which mill

Hi all

After advice on this forum, I bought a warco 280v lathe and so far am very pleased with it now to buy a mill my budget is £2000 I am going to fit a dro and stand so less £500 so my choices look like 1. major milling drilling machine 2. GH 18 mill 3. wm18 mill 4. major GH mill.

I could stretch to VMC mill ( comes with a stand ) or GH universal mill if I wait for the dro and buy it later funds permitting your thoughts advice welcome the above m/c are all from warco but other mills are welcome

regards, Robert

I have owned a Major mill, biggest drawback is its got a round column....

I replaced it with a 626 from Chester, their equivalent of the VMC, great machine, never looked back...I modified mine by fitting a 3 ph motor and vfd...and dro.

Streach to the VMC even if you have to wait a little before upgrading to DRO.

regards Martin

Ive got mill drill for work - fits my requirements perfectly but I dont like milling with it! The round column has been known to allow the head to move under load which is disasterous. I mostly drill and bore with it.

Space/budget and most important type of work you intend to do should influence the decision. I run a Bridgeport mill which is perfect for the old motorcycle parts I machine.

I have a Champion V20 mill, a solid piece of engineering but a little short of grunt for heavy milling, have fitted DROs to two axis, the spindle has a factory fitted digital readout. All depends what work you will be doing.

Dave W

I picked up a Tom Senior M1 in very good condition for £1350 including base then fitted DRO for ~£165

Presumably you know of this site? http://www.lathes.co.uk/page3.html/

+1 for the Warco VMC mill. I bought one a couple of years ago with R8 quill and power feed to the X-axis. I have since fitted three-axis DRO, quill digital scale readout and upgraded the motor to 3-phase 2HP motor and matching VFD. Smiles all round! Not cheap, but you know what they say ...........

John

Get the VMC. I’ve got one without DRO’s as I can’t really justify the cost but I use the stops on it and it works well.

Another vote for the the VMC, would recommend a DRO as it makes things so much easier

a VMC it is then dro will have to wait thanks a lot guys most helpfull

If you are used to a variable speed drive (the lathe), the extra wait for the slightly more expensive mill with variable speed drive might be worth considering. I, personally, would now find belt changing so much a chore that I would no longer consider a drive with discrete speeds obtained by swapping belt positions.

I would go for the VMC too! I have a variant, its a good solid mill.

Swapping belts on my VMC is hardly a chore, it’s quicker than changing a cutter, about 20 seconds.