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Purchasing Milling machine thoughts?

J

justin1

Super User
I'm looking into buying a milling machine ranging from 8x30 to 9x42 I'm not overly picky on brands. Prefer vertical mill but wouldn't say no too horizontal if it had vertical head installed or cheaper options to install one. Would like to buy working machine before trying my hands out on a restoration.

I guess my main questions are probly pretty basic but I'm a welder by trade, I have used mills before and know how useful they are but not really put a lot thought about what it takes to own one. Besides need a mortgage for tooling :)

What are my options for shipping from places like Calgary or Vancouver area?

Anyone try renting a one-way U-Haul van to get a piece a milling machine and howd it work out? Price of fuel almost makes it seem worth it to fly and rent something.

What's some stuff to look out for that I can avoid as most likely buying a mill site unseen things you would consider red flags?

What's out there for company's that deal in used equipment like lenmark and is it worth it buying from someone like them.

Is it worth it to hold out and buy a mill with power feed and dro installed or just find something affordable then install later?

Is there any odd ball tool holder styles that should be avoided at all cost? Or is anything made in the last 50 years fairly safe to find tooling for.

And last question for now sure I'll find more. But is it un-realistic to find a ok mill for less then 4k or should I expect to work on it for that price.

Used milling machine prices seem to be all over the place it's hard for me to get a good read on prices I've seen few Bridgeports ranging from 6k to 15k and there doesn't seem like much difference in them also seen some cheap machines that look very capable but not sure if there is a reason for seamly reasonable price lol.

Been eyeing up a tree 2uvr in Vancouver but find it interesting it hasn't sold yet seem like a ok deal to me? Besides the lightly restored part.
 
Moving full sized mill takes equipment and skills. For around 1000$ you can get a rigger to do it for you.

The tree looks OK - you need to check th spindle for noise, and chek that the quill and table all move properly. it looks a little neglected, so I'd check it out very thoroughly. 3300$ seems to be a good price. He prolly won't go far south of that price.

If you were in Calgary and the mill were here I'd move it for lunch. (and you'd have to rent a trailer for about 150$)
 
Moving it on my end isn't too bad Ive done lots of crane work and rigging for industrial stuff so not overly worried about moving around 3000lbs got tractor and lots of rigging for that. But I don't want to lift it a whole lot mostly just pick it up enough to unload then drop it on piping and push into place.

Been meaning to build gantry crane to help with some of miss adventures as I almost blew one of my floater tires unloading small forklift there heavier then they look lol.

Ye it isn't most pretty machine so I've been humming on it I don't want too much of project for first machine and and from what I've read parts can be hit and miss to find for them. I'm hoping something like it comes up in Okanagan so I can threw some of the cost of moving towards mill itself.

I've been bouncing back and forth about buying something 1500lbs +/- as I can just throw in back of truck. And then upgrade to bigger mill in future if needed but it seems for same cost I can buy 5000 lb machine

I would treat you too a steak diner for a favor that big only seems fair too bad your not in the Okanagan

I have a addiction to shitty yellow equipment the doesn't work lol deals to be had it's hard not to be.
 

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You have rigging experience then. You can rent a drop be trailer at Sunbelt rentals for about 150$ per day - this will make it a *lot* easier to load and unload any mill you buy. I think it has a 5000lb load limit - more than enough for almost any mill you're interested in.

You can see a picture of my home made gantry crane in post #1 here

I wish I could afford to relocate to the Okanagan!!
 
Have too look into Sunbelt I think there more popular in Alberta, I know nor-val has some dump trailers but not sure if they got drop deck one. The trailer I usually use is a old home build with expanded steel tracts for cars to sit on and 3/4 ply for filler so don't know how much I trust putting a mill on it lol it's got the load rating just not the best engineering from who ever built it way back when. Works good for vehicles

I like your overhead crane looks handy for 250lbs and under, I'm kinda surprised to see rubber lined casters on gantry, I would think the weight would de laminate it or maybe I just buy cheap casters.
 
justin1 said:
I like your overhead crane looks handy for 250lbs and under,
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The gantry is rated for 10,000 lbs, but you are right the eutothane wheels are the weak point. Each wheel is rated at only 1 tonne. So with the load at one end, the wheels prevent a higher load than 2 tonnes. A balanced load, about 4 tonnes.

I have 2 main beams for it: a 4X8X.188 wall beam that is 11'4" span. and a 6' span made of 4X4X.250 wall tubing for indoor use where the length and height makes it difficult to maneuver. The load ratings have been checked using FEA on my cousin's computer systems, using his engineer to check out my work.

You can see the long beam and the crane at its highest extension (11'8" tall) at:
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

Home built gantry cranes

I thought people would like to discuss gantry cranes and how they might be built, used, etc.There seems to be some interest in me describing the build of mine, so here goes: I needed it to be versatile, from 7' tall overall, to doing an 11 foot lift. I knew that I'd be lifting stuff up to 2...
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com canadianhobbymetalworkers.com
 
Dabbler said:
Moving full sized mill takes equipment and skills. For around 1000$ you can get a rigger to do it for you.

The tree looks OK - you need to check th spindle for noise, and chek that the quill and table all move properly. it looks a little neglected, so I'd check it out very thoroughly. 3300$ seems to be a good price. He prolly won't go far south of that price.

If you were in Calgary and the mill were here I'd move it for lunch. (and you'd have to rent a trailer for about 150$)
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Can you point out which model you rented ?
Thanks

This one?
 
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I’ve moved 3 mills and two lathes (2000-3500lbs) over the past 4-5 years with double axle uhaul trailers.

Mills can be tricky because they’re top heavy. Need a lot more care to slide one down a ramp or something. With a tractor or a fork lift it’s easy to lift it straight up, drive the trailer out and then move it at ground level.

4K is a good budget in Ontario for a machine that’s plug and play. Might not be the case out west. Spindle bearings, wear in the ways and leadscrews are things to watch out for.

I got a bit screwed over on my excello because the leadscrews were all worn out and Y axis ways are shot. In end it wasn’t a bad deal but the seller misrepresented the condition and I didn’t inspect it closely enough.
 
A mill is useful. My worn RF-45 mill drill has paid for itself . How many can say that about exclusively hobby machines ! It's a 1000# class, 8x32 or so envelope .But it soon got old taking very light passes. On mine the lead screws were worn out with no take up left . Those who say get a used Bridgeport are full of.... if it's worn. Better a new import. I was lucky I didn't have to scrape the ways, no glaringly bad numbers, but I did replace the lead screws. At a cost of 50% of my used price. Scraping ways can be done but it requires skill, patience,and tools. Look it up a couple of YouTube vids .

A trick I learned on mine,afterwards of course, tighten up the glibs at the center then try moving it to the ends.
 
I'll have to try that pretty simple. and ye I've watched a bit of videos on scraping Im definitely not set up to do it currently I've hard a interest in restoring a mill but I think for my first mill I would like to be able to use even if it's not the best I have a skid steer I want to restore that I feel like with out a mill I'll have a harder time doing.

For moving around the vertical mills is it worth removing head or just drop table down and drain head and flip over?

And I wish I had access to the stuff you guys have over there same as some states I keep reading all over the place best place to find tooling is flee markets and garage sales but I've only been to one garage sale that has ever had a milling machine or tooling in 8 years lol. Seems like everyone in states has a machine shop in back yard.

I've been talking to a fellow on the coast with a 9x42 king mill it's only 8 years old and fellow said it been lightly used only used it to mill aluminum down on some sort of custom windows but the table won't raise or lower said something came loose and jammed it but I figure that wouldn't be hard too hard to fix so I may end up pulling trigger on it. I can't image lead screw would to expensive to replace worst case if it's right buggered. It would still be useable just more so pain in ass.
 
On my excello I flipped the head and drained the oil in the gearbox. Brought the table up to touch the head with a piece of wood in between.

What was said about gibs is a good idea. That’s what I found with my mill once I got it home. The Y axis specifically on my mill, if you tighten the gib to 0 play in the center it will only give you 5” or so of travel out of the 16” that it should have. I just work around it. The X axis ways are in decent shape. Not perfect but I’ve faced two sides of a part 12” long and gotten within .001” parallelism.

Lead screw replacement isn’t that costly unless you want really high quality ground leadscrews or it’s an oddball thread. I used precision ACME rolled lead screw stock and I spent around $600 to do all three including 2 new bronze nuts and replacing the end support bearings.

A lot of knee mills will have hardened and chromed ways which makes a re-scrape even more difficult.
 
justin1 said:
but I think for my first mill
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For first mills I recommend one that needs no work, but is ready to go.
justin1 said:
For moving around the vertical mills is it worth removing head or just drop table down and drain head and flip over?
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I remove the head. That's just me. It is fine to lower the knee to the bottom and invert the head. On BP clone mills it won't leak.
justin1 said:
9x42 king mill
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That is a nice serviceable size. I'm worried that the knee is jammed. Taking the knee off to service the leade screw is a serious undertaking.
 
Of course you have an engine hoist, don't you. Another tool that is invaluable are chain come-a-longs. PA has 1ton on sale right now BTW. I had to move and pick-up an 18" lapidary saw. I went out bought two 3/4ton chain come-a-longs at PA. You use one to pull and one to hold back. If you rig them at angles, you can fly machinery sideways. Doing that takes greater capacity than a straight lift, though.

King might be hopeless, but Grizzly might have imported the same machine.
 
Downwindtracker2 said:
Of course you have an engine hoist, don't you. Another tool that is invaluable are chain come-a-longs. PA has 1ton on sale right now BTW. I had to move and pick-up an 18" lapidary saw. I went out bought two 3/4ton chain come-a-longs at PA. You use one to pull and one to hold back. If you rig them at angles, you can fly machinery sideways. Doing that takes greater capacity than a straight lift, though.

King might be hopeless, but Grizzly might have imported the same machine.
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Is this what you mean by chain come-a-long?

 
O ye I got engine hoist couldn't live without one got few kito 1 3/4 comalongs and nice 1 ton kito chain hoist. Even a stabilizer bar but probly not useful for mill.

I think king is same as the other Taiwan imports so wouldn't think be too hard to get parts and for worse case use as is for while

So I put a deposit on the king machine for 3 grand so i don't think I could go too wrong? Find out next couple days...
Comes with dro and power feed

I should have everything to pull bed of mill, I split my backhoe to change the transmission pump on piece of plywood and only with 3 ton jack and dunnage so not too afraid of some work just don't want it to take a year or two too complete a resto.

And for how much I want to do with mill I shouldn't wear it out doing few projects a month type stuff. Guess depends on how much parts I got to make for this year's project an Ford old cl-30 skid steer
 

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