Got one of these coming for super cheap ($739 shipped) and cannot find much detail from community. The manufacturer has a website with specs:
https://www.bestechmachine.com/product/BT16V-Mini-Table-Bench-Drilling-Milling-Machine.html
But I have seen several numbers displayed for X and Y travel along with weight, belt or gear driven. It appears to be similar to a G0704 head without the 90 degree gear for Z axis handle and smaller bed. I assume the column, Z slide, bed, saddle and base are all unique to the BT16 making up the ~100lb difference.
I have a photo of the exact machine they are sending and it appears to have a high/low selection on side of the head so its likely not a belt setup. The puzzling part is the manufacturer has a video with the same high/low selector and oil inspection window(mine didnt appear to have one) yet they claim its belt. Perhaps belt driven to a shaft with high/low or are they mixing up models shown? The video:
https://youtu.be/S1j1x24is9s
I am hoping at least the travels are right as I have some linear scales coming in 350mm and 200mm which is 40mm longer then avertised 160mm but I believe an extension plate sticking past base will not look too terrible.
I'll update this thread with answers to a lot of these questions once the machine arrives.
Looking at the website pictures I'd suggest it is vee belt drive with two different pulley diameters hence the Hi / Low claim!
Don't expect too much performance from a brushed 600w motor though - it'll be ok, just not heart stopping.
Thanks for reply. Things are pretty slow here? I got the machine Friday and took some photos and superficially compared some dimensions to old G0704 parts I have left over from a conversion. Sadly the G0704 was sold but now that we own our home I can finally hang onto my better tooling.
It looks to be geared as I took off the motor cover and its essentially a G0704 under the hood. I was surprised to find that the head is actually a little smaller then the G0704 but not by much at all. The spindle looks massive in the head and appears to be around the same size as the G0704 as well. Column is same shape but again scaled down by 20% or so. That said, it all feels very beefy and the ways appear to have been scraped unlike my G0704 which only had the scraping pattern on its Z slide plate.
I believe the reason for the cheaper price was damage to the Z handle area. Looks like it fell on the head or something heavy did as the plate that retains the Z screw has cracks in 3 or 4 of the corners where the casting is thin. I can still adjust the Z without issue and all seems nice and tight so I wont worry about it for now.
Last ones. If you would like to see any specifics I'll post more once it's cleaned up, adjusted and put back together. So far I am impressed at the quality compared to my G0704, just wish it weighed another 100lbs or so. I feel like it weighs over 150lbs and the shipping weight was 198 in a thin box. IMO the 170lb weight on the factory website is likely accurate.
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New machine on the way BT16V
