small mill for home shop

Mike Berger · 2005-12-12T23:04:48+00:00

I'm looking for a mill for my home shop. I've passed up a fewgreat deals on Bridgeports (and a really nice hardinge lathe)because my shop is located in the basement. It's dry, there'slots of headroom, and it has a nice concrete floor. But it'sstill downstairs. I'm trying to limit any machines that godownstairs to 1000 pounds or so (per subassembly if they canbe disassembled without a lot of trouble!).I want something better than the mill/drill units, something withmore stability and precision. I'll be working with mostly softermetals, fabricating parts for small engines and projects.I was considering the following three mills from Grizzly andwondered if anybody had experience with them:G3102 It's 915 pounds and looks almost like a real mill, onlysmaller! $ 1800G6760 At 1701 pounds it's definitely a stretch, and at $ 2700it's at the high end of my price range, but it might be feasibleif it's substantially better.G3616 This looks more like a Bridgeport than the others, and it'seven a little cheaper at $ 3400, but weighs 1996 pounds, and ifit doesn't break down into a few pieces it's probably too big.I freely acknowledge the superiority of a lot of the older US mademachinery (thus the Clausing 5400 series lathe instead of theGrizzly, Enco, et. al. alternatives) but my primary limitation isthat the equipment has to get down to the basement safely.Comments on the above machines, or suggested alternatives, arewelcome.

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Pete C. 20 years ago

The OP clearly indicated he had a basement with lots of headroom so that would not be an issue. He didn't indicate any space constraints either so since a bench top mill doesn't take that much less of a footprint than a Bridgeport space is likely not an issue.

The one issue the OP indicated was weight, and he further qualified this as 1,000# or so "per subassembly if they can be disassembled without a lot of trouble". A full sized Bridgeport when easily broken down into head, table and base sections is quite close to this specification with the base section being perhaps 1,500# without the head or table. Further the disassembly and reassembly of a Bridgeport can be handled by one person with a hydraulic engine hoist and one 4' sling (I've done it multiple times myself).

The bottom line being that a full sized Bridgeport would provide more capability and higher quality than a small bench top import mill and pretty much meets the OP's spec of 1,000# or so per easy subassembly.

Pete C.

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Richard 20 years ago

Nor did he state there weren't any. Assume nothing. When someone doesn't have space/weight constraints, they normally don't specify "small mill".

Putting my KBC together with limited headspace was all kinds of fun, just imagine how much more fun it would be with even less headspace, more weight, and no place to use a hoist. Bridgeports were made to be put in shops with high ceilings, not for trying to squeeze in someone's basement. Possibly it could be done safely, but more often than not, it won't be.

As far a quality issues, there are two of us here that own the KBC, and we're not having any problems, against you, who doesn't own one, that says there are. Methinks maybe I smell rotten fish?

The KBC also isn't a bench mill. For someone that needs a small mill, I can recommend it without hesitation.

Rich (Who will now "plonk" this thread.)

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Gunner Asch 20 years ago

Probably one of the most sage pieces of advice Ive seen here in a long time

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the s*it out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

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Gunner Asch 20 years ago

There are other alternatives, if one looks around a bit

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Ive seen this mill. Quite interesting

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the s*it out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

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Pete C. 20 years ago

He specified plenty of headroom and about 1,000# per subsection and a Bridgeport fits that spec.

I assembled my Bridgeport, a 1J on a round ram base, in a basement with a 7' ceiling, by myself using a hydraulic engine hoist and sling, with no issues whatsoever. I also disassembled the same myself in the same manner when moving, again with no issues. I recall seeing some weight specs somewhere with the base at about 1,200#, and the ram/head and table sections each well under 1,000#

I specified higher quality than a small bench top import mill. I stand

100% behind this statement as a non-beat-to-death Bridgeport will beat any bench top import mill I have ever seen. I have not seen the KBC and can not make a comparison to it, but I'm pretty sure that it's quality does not exceed that of a Bridgeport.

The KBC may well be a decent machine, however that is not relevant to my point. My point is that a full sized Bridgeport does indeed meet the specifications indicated by the OP. I expect the OP did not realize how easily a Bridgeport can be disassembled into the nominal 1,000# parts.

I never said the KBC was a bench mill or that it was bad.

Plonk away bud, you've not made a single legitimate argument to any of my statements.

Pete C.

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Larry Jaques 20 years ago

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 20:22:52 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Gunner Asch quickly quoth:

His UPS guy must be an ex-sumo wrestler. From the auction:

"We send via UPS Ground Domestic and USPS for International. No PO Boxes, no exceptions. "

Is that in one box or two?

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pyotr filipivich 20 years ago

You take one lousy week off to join Thorax at the Elvis concert, and this is what happens: "Pete C." writes on Tue, 13 Dec 2005

15:08:25 GMT in rec.crafts.metalworking :

"Wisdom"

Years ago, friend ask me for advice about returning to college, seeing as how she had a life threatening illness. I said "Go! You could be dead in five years, but then again you might live. And if you don't die, you will have your degree, and can pick up from there."

That was over fifteen years ago. She still is not in tip-top health, but who of us really is? Re-married too.

tschus pyotr

>

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Daniel A. Mitchell 20 years ago

Indeed, the KBC, and many other 'A1S' mills are 'floor' mills and not 'bench' mills.

"A1S' mills DO come in both versions, however. The floor versions are much like the popular Clausing 8000 series mills, but larger and heavier overall. The heads are similar on all I've seen, but the floor models have longer columns and larger tables than the bench versions. The Grizzly version is sort of half way between, with a medium column height and a low base cabinet. The KBC version has the longest column of the many makes I have seen ... that means the greatest head to table clearance.

They are NOT the equivalent to a BP, even a BP clone, but they are nice little knee mills, and lot more capable than the common mill-drills.

I also have a Benchmaster mill. The Benchmaster is a nice little bench mill, but does NOT compare to the A1S in size or capability. It's half the size and weight of my KBC A1S.

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

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