Mill Query (Grizzly)

[Sprue]

Any one have any experience with one of these ?

Pro's
Con's

Tks
Rog

Grizzly Mill - Link (http://www.grizzly.com/products/2-HP-Mill-Drill/G1006)

[jmsj]

Sprue,
At work we have a similar Grizzly mill, same HP but on a drill press type stand. We don't do a lot of machining, just small repair parts or specialty tools or jigs.
It is a really good drill press but only so-so as a mill. There are more speeds than a comparable gear head. When using it as a mill it is not very rigid, I've resigned myself to using smaller cutters or very shallow cuts w/ larger cutters. Even when new there was a lot of backlash in the x and y axis, and that was after adjusting out as much as possible
The closer you get the head to the table the more rigid the unit gets. The only problem is w/a round tube column is if you need to do a tool change and need to raise the head to change tools, you will need to re-index the work piece.
All that said, I have made many serviceable small parts and one falling block action on this similar unit. I have also made my own replacement sprue plates for Lee 6 cavity molds.
jmsj

[PatMarlin]

Ifn' you start checkin' craigs list, you can find a full sized knee mill in decent shape for that much money. Bout' what I paid for my WEBB Bridgport clone step pulley machine w/extras.

[Buckshot]

................It depends upon what you plan on doing with it whether or not it'll be a good deal or not. Grizzley backs up the machines they sell so that's a positive. You can do a websearch for "Mill-Drill" and get all kinds of different stuff. I've seen some pretty impressive stuff done on them. As jmsj mentioned, the round column can be a problem.

Very basically what it is is a sturdy and very capable drill press that has been altered to handle the side loads seen by a milling machine, and then they added a compound table. Buying a metalworking machine has one rule, and that is no matter WHAT you buy it won't be big enough :-)

http://www.fototime.com/CCDC95FD15F5B4D/standard.jpg...http://www.fototime.com/5314205EBA5B5A5/standard.jpg

I waited until ENCO had a free shipping sale and bought a 9x42 knee mill and while I've never come close to using it's capacity (I have a 8" vise and a 10" rotab on the table right now) I wonder why I didn't go with the 9x49" table? Same machine, different table. However my shop is tight and for quite some time I couldn't walk past it without banging my hip or thigh against the table cranks :-)

I waited several years before I could afford to buy it. However, truth to tell I don't think there's anything I've done on it yet that couldn't have been accomplished on a mill-drill.

................Buckshot

[theperfessor]

I noticed in the latest Enco flyer that they have a similar mill-drill with a square column that might help eliminate the problem you point out and help make for a more rigid machine. No experience with any of these just pointing out an alternative.

[No_1]

I have a mill-drill and as said before it is nothing more than a precision dill. Milling can be done on it but the cuts must be light or the work will push the head around. The enco that Buckshot has is a wonderful mill that does good work. Lots of people look for used bridgeports because of reputation but please try to remember that most times the only reason a shop will sell them is because it has lost it's ability to do precision work. At my buddy's shop they have a couple of bridgeports and a couple of Enco's. First time he bought a enco is when he priced having an old bridgeport rebuilt. He was able to get the enco for a reasonable price compared to the rebuild. He said in beginning he would just buy new enco's every 5 years if there were problems and still has 2 after 10 years. Invest in a DRO when you get a mill, you will wonder how you ever got by without one.

R.

[Houndog]

I have that exact mill-drill and like many others have said it's a wonderful drill press, but not so good as a mill. you can do milling work on it, but don't expect miracles. Grizzly's 9X49 mill, like Buckshot's, is a MUCH better piece of equipment and if you have the room and the money, it's a better buy in the long run.

If you have the time and cash, you can find GOOD buys on used machinery. I bought a Webb 10x54 knee mill with some tooling in a closed factory liquidation sale for $900! All I had to do was get a rotary phase converter because it was a 3 phase machine. It's a far bigger mill than I needed, but the price was right! You CAN do little work on a big machine, but it's hard to do big work on a small machine.

[PatMarlin]

Lots of shops going under and deals floating around.

A company had a Bridgeport in like new condition w/Sony dro on craigs list for somewhere around $1000. Had been used for prototype work at a electronic circiut board company. Thing was drop dead georgous. Someone got a deal.

[JIMinPHX]

Buckshot,
That's a cute little VFD you have below your DRO's. I'd be a little concerned about mounting it there though. I've seen one of those things go up in smoke when an aluminum chip found it's way inside one of the vents.

When I set up a mill with one of those things, I usually put the expensive electronics around the back side of the machine & just mount a little water tight control box up front. You can see drawings of my favorite little inexpensive control box here - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=49233&page=2

[Centaur 1]

I know a couple of guys who got good deals on older bridgeports that were fitted with Trak controllers. Trak programming is easy to learn, it's all conversational and nothing at all like trying to learn g-code. The best part is that until you learn how to program, it works just like a DRO.

[PatMarlin]

I got the same Anilam Dro that Buckshot shows for my mill but I never installed it. My WEBB came with trava-dials on the X and Y and I like em so much for what I do, I saw no reason to install the Anilam.

It's only a 2 axes so I want to install it on my Hardinge chucker where I could really use it more. Scales are to long but there's plenty of room, and I would cover the screen X and Y and draw a X and Z.

[Buckshot]

Buckshot,
That's a cute little VFD you have below your DRO's. I'd be a little concerned about mounting it there though.

...........Pat, yeah I finally realized that and it's now mounted on top of the DRO arm bracket ABOVE the DRO. It's a TECO/Westinghouse and their customer service was truly magnificent in getting me hooked up as I was a bit dazzeled by the instruction manual. It was written for someone who already knew about the dern things :-) It'll do most anything except shell peas, but all I wanted was to do was utilize the "ON" and "OFF" capabilities and make the motor speed up and slow down [smilie=2:

.............Buckshot

[Buckshot]

...............Don't under estimate the Mill-Drill machines. A couple years ago there was a guy on the HSM forum who'd set his up for CNC and was busy making money with it. He was manufacturing smaller "Billet" aluminum doo dads for the hot rod and motorcycle crowd. He said he learned right off that if it wasn't BILLET aluminum it wouldn't sell. Said he had folks walk up to his table and pick up one of his products and ask if it was Billet Aluminum. He said no, and they'd lay it back down and walk off. Gotta have that billit stuff :-)

He also realized people wanted them packaged, and not loose on his table. He buys his plastic bags from U-Line (A great company BTW) and printing off his own labels on his computer. Drop the doohickie in the bag, fold the lable over the top and staple it closed and VOILA! A REAL billet doohicky in a bag like from a real company, and not some shlump in his garage, HA!

..............Buckshot

[PatMarlin]

What does billet mean?

[deltaenterprizes]

A billet is kind of like your ingots, but the term is used in the automotive/motorcycle accessory business to denote non cast or injection molded parts machined from bar stock.

[Buckshot]

A billet is kind of like your ingots, but the term is used in the automotive/motorcycle accessory business to denote non cast or injection molded parts machined from bar stock.

..............Yeah, it's one of those trendy eye catching words like 'Vintage' used on E-Bay :-) So you bought a piece of rectangle aluminum bar, say 3/4 x 1.5" x 72" and cut it into twelve 6" long pieces. You'd now have 12 'Billets', HA!

Another iteration is "Solid Billet". That's another price increase for the buyer. Now if you get REALLY greedy you can just lay it all out there like, Solid billet heat treated aircraft grade Fortral 7075 - T651 Aluminum. Suddenly your $6.98 part is now worth $12.98 :groner:

...............Buckshot

[JIMinPHX]

I got the same Anilam Dro that Buckshot shows for my mill but I never installed it. My WEBB came with trava-dials on the X and Y and I like em so much for what I do, I saw no reason to install the Anilam.

It's only a 2 axes so I want to install it on my Hardinge chucker where I could really use it more. Scales are to long but there's plenty of room, and I would cover the screen X and Y and draw a X and Z.

The issue that you are likely to run into there is that mill DROs are set up for 1:1 readout on both axis & lathe DROs are set up for 2:1 readout on the x. This gives you two problems. First of all, your DRO will read radius rather than diameter on your x axis. Second, the x resolution may not be as high as you might want it to be. I don't know what the basic resolution on those DROs is, but if it's .0005" at 1:1, then it becomes .001" on diameter. That's a little coarse for a Hardinge. Personally, I'd want .0002" on diameter or better on a machine like that.

Maybe you will get lucky though. Maybe that will turn out to be a universal DRO with a reader head conversion switch in the back that will let you switch it from Mill mode to Lathe mode. If not, then you might want to consider selling the DRO that you have & buying one that better suits the chucker.

Just my $0.02