Recommendations For A Medium Sized Mill (upg From Benchtop)

[Metal]

So anyways, I've been really enjoying my mill, its an old benchmaster I've cnc'd, and generally have been having a good time.

I'd like to take a step up to a larger mill, but there seems to be something of a void between bridgeport 3000lb monsters that will never fit in my basement, and the rather large benchtop 500ish pound mill I Have now

I've spotted the Jet JVM-836, clausing, and millright mills, they weigh in at about 1700 pounds, which will still be impossible to get into my basement in one piece , but will probably be manageable once taken apart, maybe. Ideally I'd like the largest single part to be no more than 500 or so pounds.

I'm looking for recommendations for any other mediumish sized mills that I should keep an eye out for, with a 20"+ X axis travel, I primarily mill aluminum so massive power isn't really required, easy to maint without a crane really preferred.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I just sold my Burke Millrite it is a miniature bridgeport sounds like what you need.

 

[kingmt01]

I don't know what you have now but a small knee mill sounds in order. I have a HF one that works well. I've been pretty impressed with it.

I'm all for taking one apart & moving it in pieces. That is how I did my little one. Wife & I moved it by hand. Harder part was lifting the head back up on top.

 

[middle.road]

Index Model 40 like I've got is a decent 'Medium' mill. They weigh in at less than 1200lbs without powerfeed.
Only downside is that they're mid century vintage.
I always take the table off when moving it, and the table is manageable with two bodies.
I'm cleaning mine up in anticipation of selling it. I need to fab a mounting bracket for the rear.
I broke it tilting the head, forgot to loosen the third bolt.

 

[Metal]

Forgive me since I have no formal training but I'm pretty sure I have a knee mill already

Here's a picture (not mine but the same mill): http://freemansgarage.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mill311.jpg
Its pretty beastly compared to the HK mill a friend of mine has, I've gone as far as taken a nearly 1/8" pass through ar400 steel with a carbide rougher without any issue, I did manage to man mode it onto its stand myself, which is where I was thinking around 500 pounds is about the maximum amount of weight I can move myself.

Anyways, since I need to get this into my basement (a garage work room isn't really feasible right now) so disassembly in the garage and moving it downstairs one part at a time would be the way I'd go with it.

@middle.road: haven't seen that guy before I'll add it to my list.

 

[middle.road]

Dang that BenchMaster is a handsome little devil. Would have liked that years ago when I had an 8x10 'workshop'.
The Model 40 is pretty easy to strip down to just the frame.
Then slap some 2x's on the sides and 'slide' it down the stairs with a come-a-long or something.
(sounds easy doesn't it?... )

 

[Metal]

Yeah it's a nice mill, I spent like 3 months tearing it down to the bolt, repainting it, and just recently CNC'd it, I've been tempted to try and extend the table travel somehow rather than get a bigger mill, but have a feeling that might get dicey pretty quickly!

Also the lack of room around the bit is kind of a nightmare.. .all the time.

 

[kingmt01]

I meant a bit bigger of a knee mill.

Instead of extending the table travel could you just put a locator pin in the work before starting & move the work allowing the program to relocate & take off again?

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

this was my old Burke millrite, Rockwell makes a similar and maybe Index

 

[Metal]

I meant a bit bigger of a knee mill.
Instead of extending the table travel could you just put a locator pin in the work before starting & move the work allowing the program to relocate & take off again?

Thats what my plan is now, refixing a longer part 8-12 times (2-3 per side) gets grating, there's some clearance issues with the wide, flat head and clamps, I don't have enough z travel to really use my probe properly, ect. there's a bunch of things I'd like to resolve at once that are annoyances. But yeah, locator pins are a solution to one of those problems, extending the X travel of the benchmaster only would solve one of them.