Thread: Mill/Drill under $1k, waste of money?

Is it worth getting a tool shed brand mill/drill for hobby stock inletting or will it just be painful and +/- 1mm on a good day?
This is the item that got me thinking: https://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/produc...unt-mill-drill

I know stuff all about fabrication apart from you get what you pay for...

Yup, waste of money. That is a glorified drill press. not a mill.

Look for 2nd hand mills. You want something weighing at least 2 to 3 times that, with a beefy motor and as rigid as possible.

Round column mills are not optimal (I have one ). If you can, try to get one with a dovetail column.

Whatever you get, expect to spend at least as much on tooling, and the same again on measuring equipment.

Parallels, clamps, v-blocks, drills, end mills, center drills, counter bores, the list goes on...

If you can find a 2nd hand machine that includes some basic tooling and measuring equipment, you are off to the races.

It is a very small and light machine and id suggest getting something bigger. Saying that, you wont have trouble holding +/- 1mm thats like a mile in engineering accuracy.

Id suggest looking for something second hand that is bigger.

I got an older one and I treat it as a good drillpress but a shit mill but still good for extra slots in scope bases .

Good input thank you. Has answered my question quite definitely.
I'll keep an eye out for a decent used drill press and carry on with careful chisel and gouge use for inletting wood stocks.

Like you @Joe_90 I've been looking at the same options so thanks for asking the question - and thanks to the team who responded.

Holding +/- 1mm hahaha! Yeah, nah. I might be rough but that clearly ain't gonna work for me. I can do better than that with a hacksaw and a file.

Cheers team.

It also only goes up to 3,200 rpm at max. So, for woodworking, consider a decent router will spin at up to 30,000 rpm, and you will quickly see that the finish (even if you had 0.1mm tolerance!) would be very poor, with chips and bites, rather than a smooth, clean cut.

For milling anything other than wood, I agree with the other comments - it will be terrible.

But I think it would be suitable for your use case. The rigidity of the column will not be an issue when machining wood,as deflection of the column just will not happen to an extent you would ever see.
First thing I would do, is get a MT2 ER collet setup, and do away with the drill chuck for any milling operations other than drilling.
The feed rate with that low of a RPM will affect your ability to power through a job at full speed, although I doubt you can crank the wheels fast enough to do 3 Meters/min (feasible with 16mm cutter, 25mm stickout, cutting hardwood), let alone the 30 Meters/min achievable with a 30,000RPM spindle.

I've played this game myself, and eventually upgraded and CNC'd my little Chinese mill, and bit the bullet and got a CNC router too. Similar but different use case to yours - I make spearguns for shits and giggles.
+/- 0.1mm is more in line what I'd expect you to be able to machine, even with a sub $1k machine.

Here's a video of cutting a handle with a spindle only capable of 2500RPM. No gouges, visible blemishes etc. Just slow compared to the CNC router doing the same job
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kGgeTm20wE

Originally Posted by quentin

For milling anything other than wood, I agree with the other comments - it will be terrible.

But I think it would be suitable for your use case. The rigidity of the column will not be an issue when machining wood,as deflection of the column just will not happen to an extent you would ever see.
First thing I would do, is get a MT2 ER collet setup, and do away with the drill chuck for any milling operations other than drilling.
The feed rate with that low of a RPM will affect your ability to power through a job at full speed, although I doubt you can crank the wheels fast enough to do 3 Meters/min (feasible with 16mm cutter, 25mm stickout, cutting hardwood), let alone the 30 Meters/min achievable with a 30,000RPM spindle.

I've played this game myself, and eventually upgraded and CNC'd my little Chinese mill, and bit the bullet and got a CNC router too. Similar but different use case to yours - I make spearguns for shits and giggles.
+/- 0.1mm is more in line what I'd expect you to be able to machine, even with a sub $1k machine.

Here's a video of cutting a handle with a spindle only capable of 2500RPM. No gouges, visible blemishes etc. Just slow compared to the CNC router doing the same job
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kGgeTm20wE

Sounds a bit like R2D2 is driving that wee mill in the video.

I currently use a router for roughing out and cutting barrel channel. I think a good next step for me would be to make a table set up for the router like @mimms2 suggests. Perhaps with the cunning use of jigs will save a bit of time too.

I hear the tool shed ones are shit too.
second hand that doesnt need a forklift to move seem fairly rare. iv been interested in the optimum brand.

I agree with quentin - purely for hobby stock inletting I think you'd get away with it. I can and do inlet stocks with excellent surface finish at a spindle speed of 2000rpm or below, using a sharp endmill. You also don't need much column and head rigidity for wood if you make sensible cuts - I inadvertently left the column clamps on my RF30 totally undone the other day (leaving the head free to rotate on the column) and it didn't shift noticeably when taking a milling pass through acrylic. Still not recommended!

I can't see tramming being a big deal for the accuracy you want and cutter sizes you'd be using. What is important is lack of slop/play in the table. Are the slides smooth and tight throughout the travel? Is screw backlash consistent? (accounting for consistent backlash is okay, accounting for variable backlash without a DRO is a real pain).

That all said, I still wouldn't recommend that machine. Once you have a mill I reckon you'll find more and varied uses for it than you ever thought - and that's when you'll quickly run into the limitations of power, rigidity, travel and accuracy. The purchase price is a good portion of what a genuinely useful mill would cost.

My 2c.

Waste of time and money. The smallest I would consider useful is something like this (which I have)

https://www.chevpac.co.nz/catalogue/..._MD-330290?p=1

I have inletted a few stocks using this and its only just big enough with some fucking around.

I have also machined all sorts of other stuff, including chassis blocks from solid aluminium. They are quite capable machines when used properly.

Originally Posted by mimms2

Bloody kids today don't know how good they've got it. Always in such a hurry...

Where does it plug in and can it play music from my phone?

Serious question, what is it? I'm going to guess an edge plane.

Originally Posted by mimms2

I'll show you exactly where to plug it, and your phone, too!

It's whatever you grind the cutter to be... barrel channel, mortise, keyhole, dovetail, profile, groove, slot, rebate...

(actually ended up getting it because a 19mm ø router bit was going to cost a metric shitload, for the same job that ended up taking about 15mins with this. - correct name TGV plane (just fucking imagine doing 50 square meters of flooring/wall, say 100 lineal, by hand!!)

Sounds like a good wee tool. My stanley #4 plane and spokeshave gets a lot of use.


50m2 of flooring... That's what the apprentice was invented for right?

In my case it was "Here's 120m of drill core, log and record at 10mm units. Here's your pencil and paper lad..."

I got one as i only do small projests....which i had brought old industrial second hand...