Which mill

[Richard TearleParticipant @richardtearle34096]

Hello

 

I have a Warco WM-250 lathe, and I was hoping to use that for some light milling work, but I’ve found out that Warco don’t supply a suitable vertial slide. I must admit that this lathe is still sat on the garage floor due to a lumar discectomy, which means no heavy lifting for 3 months

 

This has all prompted me to look at a small milling machine. Basically I’m a 7mm railway modeller, and at the moment I can see that I would use the mill for milling crossing vees and switches for turnouts, and for cutting out locomotive frames. I use nickel silver for rail, and brass for the frames. Eventually I’d like to produce simple(-ish) spur gears for locomotive gearboxes, and far off I’d like to CNC the lathe.

 

I was looking at the Arc website, and I wondered if the X1L would be enough (i.e. the cheapest :-D) for my needs, or should I look at the larger machines, or to a different company.

 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Richard TearleParticipant @richardtearle34096]

Yes, another “which mill” would you recommend question

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

You should be able to fit a Myford or “made to fit myford” imported vertical slide onto the 250, I have the 280 and can fit my myford slide onto it though I mostly use a separete mill now.

 

Engine crane will get your lathe up onto teh stand without any lifting.

 

Jason

[magpieParticipant @magpie]

Hi Richard

                   I have the Axminster Micro-Mill X1 fitted with the long bed from Arc Euro making it the same spec as the X1L.     I bought the mill 5 years ago (on special offer at the time ), and it has done everthing i have wanted it to do with no problems at all ( touch wood ), allthough i have to say it did need stripping down and deburring of all the slideways Etc. I have recently bought a Chester Champion 20V , as i now want to do bigger items that the small one could not handle, but i would still not want to part with the X1.

             cheers Derek

Edited By magpie on 10/11/2010 20:44:53

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