new guy

[Falcon]

Hello all. I am not a Machinist, I am how ever in the market for a mill drill. And I hope to CNC it some day. It will be used for hobby.
I am wanting to know which mill is best, for my price range.
Some ware in the $1500.00 range. Right know it looks like the RF45, Or the Lathes master mill.
I want a square column, I here a round column is not good.

I have been lurking here for a wile, and would like to here what you guys think is a good mill.

thanks for your help. Sorry spell check no workeyl.

[marvinstov]

Hi Falcon,

Welcome. I have an X3 from Lathemaster and am very happy with it. Didn't think I had room for the bigger one or would have gotten it. Plus I wasn't wanting to have something that heavy in case I needed to move. I have heard nothing but good about all Lathemaster products and have an 8x14 lathe on order. Check out the Lathemaster forum if you haven't already, there is some recent information on the big mill there.

Marv

[Ken_Shea]

Falcon, everyone may have a favorite, but my guess is there is no best. For around that amount you should be able to get a respectable mill/drill, look into used units on ebay, I just saw a bridgeport CNC 1980's model but never used go for $1150, nice size unit but with short X,Y travel, at $1150 it was a steal. You might look into models from Grizzly, MSC, ENCO.

Ken

[MetDetect]

I just spent quite a bit of time researching these and I purchased the Lathemaster, it arrived about a week ago. Aaron over at IndustrialHobbies.com converts these square column mills to cnc so he's seen them all in person Enco, Lathemaster, Wholesale Tools, RongFu, etc. and his recommendation is also the Lathemaster. He says that if you are going to convert it to cnc then you will remove most of the parts you would pay extra for on the Rong Fu. I purchased Aaron's cnc kit also, here are some pics.

[cncadmin]

Holy geez ! Nice stuff!

[marvinstov]

Man that is something! Very nice!

Marv

[Falcon]

Wooh That is what I want. I like the Lathemaster.