Hello Everyone, I'm looking for an Afforable Mill machine. My price limit is about 700.00. I do simple work, no 3D milling. Just simple straight cuts, but i need a mill that can handle working with Aluminum. My initial thought was the Harbor Freight Mill: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44991 But I have it's not a great Mill and that the chuck is not really intended for lateral movements. But I did however look at this mill: http://www.taigtools.com/mmill.html (The Micro Mill) Looks like a very good mill, at least from what i have heard.


Can I get any help.


-Jason

They are both good mills. It sounds like you are very new to this as the chuck shown with the HF mill is a drill chuck. You should never use that for holding end mills.
With either mill you'll need a budget for tooling.
I have a grizzly x2 which is similar to that HF version. They are decent mills but need a good amount of cleanup and tweaking. I think the Taig is a better finished mill but is lighter and less powerful.
The x2 will cut aluminum and steel with no problems. With steel it is slow going though.
Steve

I have an X2 Mini Mill from Harbor Freight Tools. It is a good little machine.You will need to take it apart and clean off all of the packing grease.
You did not mention what kind of travel you would need.
The X2 is:Y-axis 4" x X-axis 8"
The drill chuck is not really intended for lateral movements,but you can buy collets on Ebay for a good price.Also you could upgrade it to a pulley drive and do away with the plastic gears.You could do all of what I said for about another 150$ on top of what the machine cost $479$ You could get a percision vice from Enco for about 79$

Total of $708$

I have the CNC Fusion ballscrew kit on mine, with a Xylotex controller.

I noticed that the HF Mill and the http://www.grizzly.com/products/G8689 are and look about the same. So whats needed for holding end mills, individual ones such as this http://www.grizzly.com/products/G5609

What do mean by cleanup and tweaking, what is that you need to tweak. Sorry for my Nubish talk, but i'm trying to get into it.



-Jason

I noticed that the HF Mill and the http://www.grizzly.com/products/G8689 are and look about the same. So whats needed for holding end mills, individual ones such as this http://www.grizzly.com/products/G5609

What do mean by cleanup and tweaking, what is that you need to tweak. Sorry for my Nubish talk, but i'm trying to get into it.



-Jason

You can use the end mill holders like those.I would suggest collets, check out Ebay. You just need to clean the grease off of everything,maybe lap the gibs(polish the gibs) 800 grit 1000grit 1500grit .CNC fusion sells a great conversion kit if you want to make it CNC.(group)

I had the Harbor Freight mill and made it cnc it worked pretty good it could have used a little more rpm, you need to take the drill chuck out and put a R8 collet in there for milling http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2030

Mitch

Can we get back on topic? I'm going to delete all OT posts in this thread.

Can we get back on topic? I'm going to delete all OT posts in this thread.

thx

Thanks, for what I do. I don't need anything to crazy, a mini mill is what I need. I just need to find a decent one, and maybe later on one that cnc be converted!

Quick question though, when taking out the Chuck, how does a collet stay in place and is it easy to swap bits?


-Jason

there is a screw on top of the mill head to pull the collet inside the quill

.

Oh thank you very much!

Do You think a Mill like this http://www.emachinetool.com/new/catalog/vertical.cfm?DestinationCategory=Mini%20%26%20CNC%20Vertical%20%20Mill&ProductID=953#Delivery compares to the grizzly style/Harbor Freight.



-Jason

If your parts are small, check out the HF micro mill. It's on sale for $259
You can add x&y extension kits from little machine shop later if you need more room.
I have one and cut aluminum easily and steel going slow.

It is also very easy to convert the micro to cnc

Aaron

I found what I'm looking for.

And what I'm looking for, compared to other Mills. There all the same, built in the same place, just different feature according too Littlemachineshop.com. So I have what I want, it can also later be turned into a nice CNC mill.


Thanks.



-Jason

Well what did you get or decide?

Oh thank you very much!

Do You think a Mill like this http://www.emachinetool.com/new/catalog/vertical.cfm?DestinationCategory=Mini%20%26%20CNC%20Vertical%20%20Mill&ProductID=953#Delivery compares to the grizzly style/Harbor Freight.



-Jason

if you want my point of view this is an x2 with a couple of shell change to make it custom

if you want my point of view this is an x2 with a couple of shell change to make it custom

I can confirm that this is a COMPLETELY different animal. This is the machine that KDN tool uses for one of his CNC machines. Check out:

http://kdntool.com/_sgg/m2m5_1.htm

for a comparison. In general I think this is a better mill than the X2.

-Jeff

I'm buying a small, used but working CNC mill. Then going to convert the CNC parts to the mill I wanted orginally.


-Jason