Vertical Mills - Things to look at when buying.

I am looking at adding a few new tools to my shop over the next couple years; one tool I thought that could be quite useful for all my steel projects would be a vertical mill. I have no personal experience with a mill, but I think it would have made a lot of other projects a lot easier. This would be used for personal projects only...not commercial use. Primary uses would be drilling, notching tube, occasional boring....and anything else i could learn to do with it.

From those that have one, or experience....

Do you use it enough to justify owning it?
Hindsight 20/20, would you replace it with another tool instead?
If buying one, what would u be looking for as primary features?

Thanks for the help HL.

Digital readout would be nice. Rotary table would be nice. Super spacer. Good American made drills. Edge finder. Test indictor Indexing cutters. Plus a 100 other things.

A good calculator and some basic trig knowledge you can do alot.

Oh and dont be a new and start it out gear. Ha

A lathe with 6 inch through hole would be badass for driveshafts and links. A lathe with that big of a through hole would be a huge unit and expensive.

I have a mill in my shop and yea it is cool to have it but I barely use it it can be the best thing in the world if you have the time to setup each task and the tooling for each task it requires a lot of stuff to be able to get stuff done if you don't have a lathe I would highly recommend getting one of those first you can do so much more with it and a lot less tooling

kmcminn said:

A lathe with 6 inch through hole would be badass for driveshafts and links. A lathe with that big of a through hole would be a huge unit and expensive.

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I've used a huge old lathe with a 5" thru hole, that the bed was cut down on so it would fit in the building. It was originally a 25ft+ bed I think, cut down to 6-7ft.

Story was, it was one of those "free if you move it" deals.




Even if you don't do much real machine work, a mill is the best drill press that you'll ever use laughing1

TBItoy said:

I've used a huge old lathe with a 5" thru hole, that the bed was cut down on so it would fit in the building. It was originally a 25ft+ bed I think, cut down to 6-7ft.

Story was, it was one of those "free if you move it" deals.




Even if you don't do much real machine work, a mill is the best drill press that you'll ever use laughing1

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The largest horizontal lathe I have ran was a 40' long with a 48" Chuck.


Largest vertical had a 120" chuck.

I am a machinist, been one for 38 years. A small vertical mill would be nice but you'll end up with just as much money in tooling as you will the machine and still not have everything you need. If it were me I would buy a nicer drill press with a big, solid table. Something I could mount a nice vise on, good HP. And I would buy a nice belt sander and a nice bandsaw. The most valuable tool I have purchased is the "porta-band".

zeke392 said:

The most valuable tool I have purchased is the "porta-band".

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TRUTH!

A buddy left one in my shop for a couple months..... when he picked it up I was lost and had to run out and buy one of my own right away

gottagofast said:

TRUTH!

A buddy left one in my shop for a couple months..... when he picked it up I was lost and had to run out and buy one of my own right away

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Yup! Hardly ever use cutoff wheels or even the plasma if I can get away with the portaband.

Save some money and pick up a knee mill with a 2J style head (variable speed) , R8 spindle and a X axis power feed. Then you'll need the rest of the stuff ..vise, cheap angle plate and hold-down clamp set..you're only limit to what you can do on a mill by exsperience and imagination.

I have some for sale. $2500-$4500. Scott 256-759-6432

I'm assuming you're buying used. You can quickly spend more in tooling than you'll pay for a mill, so if choosing between 2 that are close in price pick the one with the included extras.

Try to avoid anything with drill marks/cuts in the table. Careless operators usually don't pay attention to maintenance either.

When moving the table stay away from machines that require more than 1/2 turn or so of the hand wheel before the table starts moving. The extra movement is called backlash and most of it can usually be tightened up, but requires a certain skillset most novice don't possess.

Buy a used Shizuoka mill if you decide to buy one. DRO is a must. As others have said tooling will be a major cost.

Appreciate the insight from the experienced. This is all really good information....sounds like I may be rethinking the addition of a mill, unless I can come up with some tooling included.

another thing to think about is how you're going to power a mill. most have 3phase motors. If your shop isn't already setup you'll have to wire in a single to 3 phase converter. Just somethin else to think about.
I bought a cheap Chinese VFD off of eBay for $120 or so. Works great for my mill. Just bought another for my lathe but haven't got it wired up yet.
I got pretty lucky when I bought the mill and lathe together from the same guy. Been sittin in his garage for 10yrs and he never hooked them up. Came with several collets and cheap endmills and a few tool blanks for the lathe. Everything is older but I got em cheap.
I already had indicators, drills, endmills and taps and things that I've gathered over the years.
The good thing about havin access to a lathe is you can make fly cutters or boring heads or other different tools to use in the mill. They can go hand in hand.

With all that said I use the mill but not as often as I thought I would. It does come in handy tho. I think someone already mentioned it but a mill can be the best drill press but a drill press is the worst mill

I have a really big, ****ing badass drill press. It happens to be a mill part of the time as well. Mainly, when I need a pattern of holes, I can start at one, jog over, drill, jog over, drill etc. Mine came with 5 collets, not standard stuff but whatever, drill chuck in one, 3/4 in one, 5/8,1/2,3/8, 1/4" collet sits to side and can be put in. I clearance 14b yokes for nuts on the backside, enlarge one side of a hole, cut slots, face a little, even made a deal to face 14B covers after welding. It's a cool tool like 13 times a year. Otherwise it sits. Mine's 3 hp 3 phase, I put a static on it and I've never needed anywhere near 2 hp apparently. I have an enco vise and hold down set. That's about it. I wish my lathe were better. It sucks

bbtank45 said:

Appreciate the insight from the experienced. This is all really good information....sounds like I may be rethinking the addition of a mill, unless I can come up with some tooling included.

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What's your budget ?

You'll find out real fast that the tooling is the expensive part of owning a machine tool....worst part is the older and sloppier the machine is the faster you'll wear out cutting tools. Don't get me wrong , old equipment doesn't have to be clapped-out but it usually works out that way.