Milling machine suggestions for hobby gunsmithing?

[Fat_46]

I think I'm about ready to take the plunge and get a milling machine for some of my projects. That being said, I have NOT found the location of the heralded "money tree"

I'm leaning toward one of the Grizzly mills. I'd like to try and stay under 2K for the machine and the relevant tooling (end mills, face mills, etc.). I'd like to be able to do AK kits, and eventually make guns from 80% parts. Additionally, I'll be using the mill for some small pieces of my other addiction, street rods.

Suggestions/comments/poo flinging?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Car Knocker]

Might want to look at "The home of garage and hobby gunsmiths, amateur pistol smiths and mini machinists ....... "

http://www.roderuscustom.tzo.com/

I haven't surfed the site lately but the forums had a wealth of information on milling machines, lathes and their use in hobby gunsmithing and garage gun manufacturing.

Had some pretty decent videos available on building Ars and AKs.

 

[ngray]

spend some time on these boards:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi
http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/ubbs/Ultimate.cgi

consider the taig and sieg mills, jet if you want something bigger. skip the round column mill/drills, square columns/ways are better.
http://www.taigtools.com/
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_mill/Versions/versions.htm

grizzly and harbor freight are good places to check pricing, use-enco.com as well.

 

[gamachinist]

Try here also:
http://www.chaski.com/wwwboard/index.html
Not as much traffic as the other two (It used to be busier than Pratical though).

As for a mill,I found a Bridgeport step pulley dovetail ram in Florida on eBay for 800.00 about 18 months ago.I have less than 2k in it with tooling (I drove down and picked it up myself),but I shopped eBay and Chaski and Pratical for used tooling (mostly US made).I bought a lot of tooling before I ever found the deal on the Bridgeport too.

I don't know what the supply is like in MN,but the Northeastern US and California have a whole lot more used machines than the South in my experience.
If you look on eBay,watch and learn before you bid,and read up on who to avoid in the posts on the machinists forums.
You can try http://www.govliquidation.com/
But in my experiences,it will go high for a pile of rusty metal on those auctions.

Good luck with your search.
Regards,Robert.

 

[Onmilo]

You really can't beat a used Bridgeport for value and economy.
They can be found for less than two grand and will usually include some tooling.

Whatever you buy remember, there are inch and metric mills and some that will cut in both dimensions.

You won't want a metric dimension mill if the gun parts you are cutting are dimensioned in the inch scale, but, you can convert the measurements in many cases and a metric mill will cut to a finer precision than an inch scale mill.