buying advice

I would suggest you look at the offerings from Warco as opposed the Chester. Same product and Warco has a far better track record as regards service. Chester has a truly indifferent sales support. -- Regards,
John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Chester's "Champion" mill appears to be Warco's ZX15. It doesn't have adjustable gibs, but I'm not sure this matters for the low utilisation a hobby machine will get. I looked at the Eagle, which also seems to have a duplicate at Machine Mart and Warco, but this is big step up from a mini mill - 200Kgs and needs at least a square metre of floor space. It has a good range of speeds and is belt driven. The Eagle and its equivalents appear to be much better value for money than the Conquest.
I've also had conflicting advice on the chucks to use. These mills come with a drill chuck included in the price, but a milling collet chuck is an extra £90 or so. I've been told the milling chuck is a) essential and b) not essential so ?
Steve

These mills come Steve,
A collet-type milling chuck is essential. End-mills and slot-drills usually work their way out of drill chucks (to the detriment of the work piece and if you're very unlucky, the table). The alternative is to use end-mill holders which are significantly cheaper if you only need a couple (they only take one size of milling cutter).
Whatever you choose, don't even try milling with a drill chuck (been there, done that, got the scrapped job in bin).
Mark

Thanks for the suggestions. Looked at warco and they seem good as well
You think the champion would be the one to go for then? I cant find warco named zx-15? 200kg's might be a bit difficult to move into m garage thinking about it. My current mill came with a drilling chuck and I bought a posilock milling chuck for £90. Well worth the money. M one is equivilent to the cobra mill sold by chester, but with slightly different table
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

Yeah I completely agree. There are milling chucks and drilling chuck
for a reason! My current chuck is 2MT so it wouldnt fit those 3M machines, but I will definatly get another. To get a nice surfac finish, especially when milling with the side of a cutter a millin chuck is a must
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

It's new on their site and is at the top of the page BV-20 Lathe and ZX-15 Milling Machine
I've been puzzling over this for a few weeks and The champion is about as big as I can handle and seemingly much better value and less problem than the Conquest.
Warco are reported to have superior after sales to Chester and there is a £5 difference between the ZX15 and the Champion. I don't have a confirmed list of what each company will throw into the deal though.
Regards
Steve

Oh I see. With chester the prices are inclusive of delivery as well
warco doesnt seem to say though. I think that champion or zx15 is th way to go for me :
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

oops, lol so are warco. Well looks like warco would be the one to g
for
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

We have a ZX-25 from Axminster. I guess it is the same as Warco's version.
It has made a fair bit of a Sweet Pea, and done a few other odd jobs. The only problem was when a screw inside the table vibrated loose, and jammed the table.
The only thing to watch is that on these cheap mills the head is free to rotate if you raise it, so you must set the head height before you set up your job.
You do need a collet chuck, and you will need a swivelling milling vice, and a tilting vice, together with a load of clamps, or you could make your own on your new miller :-)
Martin L

What's the difference between the Posilock and the "ordinary" version that's in Chester's catalogue?
Steve

Thanks Martin.
Plan is to follow Harold Hall's book (A Complete Milling COurse) which starts by making T nuts, clamps, parallels and then into more advanced stuff. Seems a good way to learn.
Regards
Steve

Yeah I'm looking at a nice big tilting milling vice. At the moment I us
a quick vice...which is bit small for the jobs I want to do. One thin that concerned me is that the zx15 is only £550, £50 than the min miller. Wonder why it is so cheap for a much larger machine? A 1600rp spindle speed I thought was a little bit low. I usually run mine a 2000 for aluminium
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

I bought my E25 from Chester. I bought it at Harrogate. Took about 2 weeks for delivery (longer than their estimate of 7-10 days).
I had some finicky remarks about it but nothing too serious. The destruction manual is translated and doesn't read very well. I found it difficult to find out how to adjust the speeds of the machine.
With the machine, actually came a 5/8" drill chuck, a 65mm dia flycutter (with carbide tips), a 4" swivelling milling vice (very sturdy) and a tilting vice. The only thing missing was t-nuts. I asked them about it and they said that they don't come with t-nuts. I then said that it is like giving a child a new toy at christmas and not giving him any batteries (especially in light of having 2 vices). They then sent me some t-bolts and nuts.
(Mind you, when I bought the miller, I did also buy a dividing head from them.)
Best regards, Dave Colliver. Customise your internet experience

I think posilock is just the brand or model. Although there ar
different types. An ER collet chuck takes any milling tool type, wher as mine only takes screwed shank cutters. I looked on axminster and th ZX25M seems great value for money! Looks just like the e25 but fo £585
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

Steve,
FWIW I have a Chester Champion and a much bigger Warco dovetailed column mill. I've found both companies to be excellent but then I've had no cause to use Chester's after sales service which I've heard can be a bit problematic. Chester's delivery was co-ordinated much better than Warco's (although Warco delivered a day early and it was just luck that I happened to be in!).
There can be no doubt that Warco pay more attention to machine finish but the Champion was OK after I'd tweaked it by replacing the hex head table and quill locks and generally tidied it up. I ended up having to repaint the Chester because the paint finish was thin and scratched whereas Warco seem to do a nice job of filling and finishing their castings.
Overall, the Champion has been an excellent machine and much more robust than you would imagine a machine of this size to be. The 400 - 1600 RPM spindle speed is a bit limiting at both ends but could be significantly improved with an inverter set-up.
On balance I think I would go for the Warco because of their better finishing (also the green colour is more practical than Chester's white which always ends up looking dirty).
The "ordinary" collet chuck is an E series (20 IIRC) whereas the posilock uses a positive locking system that needs a flat on the cutter and only comes in a few shank sizes. The advantage of the ordinary chuck is that it takes standard E series collets which can be bought in 1mm increments meaning that you can hold any size shank (I sometimes use them for holding drills rather than changing the chuck).
I hope it helps
Mark

Thanks for all the information :) Very helpful! I have also been lookin
at the emco units. The maximat F1 looks quite good, but I can't fin the price for that. The unimat mini mill also looks nice, and has a impressive spindle speed of up to 4000rpm, but it isnt an upgrade fro my existing one in terms of size. Thanks for all the input :
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

View this thread: Once delivery is added in its £70 cheaper than the Eagle, which 10%. The table on the Eagle has 4 T slots but the ZX25 is advertised with only 3, but the tables are stated to be the same size, the spindle speeds are the same and the motor is the same.
Not sure a machine that big is manageable in my workshop though.
Regards
Steve

10% is worth while. But its hard to get a real idea of size withou
actually seeing it. I am going to look into the emco models a bit more
-- milg ----------------------------------------------------------------------- milgo's Profile: this thread:

Milgo, you seem to be posting via rcgroups.com and they seem to want to create a new thread every time you post. This is very bad. Please use a proper newsreader like Forte Free Agent to read the group and shout at rcmodels.com a bit.
Tim