Best Milling Machine Ever????

Best mill I ever used was a Huron, Like a DSG lathe it was designed by people who understood how a good machine tool was operated. Everything falls to hand and with controls on both sides of the table. We bought it for £4500 used it for 10 years and sold it for £12500 for CNC conversion. I have been in contact with the buyer of the converted machine and it is still in use in a very fancy research company!

A former employer still has a couple of Schaublin 53s which were bought in 1972 with every available extra and accessory. Good machines but not as user friendly as a Huron.

We also had a Swabishi with double inclinable and rotatable powered tables which could be used to produce the most incredible shaped sections and components, though not easy to setup and use and I have never seen or even heard of another one.

This Rambaudi is iso50 fitting and built like a brick sh-----se

**LINK**

At the moment my favourite mill is a newly acquired Senior Major Mk 2 even though it is metric, and I cannot fit a vertical head on it without knocking holes in my workshop roof.

My other mill is excellent being an elderly Graham mill/drill with DRO.

The one I was hanging my nose over, before the Senior came along, was an Elliott Omnimill.

Brian

I was the proud owner of a Thiel 158 but I always wanted a Deckel FP3.

Hermle. or if you want super size as in... Gigantic then Waldrich Siegen.

The one I have, of course . Deckel FP2 1966 vintage.

500mm x-axis, 200mm + 200mm y-axis with 200mm or 300mm more in sliding head, 400mm z.axis.

Hmm, it might be possible to slide the fixed table and get even more in x.

At least, username AlfaGTA (very knowable) of Practical Machinist say it's the best manual mill....

Cheers

Erik

Edited By Erik Werner Hansen on 28/03/2020 21:03:05

They had to dig a big hole to get this one in our tool room, variable speed DC drive on each axis and a 40hp rapid travel on each axis, 100hp Variable speed DC motor on the spindle. It could machine a 10ft x12ft x 16ft block

Mike

I inherited an Aciera F1 from my Dad. He got it from the company he worked from when they shut down the labs, had been used making electron microscope parts. Only trouble was the feed screws were very worn. Lovely machine, originally designed for the Swiss watch industry, but too small for model engineering really. I sold it to a collector and bought a Myford VMB with the proceeds. Not the best but does the job for me.

Second that, with an M-DRO system on it of course

Hope everyone is safe and well!

Regards

Alan Ward