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Thread: small mill

  1. #1
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    Default small mill

    Hi all , I am new to the forum , nice to find an Aussie forum , looking forward to it .

    I am looking at a new mill , my first one , I was thinking of the Sieg SX4 , but I am tempted to lash out for a knee mill , small Eximus .
    I don't know much about milling , but everything I read indicates that you always want a bigger mill .
    At this stage I am only thinking of small S/S parts for M/C restoration & workshop tools etc , but who knows from there .
    If anyone here has any experience with either of the above , or similar , I would love some feedback .
    Thanks

  2. #2
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    I would buy the biggest mill i could to be honest (up to the limit of no bigger than a 40 taper spindle speed is too low on nearly all 50 taper machines. And some 40.)

    Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

  3. #3
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    One other thing .
    I have a floor mount pedestal drill , would the mill make it obsolete or will I still need it ?
    The reason I ask is that if the drill goes it would be much easier to fit the knee mill in the shed .

  4. #4
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    Default small mill

    I have an old round column mill and whilst it makes the pillar drill obsolete for big stuff, the small stuff is still easier on the drill.

    But if you have to have the space you can still get rid of the drill. Worst case get a small one for a bench somewhere maybe?

    I also agree with getting as good a mill as you can. I love mine and it works perfectly for what I need to do but of course, bigger is always better.

    I would however advise that an accurate machine would be better than a big machine. My mill is worn out and you can work around it, but it’s harder to get accurate results when you have a lot of slop in the machine.

  5. #5
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    The plan for the SX4 was to bench mount it , so if I lash out on the knee mill , I can fit a drill on the bench .
    A lot more money though .

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dero View Post
    The plan for the SX4 was to bench mount it , so if I lash out on the knee mill , I can fit a drill on the bench .
    A lot more money though .
    What sort of work will you be doing? Type of stuff you’ll machine and rough dimensions?

  7. #7
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    Not having owned a mill before I have no real plan for it , other than small parts .
    S/S is a must for motorcycle parts etc , other than that I will see where it takes me .
    I used a mill with an indexer to make a spider for the rear of my lathe spindle but that is the extent of my milling , so I guess I will need room for one of those .

  8. #8
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    Go as big as you can fit/afford in the shed! I use my lathe and mill all the time. They’re small but more than capable for what I need. With enough accessories and changes in setup, you can make a lot.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dero View Post
    Not having owned a mill before I have no real plan for it , other than small parts .
    S/S is a must for motorcycle parts etc , other than that I will see where it takes me .
    I used a mill with an indexer to make a spider for the rear of my lathe spindle but that is the extent of my milling , so I guess I will need room for one of those .
    I do a lot of stainless machining. Get as rigid a mill as you can. The small ones will not give you very satisfactory results.

    I have a baby Emco FB-2 and 3 bigger knee type machines. The baby mill is quite useful for plastics and aluminium, but I never mill steel or stainless on it if I can help it.

    Also you really, really need a power feed at least on the X (long) axis.

    PDW

  10. #10
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    Both the ones I am looking at have power feed on the X axis , but I can only go on the sales pitch for rigidity .
    Being in the west , I can't find any on the shop floor other than hare & forbes .

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dero View Post
    Both the ones I am looking at have power feed on the X axis , but I can only go on the sales pitch for rigidity .
    Being in the west , I can't find any on the shop floor other than hare & forbes .
    Look at the mass of the machines. More is generally better. A lightweight machine will move and vibrate/chatter more than a heavier one, with a big bunch of caveats WRT quality design. Which we're automatically NOT considering when talking about a new consumer-level priced machine from H&F.

    PDW

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dero View Post
    I don't know much about milling , but everything I read indicates that you always want a bigger mill .
    At this stage I am only thinking of small S/S parts for M/C restoration & workshop tools etc , but who knows from there .
    Bigger is nicer, simily because you have more power at your disposal and they should be a bit more rigid. Model engineers have done amazing work on small machines but why make it harder than it needs to be?

    One thing I will add to the advice already given though is that stainless steel is not a nice material to start your milling adventures on. Depending on the grade it can become harder to machine (work hard) if you don't take agressive enough cuts with it. Small machines are limited in their depth of cut by power, so using a small machine, while technically capable, could cause you problems. I would be advising you to start with steel or aluminium and work your way along to S/S once you have an understanding of your mill.

    Michael

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael G View Post
    Bigger is nicer, simily because you have more power at your disposal and they should be a bit more rigid. Model engineers have done amazing work on small machines but why make it harder than it needs to be?

    One thing I will add to the advice already given though is that stainless steel is not a nice material to start your milling adventures on.
    303 is pretty nice. 316L isn't too bad. I'd stay away from 304, in fact I try hard to do that myself even on the Vicky mill. I've broken a lot of carbide cutters on the smaller mills.

    PDW

  14. #14
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    Just a word of caution on the bigger is better mantra…
    Bigger is also heavier, and an order of magnitude more difficult to move. An RF45 size mill is around 350kg, a step up up to a smallish knee mill puts you at around 1200kg.

    Don’t get rid of the drill press, as a hobbyist there will be times you will have a setup on the mill for protracted project, sometimes for weeks depending on how much life gets in the way. If you just need to drill a hole in the latest bit of Ikea your Mrs bought home because they forgot to you won’t want to knock down the setup on the mill to fix your other half’s purchasing choices…. The drill press will bare the S on its chest to you at that point.

  15. #15
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    I've had the small X3 mill, it was the biggest POS I've ever come across.
    One big bolt at the back to give you the option of doing an angled cut, virtually impossible to keep it in tram, the gears were plastic, I swapped them for metal ones, still had problems, replaced the circuit board a couple of times. It drove me to severe depression, when my brother asked for it back, I would have happily gotten several speeding tickets to get it back to him.
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

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