearing retainer for the find downfeed is plastic, but it was seven years before I had to make one out of metal to replace it.

Mill vise is important, a 4" works about perfectly for the size of the machine. The machine has more power than you can use, one horse would be perfectly adequate. Tuned up and deburred, it's quite capable of doing respectable work, but this ain't no Milwaukee vertical. Sometimes lighter cuts than you really want to take are called for. Making sure the column is square with the table is also a must, if it ain't, put shims in until it is.

Rich

My mill (Gorton) has a table motion of .125 for each turn of a hand wheel. I thought it would be awkward, but it's not really. I got used to it pretty quickly.

Peter

Peter,

Fair enough. 0.2 is fairly obvious to me; how do you think your way around at 0.125/turn?

Bill

I think in increments of .125". One inch is eight turns. .475" is three turns plus .100".

If I ever get my DROs put together and mounted, then I won't have to think at all!

Peter

snip

No thinking at all?? Bad omen.

I used a similar (maybe identical) HF machine for several years before I got my Bridgeport. Now, the transition was like swapping a battered Chevy for a Cadillac. Nonetheless, a battered Chevy will get you where you need to go...

My HF machine had a power X-axis, which is well worth it. Another trick you need to do to make it a viable machine is to make some brackets to which you can easily attach dial indicators. You can't trust the scales on the machine (not even on a good machine). And it is difficult (and expensive) to put a DRO on a mill-drill. You don't need expensive dial indicators, either. Most of the time, you just need to be able to return the table to a specific position. Or, you make a rough cut, measure it with a caliper and adjust the table a few thou for the final cut.

When you buy an HF (or similar) machine, you can expect to do a little "cleaning up" on it. The finish is never the greatest. I have bought a lot of "stuff" from HF over the years and, while a few things have been junk, most of it has proven to be very satisfactory. One rule I live by is to never buy anything from HF with an edge on it, because it won't retain it for long.

Another thing you will quickly learn is that you can't even drive past a tool store without you wallet automatically emptying. But, have faith. Eventually you will accumulate a set of tools that will do what you need (different people have different needs, so it is hard to predict what yours might be...) and the outgo slows down dramatically...

Another tip on these small machines: Some are called "milling and drilling" machines, others are "drilling and milling" machines. The latter are glorified drill presses that can do "some" light milling. The former are more like "real" mills. ALL machines (even the best) are basically made of Jello and the lighter ones are made of WARM Jello... Although I don't see them on the current web site, HF normally carries several similar machines, ranging from light duty to heavier ones. I would definitely put the extra bucks into the big fellow...

Jerry

Indeed! Here in the States, we do most things by the inch, so that calibration is in keeping with our measuring system. You learn to count in eighths.

Gorton sure made some nice machines!

Harold

Ditto. My KBC A1S knee mill has 8 pitch leadscrews (0.125" per turn) also. It seems strange at first, but you do get used to it rather quickly. No big deal, really, though a 0.1" or 0.2" per turn screws are easier to use at first.

Dan Mitchell ============

How did you compare them? Were you able to touch all the machines?

Peter

Here's a new concept:

swivelling table, Now I'm going to wonder all night what advantage it has over a fixed table.. (Tapered slots?)

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