What small shop Mill-Drill machine?

[Pete Wass]

I keep feeling the need for a small Mill-Drill machine for my shop so that I can do some light milling and drill good holes in stuff I am making. Of the machines available under a grand, what is the best one for my needs? This machine will not be used a whole lot.

 

[pbike]

Pete, look around for a very good used one. There are very good deals out there right now, after all nothing is being built here anymore, it's all gone to china, even the printing.

Paul

Ps I'm working on your little projects this week.

 

[Pete Wass]

Thanks paul. I sent your father a "Care Package" yesterday.

 

[Ian_Owen]

Pete one thing I would look for in a mill drill is the ability to raise the workhead for tooling changes etc and not have to dial back into the work. I ended up getting a mill drill with a dovetail column.
Something like this
http://www.grizzly.com/products/9-x-32-Gear-Head-Mill-Drill-with-Stand/G0484

Ian

 

[RJM]

Ian is right. I bought the G1126 round column mill drill 6-7 yes ago & like it a lot. However, being able to raise the head without loosing position would be great.
Regards,
Ron

 

[Pete Wass]

That is a nice looking machine allright but probably out of my price range right now after getting two RF rifles up and going and and a newer car.

 

[Ian_Owen]

Pete, I saw a couple of smaller ones with dovetail columns on Grizzlys website if this is the way you want to go.
From personal experience I thought I could get by with a small mill/drill, and did for a while. I just worked to it's limitations, but I did find that quite a few jobs were getting sent out because the mill/drill was just too small and I ended up getting frustrated with it. So I ended up selling the small one to get a larger one, I found it cost more to buy the large one this way than if I had just saved a few more$$$ and bought the large one. While a larger machine can accomodate larger work it also has more mass and rigidity which is the biggest plus for the larger machine........Ian

 

[GLZ]

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill-Drill/G0463

Guess it depends on what you consider "Small". This is probably in your budget but is much small than the one Ian posted. I was gonna suggest an Enco, i've had one for 25 years that has given good service but just checked the price

 

[Pete Wass]

We're getting there!

 

[Rich De]

Ditto on the Enco. I have had mine for about 15 years and it does a multitude of milling chores.
Rich De