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

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.