Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimsiss
Don’t be tempted to buy one of the very cheap milling tables on eBay that are bright green on the base and aluminium. Most arrive broken in the post, I bought one just to try it out (before I bought my Bridgeport) and it arrived broken. Seller sent a replacement and that arrived broken, I got a majority refund and built a working one out of two but then never used it.
I also bought a cheap Chinese mini mill which ate its bearings within a month, spent several months negotiating a refund and they strung it out until just before 6 months then stopped replying and when I tried to get a refund through eBay they would no longer support the process at it had been six months (they know how to manipulate). Fixed it with new bearings that were tapered instead of normal bearings and rebuilt it but it’s still pretty crap really.
Ended up with my Bridgeport which I knew needed work and I’m slowly rebuilding it, I’d rather spend £700 on the Bridgeport and rebuild it then spend money on a cheap mini mill and have to spend more money on that to get it working correctly. Lesson thoroughly learnt.
Problem with a lot of pillar drills is they are only designed to take loading vertically not axially so they flex and eat the bearings. Also a lot have taper lock chucks which can come out under axial load. I’ve looked deeply into it and deemed it a waste of time for myself and what I need but I’ve seen people do it successfully for light machining loads.
|
Some very good points there and a few better ones!
Funny you should mention those cheap tables on ebay, that's exactly what i've been looking at. Several reasons for this. I don't have the space or budget for a Bridgeport or the floor for it. Also i'm really only going to be machining light stuff, primarily aluminium with the occasional foray onto steel. It will also only be occasional use on anything so i think i can probably get away with the pillar drill.
As you can see, i've given it a lot of thought too but from a slightly different direction to what i suspect you've taken. As such i've arrived at a different result but if it was a case of money and space no object, it would be a Bridgeport mill, Colchester lathe etc but a 10 x 6 shed that already houses a lathe (Myford ML1 circa 1943 manufacture), pillar drill, arc welder, bench grinder, manual tyre changer, static wheel balancer and a few other things not to mention a few hand tools you can see my problem on space alone.
If i win the lottery and everything changes then i'll have my dream workshop which will have a "museum corner" of how i used to do it. Until that time comes (if ever!) i'll plod on with my existing museum corner!