Grizzly mini-mill?

L

Leon Husock

Joined
Jul 17, 2019
Messages
313
Anyone ever use one of these? I'm looking for something that can clean/grind flat the faces on billets for re-stacking and welding, and also something that can cut slots in guards, but I can't afford anything too expensive (more than $1000).
 
Leon Husock said:
Anyone ever use one of these? I'm looking for something that can clean/grind flat the faces on billets for re-stacking and welding, and also something that can cut slots in guards, but I can't afford anything too expensive (more than $1000).
Click to expand...

I have used one for a over a decade. It works well for cutting slots in guards.

Something else would work better for billets.
 
I have one. It is very handy, but like Adam, I don't think it would work well for cleaning up billets. It's fast, but not very strong. It seems it would take a lot longer to do something like this than I would want to do.
 
i have the second smallest grizzly mill, it works ok for doing guard slots, guard finger curves and milling handle material flat. but even trying to mill down 3/4" wide guard stock to make it thinner is hard for the machine, and you have to go very slow with a small end mill and it still chatters here and there. you can only remove a few thousandths of an inch at a time, so it takes many many passes and near the end your wrist will feel like it is going to fall off from cranking that wheel over and over. i think a surface grinder attachment for your 2x72" grinder would much better suit the purpose and only take a few minutes.
 
I got a precision matthews... more bang for your buck and customer support/parts are actually there.
 
I won’t say it can’t be used with a good cutter, but it’ll take forever and you’ll wear things out sooner than later. I’d either put the money towards a used full size knee mill, or possibly a used surface grinder or surface grinding attachment. Obviously you won’t be able to slot on a grinder, but it’s gonna be one or the other without a full sized mill, and even that isn’t the best tool for cleaning billets.
 
Thanks guys. It sounds like I've been watching too many Alec Steele videos lol. I've recently gotten access to a hydraulic press to work my billets on anyway, which should make cleanup a lot easier since they'll be more or less flat to start with (as opposed to covered in hammer marks from me whaling on them by hand).
 
mimni mill is goingto hate that cause you have to cut deep enough to get under the forge scale. i use the hell out of my mini mill but since getting a used bridge port all the work that has any size at all or needs a clean finish gets done on the BP. dirty work like sscale flattening or theh like on the mini mill. asl note th4e mini is the only "drill press" i have and its great at that so long as the holes are not huge
 
I had one more or last about 5 months before snapping the teeth off the internal gears. I threw it into the truck and delivered it personally to Grizzly. They just plopped a new one in the truck with a re upped 1 year warranty. It's alright but I should have bought something with a belt drive over direct gear drive.
 
I have a Grizzly small mill with a DRO and love it. Its great for guards and small work but it takes patience to square off billets. I use a 3/8 inch end mill and go slow but it works. I also use mine for precision drilling. One thing that I would strongly consider is adding a DRO if at all possible. I am not a machinist so it really benefits rookies like me with set up and lay-out.
 
since it was brought up theh belt drive is soo much better then the crappy plastic gears. lower noise smoother drive with beter speed ratios. when i broke my gears i did the belt drive swap love it
 
FWIW, I bought my 3 axis DRO from AliExpress for less than $300 and it’s worked great for a few years now. I debated using DROPros, but honestly I think they sell pretty much the exact same kit I bought from China for about 2x the price. You do get their customer service and a decent warranty, but that wasn’t worth an extra $200+ to me as a hobbyist. If I’m not mistaken, you can probably even find the DRO kit I have, on eBay now, from US sellers, and possibly for even less than I paid originally. I’d like to pick one up for my lathe soon.
 
I've been tempted to pull the trigger on a mini mill. Several friends advised against it. They're opinion is if my desire is to mill knife steel (vs. aluminum or plastics) that I'll soon be selling it and upgrading to a used Bridgeport or the like. Never having used one, not sure what to expect. I'm no machinist, but would love to have the ability to do a small amount of accurate milling. Space is an issue for me. Also, the thought of getting a full size mill down into in my basement shop isn't very appealing. Still on the fence.
 
I run a big grizzly knee mill every day at work and I hate it, Actually both of us do (my co worker). Thy are not very ridged and we have had that thing apart 7-8 times in the last 3 years fixing something. The lathe is not bad but both of us always go to the old lathe instead.

for removing scale get a cup wheel and a big 12amp+ angle grinder. You could not pay me enough to sit and try and mill forged scale off. If your doing something fancy with the stack then maybe but then I would just surface grind it with a 36 grit belt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top