Mini Mll sugggestions, opinions.

McClellan Made Blades

McClellan Made Blades

Well-Known Member
Hey Dogs,
I'm in the market for a mini mill, I've used the Harbor freight Micro Mill, which worked fine and is discontinued, but I agreed to sell it back to the buddy I bought it from. NOW I gotta have one! Looking for yalls input and advice about the best one (for the money) to buy. Thanks Rex
 
I have a Shearline and I realy like it. I got mine from Uncle Al the knifemakers pal at Riverside machine in Arkansas.
 
I have the Harbor Freight Mini Mill and after converting it to the belt drive I do like it a whole lot and its a whole lot quieter now than it was with the gears but more importantly its more forgiving and more durable to those shocks from going too deep too fast with something on occasion.

However, with that said and looking at what I spent for this mill and the belt drive conversion kit if I had to do it again I'd buy the Shearline. Thats a nice machine and for that matter you hardly hear a bad word about them from the guys that own one. I'd suggest if you do buy the HF that you go to a store and pick up the machine yourself after inspecting it. They can be dented or damaged in some other way from shipping and that has happened to me with more than a handfull of products bought mail order from HF ranging from my bead blast cabinet, to my 1x30 sanders, to my 4x36 sander and my micro mill which I owned before the mini. All those things and others my wife ordered for her shop were damaged in transit. Not sure why. Maybe its those cheap thin walled China made boxes they ship their China made parts in??

STR
 
I have one of the Sherline mills and it has been in use for 5 or 6 years with no problems. They are very accurate and well designed. They are not cheap; but what good tool is.

Good luck in your search, Fred
 
Thanks for the input guys, I was looking at the Mini, which is almost the same as the Mini Grizzly has, but surprisingly the HF Mini has more hp, bigger table, uses the R8 collets (I think that's right), and is cheaper. So I think I've decided on that one. I went to "Littlemachineshop.com". Lot's of good info there, and apparently all these machines are made in the same plant, according to the site. Thanks for the help, I'll let yall know how it goes, Rex
 
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