Thread: Mill/Drill under $1k, waste of money?

Originally Posted by quentin

For milling anything other than wood, I agree with the other comments - it will be terrible.

But I think it would be suitable for your use case. The rigidity of the column will not be an issue when machining wood,as deflection of the column just will not happen to an extent you would ever see.
First thing I would do, is get a MT2 ER collet setup, and do away with the drill chuck for any milling operations other than drilling.
The feed rate with that low of a RPM will affect your ability to power through a job at full speed, although I doubt you can crank the wheels fast enough to do 3 Meters/min (feasible with 16mm cutter, 25mm stickout, cutting hardwood), let alone the 30 Meters/min achievable with a 30,000RPM spindle.

I've played this game myself, and eventually upgraded and CNC'd my little Chinese mill, and bit the bullet and got a CNC router too. Similar but different use case to yours - I make spearguns for shits and giggles.
+/- 0.1mm is more in line what I'd expect you to be able to machine, even with a sub $1k machine.

Here's a video of cutting a handle with a spindle only capable of 2500RPM. No gouges, visible blemishes etc. Just slow compared to the CNC router doing the same job
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kGgeTm20wE

Sounds a bit like R2D2 is driving that wee mill in the video.

I currently use a router for roughing out and cutting barrel channel. I think a good next step for me would be to make a table set up for the router like @mimms2 suggests. Perhaps with the cunning use of jigs will save a bit of time too.

I agree with quentin - purely for hobby stock inletting I think you'd get away with it. I can and do inlet stocks with excellent surface finish at a spindle speed of 2000rpm or below, using a sharp endmill. You also don't need much column and head rigidity for wood if you make sensible cuts - I inadvertently left the column clamps on my RF30 totally undone the other day (leaving the head free to rotate on the column) and it didn't shift noticeably when taking a milling pass through acrylic. Still not recommended!

I can't see tramming being a big deal for the accuracy you want and cutter sizes you'd be using. What is important is lack of slop/play in the table. Are the slides smooth and tight throughout the travel? Is screw backlash consistent? (accounting for consistent backlash is okay, accounting for variable backlash without a DRO is a real pain).

That all said, I still wouldn't recommend that machine. Once you have a mill I reckon you'll find more and varied uses for it than you ever thought - and that's when you'll quickly run into the limitations of power, rigidity, travel and accuracy. The purchase price is a good portion of what a genuinely useful mill would cost.

My 2c.