milling machine for firearm work? under $1000?

[dprice3844444]

Jason,just look up machinery movers or if you can get it by the garage door,a flat bed wrecker or an old time wreckeer can lift it up high enough to put it on a pickup bed.or find a truck with a hydraulic lift that will support the weight.

 

[beag_nut]

I have a Jet mill-drill I bought new, exactly eight years ago, and it cost more than $2000. It takes R8 collets, all standard table hold-downs and fixtures (besides the ones you make for yourself). However, the speeds are changed by moving belts, there is no back gear, and of course the table moves only X-Y, not Z. I LOVE it.
That said, it is still over your budget, so I have to go with most everyone else and say that you should find a used one. A little-thought-of source are widows of handymen and machinists, who simply want the machine taken out of their basements. You could get really lucky. A guy I used to work with got ALL his stuff that way, and he only had top-notch machines.

 

[jason41987]

i simply do not have the space for a bridgeport mill... it would have to go into a basement

 

[Clark]

My brother bought a Clausing 8520 mill in some dead guy's basement. We took it apart and carried the 4 pieces up the stairs.

The Grizzly 3102 is an Asian copy of that, and is more like $3k
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Vertical-Mill/G3102

I have a Rockwell 21-100 that is over 50 years old.
Here is a video of me cutting Picatinny rails on a Mosin Nagant receiver.
Notice the difference in sounds from cutting steel in the rear, to cutting Aluminium in the front. Notice the metal chips flying everywhere. Not seen is me with a plant sprayer bottle spraying coolant that drips on the floor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdHt4ApLc9s

 

[madcratebuilder]

There is a tremendous amount of DIY info on the Small table top mills. Google is your friend. First thing I did to mine is convert from gear drive to belt drive. You can tighten the table up but you well have slop in the screw drive. The best solution to slop is add a 3 axis DRO. This reads table position and you never have to read the screw handles again. Even with the cheapest dro you well have .001 accuracy. Quality tooling in important. I have no trouble machining steel, I do have to take small cuts, .010-.020, lots of coolant.

I bought mine originally to make custom RC helicopter parts working with aluminum and plastics. Transition to steel was no problem. I'm just a hobbyist and use import tooling, Shar's is a good source. These are not suitable for production work.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I use our knee mill a lot less these days since we bought a fine used drill/mill. The controls are more compact and at least on ours, the accuracy is equal to our Bridgeport.

 

[brickeyee]

It is also not all that hard anymore to run a 3-phase mill without 3-phase power being available.

The Variable Frequency Drives available can be tun from single phase 240 V and produce a very decent quality of 3-phase power.

Even if you do not need the variable speed, the power is good quality, better than many rotary converters.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

You can also throw a "phase converter" right on the side of many machines.

You might want to cost a dedicated sub-panel for it before committing though - many's the new machinist who's found his great deal actually cost several hundred more to get it wired in.

 

[CMC]

You may want to look at the desktop mills .
Stay away from chinese , Taiwanese is ok as long as you can get the iso 9000 certs and the bearings are at least IBEC rated.
Of course made in the USA is better Taig tools says they ar made in the USA but I dont have any experience with it call them and ask about bearings and specs.
http://www.taigtools.com/
I had a Jet desktop mill and I dont reccomend it unless you just want to work on plastics.
A friend has a Sherline and he is pretty happy with it.
http://www.sherline.com/

 

[Chris-bob]

And look at the machine in person. Just because it says a certain brand on it, does not mean it is manufactured where they say it is. Many new machines that used to be made in USA are now made overseas, but they don't point out that info, just stress the fact that they are an American company founded a long time ago.

 

[JABECmfg]

I work in the office of a machine shop, so there's always someone trying to sell equipment to me - including milling machines. The following are a few used machinery dealers whose emails go straight to my spam folder but might be useful to you:

mvalues.com
hyconcorp.com
perfectionmachinery.com
mohawkmachinery.com
jordancraigmachinery.com

It's not a comprehensive list, and I've never bought from any of these dealers, but hopefully it helps.