Help choose between two mills

[jwmay]

The Henry Ford Trade School was an interesting endeavor. One of Henry Ford's better social experiments and apparently successful with many of its graduates finding jobs at the Ford Motor Company.

I can’t wait for the book on Bezos School of Amazon warehouse worker to tell us how great Bezos was at lifting people up. Lmao!

 

[pontiac428]

I can’t wait for the book on Bezos School of Amazon warehouse worker to tell us how great Bezos was at lifting people up. Lmao!

It will be written in compiled assembly code for the robotic workforce he's been dreaming about, and will not have any subroutines for generating complaints about the labor (the self destruct sequence will be initiated by the words "union meeting").

 

[Ben17484]

I’m ordering one of the mills this week.

I might have to toss a coin…

 

[pontiac428]

I’m ordering one of the mills this week.

I might have to toss a coin…

You better write down the pros and cons of each... and having to modify is't a con, it's a pro because it can be modified to suit...

 

[RaisedByWolves]

You better write down the pros and cons of each... and having to modify is't a con, it's a pro because it can be modified to suit...

How the hell did we get to talking about mills?


Oh yeah, I member now.

 

[mksj]

The VMC turrent is more an amalgam of different types of mill designs, the round common will be less rigid then a square column. It seems similar to the Clausing 8520. The reduced travel in all axis would be the clincher, typically people run out of travel in the Y and Z axis quite quickly. I have a full size knee mill and often am at the limits of travel say for manual tapping and drilling/milling. Having a short Y travel also will limit the vise size and as you may have interference of the vise on the Y travel when moving toward the back. If your work envelop is small then the VMC might be an option, but most people using mills quickly run out of travel.

On the VMC it appears that you need to change the belt positions for the speeds, for most people it is a PTA to do so, using a VFD, you loose the mechanical advantage and Hp below the motors base speed. Belt drives will be quieter than gear drives and may have a higher spindle RPM. The weight difference is probably in the stand for the VMC. Not sure if there are any other mill options/dealers, ideally something like the GH with a 2 speed belt drive and variable speed in a bench-top square column would be more ideal. Typical knee mills would be significantly larger, heavier and more costly. There may be some used smaller knee type mills similar to the Clausing.

 

[Ben17484]

I’ve been going through the Pros and Cons in my head, but as some have mentioned, it’s good to write them down:

GH Universal:

Pros:

- Plug and play - no wiring a VFD, just plug in and use
- good Z height.
- Already 100kg heavier than the largest Mill I’ve had before.

Cons:

- No as sturdy as a knee mill
- Only 6 speeds, with the max being fairly low. Something Id have to figure out how to change one day
- Gear Head - loud

VMC

Pros:

- Heavier
- Knee mill, so probably sturdier
- belt drive, so quieter
- looks cooler

Cons:

- more expensive
- needs VFD (and when fitted lose some torque but gain variable speed) so can’t use it straight away
- low Z axis gap. Would need a spacer.

That was a good excercise. Still no closer though…

 

[Ben17484]

The VMC turrent is more an amalgam of different types of mill designs, the round common will be less rigid then a square column. It seems similar to the Clausing 8520. The reduced travel in all axis would be the clincher, typically people run out of travel in the Y and Z axis quite quickly. I have a full size knee mill and often am at the limits of travel say for manual tapping and drilling/milling. Having a short Y travel also will limit the vise size and as you may have interference of the vise on the Y travel when moving toward the back. If your work envelop is small then the VMC might be an option, but most people using mills quickly run out of travel.

On the VMC it appears that you need to change the belt positions for the speeds, for most people it is a PTA to do so, using a VFD, you loose the mechanical advantage and Hp below the motors base speed. Belt drives will be quieter than gear drives and may have a higher spindle RPM. The weight difference is probably in the stand for the VMC. Not sure if there are any other mill options/dealers, ideally something like the GH with a 2 speed belt drive and variable speed in a bench-top square column would be more ideal. Typical knee mills would be significantly larger, heavier and more costly. There may be some used smaller knee type mills similar to the Clausing.

Thanks mksj. Good points.

Does the VMC count as round column? I would have thought it’s closer to square column? Unless within the body there’s a cylindrical tube?

 

[pontiac428]

Thanks mksj. Good points.

Does the VMC count as round column? I would have thought it’s closer to square column? Unless within the body there’s a cylindrical tube?

The VMC is a knee mill. It has a turret at the head/column junction, as do most knee mills following the Bridgeport pattern, but it is certainly not built like a round column mill/drill, it's a benchtop knee design.

 

[Aaron_W]

The VMC is a knee mill. It has a turret at the head/column junction, as do most knee mills following the Bridgeport pattern, but it is certainly not built like a round column mill/drill, it's a benchtop knee design.

To further elaborate the round column is an issue because it is done by hand, and aligned by eye, so there is some concern with repeatability.

On a "round column" mill like the Rong Fu RF-31 the issue of a round column comes up anytime you move the head up or down which will be done frequently.
While the turret type mill shares this issue, you only encounter the problem when swinging the head side to side. This is not a task most people will do often.