I would look at what ARC have going at the moment, they also list the footprint which is good. If you have a choice go for one with an R8 spindle fitting. Your budget is pretty good, add at least 50% onto the machine price for tooling.

Hi all, I’m new to these small machines and with retirement looming on the horizon I am looking to kit out a home workshop.

I’m not intending to build anything huge, so a small hobby machine should be fine, plus I don’t have room for a Bridgeport.

Looking at the various Chinese machines they are all very similar. Is anyone make better than others. Looking to spend around £1200 on a mill.

Thanks Andy

The machines are more-or-less made to the same design, but details vary. They're made down to a price, mostly OK, but some rough examples escape. Probably matters more who you buy from because the game is more about what happens if you get a poor example than identifying wonderfulness. There's a hint that some suppliers do better than others in terms of quality, but – as far as I know – all the main UK vendors refund or replace if they send out a dud.

ArcEuroTrade have an unblemished reputation : I bought all my machines from Warco. They all worked out-of-the box and they all benefited from minor tweaking. I have no complaints. Axminster are more expensive, but offer an extended warranty. Best avoided I think is ordering direct from China, or from the continent, or from the sort of temporary online seller who might be selling factory seconds.

Unless the intention is to specialise in small work, good advice is to buy the biggest machine you can manage (space and money!)

With hindsight I spent far too long dithering about which of the rather similar machines I should buy. Now I think it was a waste of time : any one of them would have done. For what it's worth I have a Warco WM18, which has done all I've asked of it. It's the biggest mill have I space for!

Get stuck in and enjoy.

Dave

+1 for both these points and check just how much space you need for the table to travel to its extremes – the 'envelope' can be surprisingly large!

Look at top right of this page. arc eurotrade

Steve.

How big do you need to work on air gun parts?

Having decided upon a machine (If possible, a little larger than you first anticipate ) The budget needs to cover some extra items.

You will need some tooling with the machine, whatever you buy.

You will need a vice (Buy a good one. A flimsy vice will spoil accuracy, at least.) It needs to be an appropriate size for the machine. Tilting Vices can be useful, but are less rigid, and can be bought as and when the need arises.

A Clamping kit may eventually prove useful, depending on what you do.

You will need a proper chuck to hold cutters, NOT a drill chuck. My choice would be the ER system.

Depending on what you want to do, you might need more than one size. ER25 will cover upto 16 mm, so may be a good starting point.

You will need End Mills, probably Slot Drills of various sizes, possibly one or more Face Mills..

You will certainly need twist Drills and either Spotting or Centre drills.

You are likely, eventually to want to cut threads, so you will need Taps and Dies. Again, you may well end up with several sets covering different thread types (Metric, posibly BSW, BSF, or even BA )

If, in the future, you want to produce regularly spaced holes, curved surfaces, or cut gears, you will need a Dividing Head or Rotary Table, preferably with a Tailstock.

You will need measuring equipment.

A digital Calliper would be a starting point, plus, possibly a Plunger Clock, and Finger Clock, maybe with a Magnetic Base. Later, you may decide to buy individual Micrometers, maybe even a Bore Set.

A six inch steel rule will be useful, if only for rough setting up.

Things like a n Edge Finder, or a Wiggler, and a Centre finder, are low cost accessories which make life easier.

You don't need to buy everything at once.

Buy the basics first of all, and add extras, as you see the need arising.

HTH

Howard

I have just been through the process of choosing a mill. For me it eventually came down to SIEG SX2.7L or SIEG SX3. In the end I bought the SX3. Mostly as I wanted a mill a little bigger than my existing one and the SX2.7L was the same size.

I have just finished a strip down and clean, which I highly recommend doing, and I have just measuring it's specs. So far I am pleased how well it is built.

I bought it from ARC along with a starter set as I wanted to get the vise and clamping kit. I have not measured the vise yet, but it seems to be well built and the clamping kit looks OK.

Adrian

Did you buy it?