Opinions on quill feed for mills

[JimM]

I've been unable to source a medium sized mill with all the functionality I was hoping for - or certainly not one within my budget

There are a few mills around that are the right size but don't have a quill feed on them, however never having owned (or even used) a mill before I'm not sure how big a disadvantage this would be.

Would you guys consider quill feed a necessity or a luxury - if quill feed is a must then is rapid feed OK or should I hold out for something with rapid & fine feed.

Anything else I should be looking for (swivel head, minimum table travel, speeds etc)

Cheers

Jim

 

[bob ward]

For milling, strictly speaking you don't need a quill feed, because its best to mill with the quill fully retracted and provide Z movement with the table.

For drilling holes and reaming holes of course you do need a quill feed.

To me, a quill feed is more of a necessity than a luxury. You could possibly compromise on the fine feed, but then they are useful for doing say a series of repeatable counterbores or countersinks.

 

[b.lindsey]

Jim,
Are you referring to a manual movement of the quill (as with a handle like a drill press) or are you looking more for and automatic quill feed where the quill advances so much per spindle revolution? The former I would consider almost a necessity as Jim points out for drilling and reaming operations. The later is a luxury and I would think you would have to get up to a Bridgeport size (or clone) to have that feature. It does come in handy for boring head operations but other than that I rarely use the automatic quill feed.

Bill

 

[JimM]

Jim,
Are you referring to a manual movement of the quill (as with a handle like a drill press)

Yes this is the sort of feed I'm thinking of - I suspected they would be essential but bizarrely most of the smaller 'industrial' mills I've seen don't seem to have this feature??

I'm stuck between waiting for the right mill to come along at the right price or simply downsizing to a new bench top model. (Not knocking the Siegs and clones but I've got some space in the garage for something bigger so seems a shame not to use it !! )

Cheers

Jim

 

[90LX_Notch]

I don't know what your budget is; but have you seen this one?.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/g3102

 

[JimM]

Thanks for the link but I'm in the UK and it's double my budget.

Looking to spend around £750 / $1200 - for that I can get a new Sieg X3 or a second hand Bridgeport - if only I had the room !!

A VMC (similar to Grizzly above) or 836 sized machine would be ideal but these never seem to come up, the only things do do crop up are this sort of thing

http://tinyurl.com/ol46ev
or
ttp://tinyurl.com/p3rzk7

This would be OK size wise but doesn't have the quill feed

 

[Julian]

Get the Seig X3 and build a stepper control box and fit a stepper to the Z axis. You will get a finer feed than any quill.


Julian.