HF bench mill

[notbob]

Speaking of milling machines, I've considered this one from Harbor Freight:

Not too bad fer a small bench mill and only twice as much as a Delta

350 varidrive bench drill press.

I was an R&D machinist a long time ago and have worked on the best equipment, but have also worked with some cheapo stuff. I used a Jet bench mill like this back when Jet was new on the scene and considered cheapo junk. Not the best machine I ever worked on, but I was able to consistantly pull off .002" accuracy w/o too much problem. I think I should be able to do the same with this rig, provided I get my glasses re-tweaked. ;)

Anyone have any experience with this HF offering or their like sized/priced lathe?:

Seems the two of them would be adequate for what I need as an old geezer hobbyist.

nb

[Pete C.]

I have one of the 44991 (Seig X2) mini mills converted to CNC. It was a quick conversion just slapping big steppers on and using the stock leadscrews but it works fairly well for non precision work. I've used it for engraving on AR lowers, a camera pano bracket, making a master mold to cast silicone molds for chocolates and some other odds and ends.

I do have two full size Bridgeport mills though and I suspect I would not be happy with an X2 as my only mill, but my projects tend to be fairly large. If you only do smaller model type projects you'll probably be happy. The Seig X3 mill, the next size up is pretty popular, has a bigger envelope, more power and rigidity and much better Z axis. HF, Grizzly, etc. carry variants of the X3 as well as the X2 and X1 mills.

[notbob]

Thanks for the feedback, Pete.

I plan on using it fer making lil' mini quadrocopters, like these:

....so don't need anything large or even med scale. Jes fer fabbing alum mounts, arms, etc. Plus, I'm on a fixed income, so gotta count pennies. Still got all my tools and a buncha misc drills, bits, and end mills, etc, enough to get me by.

nb

[joevan]

I found this on your copter link. Want to be Pwned?

[notbob]

DOH!!

Operator error. Try this one:

nb

[Pete C.]

Don't forget you'll want to scale those up to do aerial photography. If you stick to little point and shoot digital cameras you don't need to go too big.

[notbob]

Oh yeah....

I plan on getting an ARDrone:

This will wet my aeriel photog appetite while I learn the electronics and control basics and design my own q-cop platform. Also need to resurrect an old cad box fer designing. No hurry. Jes something to keep this ol' geezer brainpan from going fallow. ;)

nb

[Pete C.]

See also: