Re: ATM small mill advice

["Peter D. Brooks" <pdbrooks@pacbell.net>]

John Swenson wrote:
> 
> Thank you to all that replied to my quest for info on milling machines.
> It looks like I am going to have to go with a larger machine. At this
> time I'm leaning towards one of mill/drill machines and a separate
> lathe. I'm kind of leary of the 900 lb machines, I'm not sure I want to
> setup one of those! Would a 400-450 lb mill/drill machine be sturdy
> enough for most ATM work? Harbor freight has what looks like a nice
> mill/drill in the 450 lb range, its not as large at the 900 lb ones, but
> it certainly is a LOT bigger than the Sherline and the price is pretty
> good to.
> 
> I'll look into lathes later.

Don't know the HF line, but my Enco mill-drill is a Rong-Fu (Taiwan) unit. 
Works fairly well with a minimum of deburring.  A lot of the MDs are RF-30s or
similar.  

I went from a Sherline mill (the earlier series, not the micro-Bridgport 8-way)
to a mill-drill.  As Peter Smith points out, you can run into trouble when you
change tooling if the head has to be shifted, but *most* of the time, I've been
able to get around this.  On the good side, the US versions of the mill-drills
use R8 tooling, which is the same as the Bridgeports.  Thus, if you later
decide to spend more money on a mill, you already have a lot of the tooling. 
About the only stuff that you'd want to change later on is to go to a larger
capacity vise--a 5" is a practical max for a mill-drill, while a 6" or even 8"
can fit on a Bridgeport.

If I ever get a B'port, I'll keep the mill-drill as a drill press and for those
jobs where I don't want to rip the big setup apart.

With respect to a lathe, I prefer a used American lathe in the 10 to 12" class,
like a Atlas or older South Bend or Logan.

Pete Brooks