Joey

I do not know just what you consider a reasonable driving distance, but Grizzly has a warehouse and showroom in Springfield MO. if you would consider a new bench mill. I have a Grizzly lathe,and a large

milling machine that I am happy with. You could go online to their web sight and see if there is any thing you might be interested in. Their shipping is very reasonable. If you ever get a chance to go to

the showroom you might not want to go home. They have so much to see and touch. Anyway just a thought.

Anthony

To echo what Anthony said, Grizzly has a mill to fit just about every budget. I bought their G0704 based on other bladesmith's recommendations, and love it.

Bob

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Joey

I do not know just what you consider a reasonable driving distance, but Grizzly has a warehouse and showroom in Springfield MO. if you would consider a new bench mill. I have a Grizzly lathe,and a large

milling machine that I am happy with. You could go online to their web sight and see if there is any thing you might be interested in. Their shipping is very reasonable. If you ever get a chance to go to

the showroom you might not want to go home. They have so much to see and touch. Anyway just a thought.

Anthony

Thanks Anthony! I have been looking at Grizzly. They have good stuff! And it would be nice to have something new.

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To echo what Anthony said, Grizzly has a mill to fit just about every budget. I bought their G0704 based on other bladesmith's recommendations, and love it.

Bob

Thanks Bob! I will look at the mill you got.

I'll second the G0704. Mine came in on Friday late. I believe that should be the smallest one to consider from them for the kind of work we do.

Get ready to spend on tooling. The advantage with the G0704 it uses R8 collets which are standard these days and easy to find at reasonable cost.

My crew of helpers, all owners of my knives.

I have a Sherline 5000 benchtop mill. I use it primarily for slotting guards and spacers, some surfacing, and precision drilling of small holes. It takes up very little room and changing from milling to drilling operations is quick and simple.

There are package deals that include some tooling too.

http://sherline.com/product-category/mills/mills-standard/

I have found an Enco Drilling/Milling machine for $900 and it has a nice vice but no collets. It's a table top and seems to be in good condition. So far it's my best candidate. There is a Grizzly G0704 with lots of tooling, vice , rotary index w/collets, end mills, and measuring tools. Looks like he has over $2000 invested and is asking $1650. What do you guys think?

I'd go with the Grizzly. You can drill with the mill and it's a heavy enough mill to do lots of milling chores. Is it close enough to go pick up, so you can see it working?

Bob

That's not bad for the Grizzly. With vise, tooling, and accessories I spent just over 3K for mine. The mill delivered with R8 collets was over 1.4.

Also a square column mill will hold it's accuracy better when you need the raise or lower the head.

Depending on what "lots of tooling" means, that could be a good deal. (for the Grizzly) I got my G0704 for about $1,400 including shipping. It would be really easy to spend that much again in tooling if you're just starting out.

The only thing that I've noticed about the G0704 that I consider a down side is the induction motor... as you add resistance (working pressure), the rpm will speed up between 100-300 rpm. Its only really annoying when you're trying to be precise about something like the depth of a counterbore, or something similar. I spoke with the folks at Grizzly about it, and they confirmed that all the machines with induction motors do it.

Joey

I personally would go with the Grizzly. There customer service for me anyway has all ways been very good,as well as there technical help.

The square column and the R8 spindle is a plus as well.

Anthony