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"My 20 year old Chinese drill press, cutoff saw and
band saw do not have on bit of plastic on them and are ugly, but despite being
abused for close to 3 decades just keep on working."
I totally agree with you on these specific
machines, Ed. I have, and the museum also has, a chinese drill press and chinese
bandsaws. Superb acurracy is not the hallmark of these types of machines,
so close is just fine in this case. I would also advise most folks to get a
Chinese bench vise and a Chinese bench grinder. They are quite sufficient
and I would not advise anyone to buy anything else for home use.
Drill presses especially are subject to
SEVERE abuse in most shops. I wouldn't buy a used one unless I knew its
condition and could give it a thorough going over. That said, I'd trade my
chinese one for a good (key word being GOOD) 40 yr old used Clausing drill
press in a split second! I use the mill as a drill press if any degree of
accuracy at all is required.
When talking the high end machines, like
mills, lathes and such, I stick by the "bigger is better" motto. I have
experienced firsthand the frustration of trying to work on a very small piece
that missed fitting in the machine by a fraction of an inch too many times. It
still happens, even with bigger machines, but not nearly as often.
Your machine is a LOT better than that
crappy Smithy I had. It has a lot more room on the table, and under the spindle,
but the basic design isn't far removed. The extra rods no doubt help keep the
head from twisting, but they are simply not comparable to a cast iron box,
15x15" square with 2" thick walls. THAT'S how a milling machine MUST be made to
prevent chatter and flexing of the column. You also will NEVER find yourself
saying, "Gosh I wish I didn't have this much extra room under the spindle, or
travel on the table." It's like too much horsepower on a plane... you don't HAVE
to use it all, but when you need it, it sure is handy.
I remember the day that 12,000lb, 24x72",
25hp American Pacemaker lathe showed up at the museum. I thanked the guy
profusely for the donation while secretly asking myself..."What the HELL am I
ever going to do with THAT??!!"
After I had that machine all
hooked up and cleaned up, I chucked under my breath the day I was
using a cutoff tool to take the top off a Mazda air conditioner dryer
to make a burp-bottle for the 13B. The power was WAY overkill for the job and
the machine was MUCH bigger than you would think necessary, however, I could fit
the entire dryer into the hole in the spindle, so I only had about 2"
sticking out past the chuck jaws. No wobble, no hangups, no problems. There was
not another more perfect machine to do that little simple job. Sure beats trying
to take it off with a pipe cutter or hacksaw. Welding it back up will be a snap
as both sides are already straight and the cut is as clean as if it
were done with a surgeon's scalpel.
Another example showed up a few weeks later
when a buddy's bandsaw had the idler wheel bearing gall up. It was chinese,
so the bushing was metric. He needed it bored out to 1" so he could go down to
Motion and get a $0.25 bronze bushing for it, instead of trying to custom order
the metric one (I also had to make him a new shaft as it was shot, too).
The wheel was 14" in diameter. I chucked it up and was finished with the job
sooner than I could have found a reamer, set up the drill press and then had it
bounce all over the place and end up with the resulting hole triangular or
pentagonal due to slop in the spindle. I bored it 31/32 and then used a heavy
boring bar to finish the ID. Final fit was within .0005" Without that machine,
it would have been a PITA and the bearing fit would have been
sloppy.
When I found the Van Norman #6, I thought I
would NEVER need a bigger mill. I soon realized how limited even it was. I
jumped at a chance to get a Van Norman 22L, with nearly twice the travel and
table size. It is much better, but it's huge. I would probably have turned it
down if it had been offer to us before I realized the shortcomings of the
#6.
Buy as big a machine as you can fit in
your shop. Buy a bigger machine than you think you will need. Buy an
old used American machine before you buy a new import (if you can afford
new American machine, more power to you!). Buy a floor machine instead of a
bench machine, unless the bench machine has the original cabinet or stand with
it. Buy a lathe first. Buy a BIG lathe (you will be glad you did). Get somone
who knows what they are looking at to go with you if you don't know what you are
looking for, especially on used machines. Don't be afraid to spend as much or
more money on a used American machine, they hold their value extremely well. A
Bridgeport mill or South Bend lathe that costs $2000 can be sold tomorrow for
$2000. A brand new import machine that costs $2000 is worth $1300 tomorrow, if
you are lucky.
If a 3in1 fits your needs, is the
biggest thing you can fit in your shop, and is the most expensive machine you
can afford, by all means get one! It is better than a soupspoon and an
icepick for removing metal! I promise you, though.... The first time you just
can't fit that little part in your machine and you have to take it over to
somebody else, who puts it in his Bridgeport with room to spare, and then cuts
it like it was mozzerella cheeze, taking a 1/4" at a pass and leaving a mirror
finish with the checkerboard crosshatching from the cutter, you'll be in the
market for a good mill. Been there, done that. Mike
C.
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