Optimum Milling Machines

Hi All, does anyone on the forum have experience of these machines? They appear similar to those from Amadeal (Weiss), Warco and Seig but they appear to have scraped (possibly too regular a pattern for hand scraping) surfaces on the Z axis. How do they rate for quality and reliability compared with the other machines mentioned above? Today, I spoke with one of the owners of Excel Machine Tools who sell the Optimum range. He said they used to have to do a lot more to the machines when they arrived in the UK, but now only have to do some minor mechanical and electrical checks (not accuracy/dimensional checks) because quality from the factory has improved a lot.

Thank you and best regards, Gavin

Bought an Optimum MB4 from FabricatorsWorld, very happy with it overall considering the price.

Makes the Sieg SX2P I had before look like a child's toy.

X and Y are surface ground and then half moon flake scraped for oil retention, Z is rough milled then flaked.

Mine does make a racket from the head when the quill is extended more than a few inches, but I'm working under the assumption that its due to the low quality single phase motor I bodged onto the top while I sort out an RPC for the original motor. Don't think it's anything sinister.

I did take some time to machine more oil groves into the ways while I was commissioning it, and have installed a full DRO with the Z axis summed.

Probably have a few photos of the setup somewhere

Stuart, thank you. That is a nice looking machine. It is more than I can afford but if all the Optimum mill family are produced to similar standards that would be good news. Are the lead screws on X and Y metric or imperial? What graduations are marked on the dials of X and Y? Thank you, Gavin

PM has been sent.

Neil

Metric all round Gavin, 3mm pitch from memory.

I knew Stefan Gotteswinter had done a video on one a few years ago, so just looked for it to provide a link here.
It seems he's done a more recent follow-up 6 years on.
I've not watched it myself yet, but it may be of interest.
His earlier video is also still available too.

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 05/04/2022 01:34:41

Hi Gavin,

I have a ten year old Weiss VM 25 milling machine that still runs without problems, it too has the (machine) scraped ways. Buy from a reputable dealer in case the machine you get has any problems.

Thor

Thank you Stuart, that is good news as some users reported imperial lead screws with metric graduations resulting in confusion when using X and Y handwheels.

Thank you Bill, I will watch the video when I finish work.

Thank you Thor, that is reassuring.

Best regards, Gavin

Bill, I just watched Stefan Gotteswinter's video. Very interesting. Did not put me off the Optimum machines at all. Thank you, Gavin

I believe the Optimum range are pretty much the usual Far-eastern models except they claim manufacture is supervised by German engineers. But they're still similar. I remember one thread where a chap had problems with one, but otherwise they don't get mentioned much. Could be they mostly sell to Germans who don't complain on the forum because they don't speak English, or maybe the machines genuinely never go wrong. I don't think anyone knows.

Most hobby machines seem to be reasonable these days, but avoid cheap 'bargains' in case a dud turns up. All my machines were OK, but people do get lemons occasionally. My advice is to buy from a reputable UK supplier. The protection is being able to send hobby machines back rather than one brand being massively more reliable than the others. Best to avoid really cheap and to read the small-print. One web seller I looked at pictured a noticeably rough machine and required dissatisfied customers to pay for returns to be sent to a depot in Germany. Bargain if it's OK, painful if the machine is a dud.

I don't get excited by scraping marks - even cheap machines have them. A century plus ago scraping was a sign of high-craftsmanship, and almost instantly widely faked! Nowadays moons are added by machine to improve oil retention: a good thing rather than a clear signal the machine is special. Hand-scraping is still done for high-accuracy, but not in our price range!

Dave

Dave, thank you. All of what you said makes good sense to me. With the help of the good people of this forum I am learning a lot about the various smaller mills in the marketplace. I tend to take quite a while to purchase thes type of larger ticket items. It took me years to buy my lathe and now I wonder why I didn't do so years before....

Best regards, Gavin

Stefan mentions that his optimum machine is the Rong Fu RF45 badged and maybe specified by Optimum.

Mike

When In was looking for a manual for my Chester 20v mill, I came across one (a manual) from Optimum which answered a lot of my questions. Why Chester couldn't do the same I never discovered. So, at least then (ten years ago) the Optimum mill range was almost identical to Chester's offerings. And it is still going.

Cheers, Tim

Thank you Mike and Tim. It seems that the main castings are similar across Chester, Warco, Seig, Amadeal and Optimum. At a tangent - I have been made aware of an Emco FB2 which maybe available...