where to get bed mill with rotating head

Greetings:

Knuth is indeed a high priced distributor. Their products are imported to Germany from China / Taiwan. They do, however, say that they exercise enhanced quality control... in the same way that Grizzly say that they inspect their machines. I think that one would want to see the particular machine that one proposes to acquire, rather than ordering sight unseen. I have seen their machines on display at the AMB show in Stuttgart. They were indistinguishable, from a fit and finish standpoint, from China / Taiwan machines from other distributors in USA that I have seen. I haven't taken the time to drive to one of their outlets.

Regards, Jim Brown

"Bryan Willman" wrote in news:c9qasa$a1r$0 @pita.alt.net:

Check out the Mazak 250/50's.

Knuth is actually more like Jet than Grizzly- a european owned company that sources machines from all over the world. Some Knuth machines are still made in Germany, while others are clearly italian or spanish. And quite a few of their fabricating products are made in Turkey. They have a US showroom near chicago, and they claim to stock tools there- so I would call them and ask if they have one of what you want on the floor.

I am pretty sure the bed mill is a copy of a german style of milling machine- probably a Deckel. I am not familiar with this style of mill, and am frankly not sure why you couldnt do the same thing with a standard horizontal or vertical mill. But what I would suggest you do is post over at the practicalmachinist website, in the Deckel forum. If there are other manufacturerers better than whoever is making the Knuth machines, or if there are used ones on the market, those guys would know. They could also tell you whether or not you really need a bed mill to do what you want, or what other mill might do the job.

Google "Birmingham milling machines". They have a line of bed mills. The distributor is in CA. CP Tools, I think. You can also get an angle head for it. These are manual mills, not CNC.

Mark

How about something like a Maho / Deckel with both horizontal and vertical spindles. Available in both manual and CNC configurations.

A friend of mine bought a used manual machine with the dual spindle setup for a few thousand dollars. Polish made machine, can't remember the name. Is in his home hobby shop and is quite tickled pink with it 'cause of its versatility.

Something to consider.

I was using one such machine on Wednesday. Made by "First" IIRC, I think out of Taiwan. Perhaps like a series II Bpt with a spindle taper in the column. The ram is longer so that it can be fully extended across the table and of course an arbor support is supplied.

I thought it quite a good idea. Good for squaring large blocks as you can just clamp them to the table and stick a face mill in the horizontal spindle.

Regards,

Robin

Black Dragon wrote in news:c9sprf$30pj$ snipped-for-privacy@bdhi.net:

BD, we have several of those Deckel machines in our jigs shop, All but one is cnc (heidenhain control). You will not find a more versatile, handy and easily set up milling machine. Two have C-axis on them...with the vert/horizontal spindle capability, it's amazing what you can do with them.

We have a Deckel horizontal boring mill, 50 taper, 30HP. It has a right angle attachment for a vertical spindle that never gets used 'cause we already have plenty vertical machines. The thing's 40 years old and gets used daily for mold base work. You can put a 3" dia roughing endmill in it and take 6" deep full width cuts in pre-hard (RC 35/40) steel, then take the cutter out, put a boring bar in, and finish guide pin holes to fine tolerances. After all these years it's still quite the impressive machine.

There's something to be said about old iron. Ever see any Fadal's or Haas's that weren't totally clapped out and virtually useless for accurate work after 10 years? I haven't.

Black Dragon wrote in news:c9vian$u89$ snipped-for-privacy@bdhi.net:

BD, I'm not so sure that a Haas or Fadal would last a year in our shop, let alone 10. We don't abuse equipment....but we do *use* it, to its full capabilities, 100% of the time, and sometimes beyond what the manufacturer thinks it's capabilities are a bit. It has to be one hell of a machine to last 10 years in our production environment. That said, most of those deckels in our jigs shop are OLD iron, but have recently been rebuilt, and updated a bit. Deckels are a hell of a machine, the sticky part on them is price, BUT, i guess just like anything else, you get what you pay for.

I think they have a standard Bridgeport style head