ID a benchtop mill from a picture

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VelocityDuck
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Location: Panama City, FL

ID a benchtop mill from a picture

Post by VelocityDuck »

Any ideas on the make and model of this? I tried a reverse image search but no joy.
mill.jpg
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BadDog
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Re: ID a benchtop mill from a picture

Post by BadDog »

I would say it's just an example of a much derided generic Chinese "round column". Also often called a "mill/drill", as opposed to a "drill/mill". The former leaning more to the mill side than "just" a drill press, the latter being the opposite. Lots of folks do great work with them, but you have to correct or work around the many deficiencies. The worst problem I know of is the round column causing loss of location if you must move the head to gain or reduce Z space. And there are a LOT of discussions about how to deal with that issue alone.

Lots of color/badge "brands". My only guess would be Grizzly just based on the color, but it looks a bit too blue for a Griz in that picture. IIRC, the "best of breed" are the "Rong Fu" examples.
Russ
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pete
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Re: ID a benchtop mill from a picture

Post by pete »

Everything Russ said 100%. That one might? have been sold by Enco as I remember seeing a color picture in there paper sales catalog with about the same shade of paint. Digging around on the net and cross referencing it's number of speeds, motor, table size, and X,Y travels might be enough to narrow it down to the model maybe. There were a few off shore manufacturers and as Russ said Rong-Fu would be the biggest one. Properly tramming the spindle to the table on one of these is a lengthy process because you have to loosen all the column bolts, lift the head and column a bit, shim, re-tighten all the bolts and then check how much difference it made. Then repeat that multiple times. Most seemed to have Morse Taper spindles although I remember seeing some listed as being R8. I've had both a MT 3 mill and now R8. Hands down the R8 is the better choice. They do have one plus point over the now much more common dove tail column mills. And that's the ability to swing the head and reach a bigger area on larger work. Again as Russ said the loss of X,Y location as soon as the head gets moved is there major deficit.
John Evans
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Re: ID a benchtop mill from a picture

Post by John Evans »

Yeah looks like a ENCO I had 40 years ago before I knew better ! Better than a hacksaw and file ,but not by much. Any sort of interrupted cut and the head would rotate on the column ,a friend of mine broke the casting on his trying to get it tight enough to stop rotating!
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