Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cheap mini-mill

Looking at getting a small mill, would just be for brass and mild steel once in a while, but mostly brass, nickel silver, or copper.

Much as I'd love a big professional machine, I don't need it, and sure as schit can't afford it. Saw one on Grizzly's website, and one at Harbor Freight. I don't want to drop 7-800 bones on something that breaks second time I use it.

Any members here have a recommendation? Would be for very small jobs, like milling out the slot in a guard for a knife, or similar small projects. Not precision gunsmithing level of accuracy necessary.

Thanks in advance.

Gruff

Might want to consider a "milling vice" and a drill press if you go light and easy.

Thought about investing a big solid drill press and doing just that. Chuck up the right bit and have at it. But have read many times that's a bad idea.

Also that the cheap mills are basically just drill presses with a table.

I don't know crapola about it so figured I'd ask here. Gotten a lot of good input on random stuff here over the years.

Mini mill is designed to take a lateral force from the tool where a drill press can't take much at all.
Mill/drill or mini mill usually doesn't have a knee but is much better for milling than even a strong drill press.

You need a mill to mill stuff. Brass is gummy and will get away from you if you don’t have it in a vise. Grizzly supports their equipment. A mill drill would get you by. Even the smaller ones aren’t cheap. Thank your crazy uncle for that. Good luck.

Probably a little more than you want to spend, but these are pretty decent in terms of support and stuff available. I haven't had any issues with the one I bought 8-10 years ago. I mostly just dick around making stuff from aluminum though.

I had a Bridgeport type knee mill but sold it the second time I moved my shop. Moving a full sized lathe sucks but moving a full size mill sucks even worse. I ended up getting a grizzly mini mill which is just a relabeled harbor freight mill because I never needed the full table length anyhow. I did go for all steel gears and a solid column conversion and just drilled some 3/4 holes through titanium last week. It's surprisingly stout, but again it's upgraded. A drill press will ruin quickly with side forces on the quill.

I've got a couple Grizzly grinders, they were my initial thought.

get the difference twixt drill press and mill in re lateral force. Just wondering if the cheap mini mills really were better than a drill press or not.

This video popped up next.

Any mill is better than a drill press. But if you just want to cut a few slots in soft metal you can improvise that. Wear glasses.

Also, any copper besides the free machining kind scares the shìt out of me.

Not looking like 7-800 bucks is going to cut it at Harbor or Grizzley for a bench top mill drill. 1-1200 more realistic. The base Harbor one is 2 speed, not likely to match most cutters. Then a decent vice & indicator to square it up will be needed..

I used to cut 1911 slides for melted Bomar rear sights & dovetail fronts on a Harbor table top mill. All was good if everything was squared up & leveled well & ya took it slow.

Also, for anyone that has one and is looking at doing the belt drive conversion:

The belt drive itself works good but cuts the machines torque in half. I couldn't do much with it afterwards except drill smaller holes. That's why I put all steel gears back in it. Now it won't even stall out using a slitting saw. The solid column though has made it almost unrealistic how well it works and how stout that it is.

In with the "just buy a Bridgeport" before anyone else!

I never found a good cheap one and got pretty good on hidden tang knife guards
with just a drill press and needle files and a file guide. A friend had one more expensive than I wanted but only because he did all stainless guards.

I have a grizzly G0761 small mill, it works fine for most things. Go as big as you can afford. Get one the takes , R8 style collets. Tooling costs are something one should look at prior to purchasing your mill.

Keep an eye out on craigslist and facebook marketplace, you can end up finding a nice mill drill unit for around 7-800 bucks and a real mill for around 15-2000 bucks.

If you go shopping for a "big solid drill press", keep in mind the spindle bearings determine how much slop there is in the chuck. The best drill press will not be as tight as even a cheap mill. Take a magnetic base dial indicator with you...and horse that chuck around, read the numbers and weep.

You do t have to worry about the import machines breaking so much as the fighting the somewhat rough ways and sloppy lead screws frustrating you when wanting to do precision work or repeatable work.

Precision costs money, go with the most precise machine you can afford and that has the capacity for the work you plan to do.

second that, just buy an old Bridgeport