Gahagan
Well-Known Member
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-1-2-half-horsepower-heavy-duty-milling-drilling-machine-33686.html
is this machine any good?
is this machine any good?
hf milling machine any good
- Thread starter Gahagan
- Start date
I have had that machine for a few years now.....glad it wasn't at that price ! ($720 shipped)
It handles everything we have to deal with but, if you attempt milling something with multiple steps to it you'll have to get used to re-zeroing your work if you raise or lower the head. To raise or lower the head, you have to loosen the two bolts in back that clamp the head to the collum. That blows your whole setup. It's a couple extra steps but you get used to it. It is nice to swing the head if you have large odd shaped pieces to work on...but how often does that happen ? Like I said, it handles knife stuff and drills nice holes but for that money I'd look into their square or rectangle(?) collum minimill which might keep zero better raising or lowering the head.
Wait till you get into buying tooling !!!!! That's even more fun. :scared:
:s12137:
Rudy
It handles everything we have to deal with but, if you attempt milling something with multiple steps to it you'll have to get used to re-zeroing your work if you raise or lower the head. To raise or lower the head, you have to loosen the two bolts in back that clamp the head to the collum. That blows your whole setup. It's a couple extra steps but you get used to it. It is nice to swing the head if you have large odd shaped pieces to work on...but how often does that happen ? Like I said, it handles knife stuff and drills nice holes but for that money I'd look into their square or rectangle(?) collum minimill which might keep zero better raising or lowering the head.
Wait till you get into buying tooling !!!!! That's even more fun. :scared:
:s12137:
Rudy
Congratulations on the never ending tool/toy quest.
First item would be a quality VISE. A set of collets or at least the sizes you plan to use. A set of 2 or 4 flute END cutting end mills or the sizes you plan to use. The set will come in handy when you start getting ideas that you never would of had before getting the mill like relieving liners. A nice keyless chuck is worth it's weight in gold to me now. I have a set of chucks that will handle anything from 1/16" up to 3/4" but use the 1/16" to 1/2" 99% of the time.
That will get you started but of course you'll want a rotary table, a slitting saw arbor and blades, a decent cobalt drill index, a complete set of step clamps, and .......................It never ends ! Once you start looking at tooling, your whole world will change. It's an addiction in itself, be very careful.
Rudy
First item would be a quality VISE. A set of collets or at least the sizes you plan to use. A set of 2 or 4 flute END cutting end mills or the sizes you plan to use. The set will come in handy when you start getting ideas that you never would of had before getting the mill like relieving liners. A nice keyless chuck is worth it's weight in gold to me now. I have a set of chucks that will handle anything from 1/16" up to 3/4" but use the 1/16" to 1/2" 99% of the time.
That will get you started but of course you'll want a rotary table, a slitting saw arbor and blades, a decent cobalt drill index, a complete set of step clamps, and .......................It never ends ! Once you start looking at tooling, your whole world will change. It's an addiction in itself, be very careful.
Rudy