Hello,

I'm interested in buying a mini-mill for conversion to CNC. I'm in Europe and here we don't have many choices.
Do you know where I could buy a mini mill like Taig or Sherline here ?
Or do you know the Chinese manufacturer that sell in US through Grizzly and others (maybe I can find european distributors).
Finally, do you know the model of this mill or who sells it - I would like to get one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=12584&item=3823801908&rd=1

Thanks.

Well, I found that Harborfreight sells those mini mills in US:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47158

But I still don't know who their Chinese supplier is.
Any ideas ?

that is a sieg x1 micro mill, i know that if you can get a copy of model engineers workshop, the issue with the sieg x3 review has information about where it can be found.

Thanks for the answer.
Unfortunately I cannot get the magazine you cited. If it's not too much trouble, I would really appreciate if could look it up for me.
Thanks.

Axminster power tools in the UK has just started stocking a minin mill. They also have an email adress to contact for over-seas deliveries. You can find that adress on the delivery info page over here:
http://www.axminster.co.uk/default.asp?submit=Publish&what=delivery&page=1
Hope it helps, but they may charge an arm and a leg!

Elenabux,
I've found a couple of dealer for sherline in europe. One is aerosupply.se, while the other is in austria ( you can search trough the dealer page in sherline site. )
As for the grizzly like mills there are a lot of reseller, also here in itlay, but the cost are too high to afford ( for me at least ).
The same mill ( CH10M from chung wich is the grizzly base mill ) is 495 $ in USA and 950 Euro here in italy.

I've choosed a simple setup to start using the bfw40 from proxxon, which is a little bigger than sherline, but much little than grizzly.

HTH
Pigi

ok i got out to the local ook store and they still had a copy of that issue in the suppier that they used for the micro mill is called -Arc euro trade- the rviewer seemed very happy with thier servive and recomended them

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Kong: I checked out the link you posted. This micro mill

http://www.axminster.co.uk/default.asp?part=010061

is quite interesting. The price is about 400 euros (without shipping) which is almost 2.5 times the ebay price in US :-(

Lt Paul: thanks for taking the time to look it up. A quick search for Arc Euro Trade gives only a physical address (no web site email or email).

Anyway, I'll keep looking. If any of you finds good deals on mini mills or mini lathes in Europe, please post them here. We got to stick together, considering ...

The Sieg X3 sells for around Eur. 1200 in Germany.

Here they call it "Black and Red X3":
http://www.cnc-maschinenhandel.com/shop/fraesmaschinen_und_zubehoer_black_und_red.htm

I haven't seen it, but I looked at the X2 at the exhibition in Sinsheim, and was not impressed. It's a strange way of tilting the head, the wole column tilts at the bottom!

The X1 sells for Eur. 400.

If you keep an eye out on ebay.de they will probably show up there as people find out they should have spent more than 400.

ESjaavik: thanks for the link. Indeed, it's the best deal so far in Europe (but far worse than in US).

I wrote an email to Sieg asking who are their distributors in Europe. They replied with the name of Sidermo, distributor in France.
Their prices are a lot higher though:

http://www.sidermo.com/modules/produits/produits.asp?mod=liste&selection=9

Anyway, keep them comming :-)

From that link: "Très bonne qualité de fabrication".
Ahem...well....I would not say that is the attribute that separates it from the rest. ;)
The same mill (X3) here in Norway costs the equivalent of Eur 1675,- and that includes 24%
Value Added Tax which I think is higher than in France. So Germany seems to be the cheapest.
http://www.dreibenk.com/index_eng.html <Norwegian site>

There are a couple of resellers on Ebay.de which sell the CH10M (grizzly minimill) for about 680€. I bought my minilathe from one.

If you prefer to deal with a shop, there is also RC Machines in Luxemburg.
http://www.rc-machines.com/index.php

Hi, Elenabux:

I am distribuiting the Sieg Machines at the South of Europe.
You may visit www.sodeintec.com for more details.

Regards.
Francisco

Be Careful,

The reason you don't have much choice in Europe is because of the CE certification requirements. If you can purchase it from a European supplier, it is safer than importing it yourself. When it comes to buying your electronics for the retrofit, be sure that are CE approved.

Ebay. There are resellers who sell these mini mills quite a bit cheaper than the hardware and tool stores which also stock them. I bought my mini lathe a few years ago from a reseller in Munich through Ebay.

I have the impression that Ebay Germany is the most developed Ebay market. You should be fine dealing with them in English if you don't speak german.

An example is a mini-mill ebay number 7337688942 buy it now for €599 which would appear to be from a reputable dealer.

At the end of the day, you will end up spending 3x the mill price on tooling once you get hooked :)

I am also in the market for a Mill in Switzerland and I found a few sites that might be of interests:

www.optimum-maschinen.de
www.quantum-maschinen.de
http://www.baxmeier.de/optimumfraesmaschinen.htm
http://www.top-maschinen.de/maschinen/fraesmaschinen/quantum-fraesmaschine-bf16-vario/index.htm

I am sure they are chinese/taiwanese (considering the price) but if I am not mistaken with german quality control engineers on the back. Take a look.

Azlan Hadi

The BF 16 and BF 20 Vario look like great buys. I would like to see one up close. They look very similar to the Prazi mills, but less cost.

Another site of interest might be:

http://www.cnc-steuerung.com/output/controller.aspx?cid=155&detail=10&detail2=4965

Here in Holland there's a company named "Herman Buitelaar BV" wich sells the black & red dragon x1 for 395 euro.

http://www.buitelaar.nl/comasy/templates/product.aspx?contentid=237&productid=585

If the direct link doesn't work, goto www.buitelaar.nl and look under "Freesmachine's".

Hi everyone,
Here is another link of mini mill reseller in Taiwan, Anary Technology.

http://www.anary.com.tw/lathe.htm