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rebeltex
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milling machine advice needed
Jan 2nd, 2006 at 2:08pm
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Gentlemen,
             What is the minimum size milling machine you would recommend for building (rebuilding-restoring?)rifles.
I have a good lathe that I have rebuilt, but am at the point of buying a mill.(hands are tired of filing dovetails).
I look at milling attachments for my lathe, but I think a mill would be more useful.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've learned so much just listening here...thanks...dwayne
  
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buchsenmacher
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Re: milling machine advice needed
Reply #1 - Jan 2nd, 2006 at 6:28pm
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Rebeltex,

The minimum I would recomend is a Mill-Drill such as Jet makes and all the other Chinese imports that copy it. I have built a complete action from bar stock with one of these, so they are up to the task. The bigest drawback is the lack of vertical table movement. When you want to take a deeper cut you use a fine feed on the quill. The dail isn't very accurate so I set up a dail indicator to give me better readings.
This feature has caused me to sell the mill and purchase what Enco bills as a "Knee Mill" it's about the same size as the mill-drill but seems to be a better machine. 
If you have the money and space, a Bridgeport is truly the way to go. 

Steve Durren
  
Steven Durren
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rebeltex
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Re: milling machine advice needed
Reply #2 - Jan 2nd, 2006 at 7:40pm
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Thanks Steve,
                  I have been looking at the import mill/drills and just wasn't sure of what i would be getting with one.The one in particular I have been looking at is from Harbor Freight and lookks to be heavily built enough, but would require a dial indicator setup as you describe to be accurate. that's really no big deal, I guess.
There is a clausing mill on e-bay now I would love to have but, getting it from Connecticut to Texas would flatten my wallet pretty good!
I'm gonna look at HF again, I have a coupon for 20% off and just may use it!
Thanks...dwayne
  
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vbull
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Re: milling machine advice needed
Reply #3 - Jan 2nd, 2006 at 9:39pm
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A couple years ago I was looking at getting a small lathe and milling machine.  Checked the combo machine, HF, Smithy, etc...  Ended up watching the local "Pennysaver" flyers.  I quickly found a decent South Bend 9" lathe.  Not big enough for barrels, but plenty handy for small items, screws, seating dies and so forth.  It is in use almost every day.  The seller also had a Brown & Sharpe #0 horizontal miller that had been converted to vertical with a Bridgeport "M" head.  He gave it to me if I could get it out of the basement.  My wife and I took it apart in the basement and with a few beams, chains and luck we got it out and in the back of my truck.  (the little bugger weighs at least 1000 lbs) No damage.  A bit of elbow grease and some minor rebuilding it is now making forends and other small milling projects.  The table is 8" x 30".  You might be able to find something the same way.  Good luck.  Frank M.
  
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bluesteel45
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Re: milling machine advice needed
Reply #4 - Jan 4th, 2006 at 10:03pm
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go online and check for some used equipment warehouses that sell re-furbed equipment in your state. pennsylvania has quite a few of these places. often times you can aquire a descent "fixer-upper, like frank did, without busting the budget too bad. as usual, hauling the dang burn thing is an issue you'll have to deal with....you may be surprised what $500.00 to $1,000.00 will net you.......watch out for some of the euro makes or anything metric as sometimes tooling can be difficult to obtain. look for a "J" head bridgeport knock off or an old bridgeport if you get really lucky!!!! it will quickly become one of your most valued pieces of equipment. don't run from a vert mill that is 5 1/2' to 6 1/2' tall....they are SUPER handy if you got the space for them....good luck....blue
  
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rebeltex
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Re: milling machine advice needed
Reply #5 - Jan 4th, 2006 at 10:34pm
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Thanks Blue,
                i'll try looking for some of those refurb or used dealers. I'm not afraid of rebuilding one myself as I built(put together, rebuilt??) my lathe from parts acquired from various places, but so far i have not found that possible with a mill yet.
I've been watching the local "trader" papers but so far, no luck. I have noticed there seems to be more used machinery for sale in the Northeast part of the US.
Thanks for the help...dwayne
  
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