Pillar Drill / Mill Ebay find

[Thomas GudeParticipant @thomasgude37285]

Hey all,

Running the risk of inviting competing bids, I was searching through ebay for a good value pillar drill for my workshop I stumbled across this:

**LINK**

A pillar drill & mill combo. I looked up Astra on lathes.co.uk but they do not mention this model and I cannot find any other info on the net (whether it is even the same manufacturer in fact). It looks as though it may have been used for CNC work at some point as the handles have been removed from the dials, I have asked whether it is imperial or metric.

Does anyone have any knowledge / opinion regarding this? Is it a find or should I steer clear?

All the best

Thomas

[Thomas GudeParticipant @thomasgude37285]

…is it worth it?

[LathejackParticipant @lathejack]

Hello Thomas.

I remember those Astra geared head mills, they used to be sold by Scott Urquart. They were made in the Far East, either Taiwan or China and have no real connection to the original Astra mills on the lathes website.

Warco still sell a Chinese made version of it called the Warco Major GH. With more or less the same six speed geared head on a round column with a similar speed range.

Regards.

[Thomas GudeParticipant @thomasgude37285]

Thanks Jack,

I gave it a miss in the end as I have not done any research into combo machines.

I am now wondering whether I should go the whole hog and get a drill/mill combo instead of just a standard drill press, seeing as I will not have room for both in the workshop. What's the general consensus on these type of machines and are there brands I should be looking out for? Where do the compromises (if any) between the two different operations lie?

Cheers

[LathejackParticipant @lathejack]

Hello Thomas.

The one you were looking at on Ebay is just a common Far Eastern mill drill, still available today in various forms with geared or belt change heads. They work well as a drill, some have quite a long quill stroke which is usefull.

As a milling machine they also work well, but the main criticism is the loss of the head position when raising or lowering the head on some of the types that have a round column. The type with a dovetail column do not have that problem.

If you don't have room in your workshop for a separate mill and drill then these machines are a solution. Just be extra carefully when drilling on the mill that you don't run the drill into the nice tee slotted table.

Although the low cost mill drills from the Far East have had their fair share of criticism over the years, they work quite well and have given plenty of people the opportunity to own a milling machine who otherwise could not. As a second hand buy they can sometimes be a bit of a bargain.

All the best.

Edited By Lathejack on 22/07/2014 16:27:26

Edited By Lathejack on 22/07/2014 16:29:46

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