As John says without knowing the sort of things you want to do with the mill it will be impossible to suggest a size.

Also look at Warco and ARC, Warco can be got to by the advert at the top of the page and ARC  Here, also 20% off anything you buy to go with it this weekend.

Alas, the 20% discount at Arc this weekend doesn’t extend to machines according to the email that I received.

Try searching the site for similar threads – there have been many, very many.  That should keep you busy reading that lot in the run-up to Christmas.  Bear in mind, too, that your request for quality and a bargain are not necessarily compatible with each other.  Double your budget to take into account the tooling and “must have” gizmos you’ll undoubtedly need want and then start shopping around.  Good luck!

John

Don’t forget to take into consideration the weight and access to where you want to use it. Even a small mill will be heavier than it looks and awkward to move.

When you decide how large a machine you can afford / fit into place, you need to compare the packages on offer.

You can do small work on a big machine, but bthe converse is more difficult

Not all offers are equal in a variety of ways.

Some machines are sold with the minimum of accessories, some with a lot (But you may not feel the need for all of them. When i bought my Mill, I did not fancy the vice in the package, so upgraded to what i considered to be a better one). the warranty may be shorter on some than others.

Also think about what after sales advice / back up you might need.  A “low price” machine with poor or no technical back up will not be as good a bargain as a “dearer” one where advice or spare parts are required, and easily available when needed.

Some suppliers will go “above and beyond” to help a customer with problems (even of their own making!).

Howard

I have bought machines from Warco and found the support to be good.

My contacts with Chester, about a machine, on the whole have been disappointing

Have only bought tooling from Arc Euro, but found face to face, on telephone, or E mail, excellent relations.  My preferred supplier, and most accomodating.

They supply machines from Sieg as do Chester and Axminster, (And Machine Mart but poor technical backup. My advice FWIW – avoid) but all three will offer different packages for the same machine, and therefore different prices..

Howard

If I had to recommend one machine to you without knowing any other details I would punt on the SX3 from ArcEuro https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Machines-Accessories/Milling-Machines/SIEG-SX3-Mill/SIEG-SX3-HiTorque-Mill. Why? Quite compact for capacity, and Z wheel out front, down low.

However, I got the slightly bigger mill with power feed. I really like power feed! AND add DRO (even better than power feed).

You just missed 15% off Warco, so I’d wait until their next ‘deal’ if I wanted the WM18. Amadeal have something similar but I don’t know which it is.

On 4 December 2023 at 13:42 File Handle Said:

At present the ArcEuro machine prices seem to have reduced since the last time I looked. Perhaps the previously higher prices reflected added expense of getting them due to COVID.
When you try to compare specs and the cost of the necessary extras it gets complicated, a job spreadsheets were built for.

Post COVID, all costs including shipping increased for a while.

Post COVID, demand slowly reduced. Competition from ‘unknown’ factories increased via direct and in-direct unregulated marketplace platforms for machines – especially lathes with misleading marketing, offering very low prices for products with low specification.

At the same time, U.K. competitors (other than Axminster) started offering machines using marketing language suggesting features similar to SIEG Brushless machines which we sell, or better, at lower prices.. In my opinion as a seller I consider this to be borderline misleading involving use of words such as SUPER, input power WATT figures being used as output power WATT figures, motor types and combinations to suggest better performance than the product may be, distance between centres, spindle stroke, table size and travel, etc…

As a combination of above factors, sales of SIEG brushless motor machines dropped heavily – in particular the SC2 and SC3 mini-lathes.

Every day we handle calls from beginners or new people who enter the hobby who wished they had a better understanding of the product they had purchased at a very low price, in particular the mini-lathes purchased through unregulated marketplace platforms.

There is no suggestion being made here that SIEG make the best machines. All I am saying is ARC knows the machines we sell, with understanding of specifications we state, along with the limitations. Comparisons should be made for like with like, and if a beginner fails to understand the differences, they should ask respective sellers pre purchase and make up their own mind. There is a distinct lack of this taking place.

ARC holds a lot of stock for the SIEG Brushless Motor machines it sells. We have to sell them.

Combining all of the above factors with the ‘cost of living’ crises has resulted in a squeeze on profit from reduced prices.

Ketan at ARC 🙂

On 4 December 2023 at 18:04 File Handle Said:

I guess by mentioning using a spreadsheet above I might have been implying buy the cheapest, far from it.

Keith

It is a good idea to do a spreadsheet, Keith.

On 4 December 2023 at 18:04 File Handle Said:

I have seen some suggest that you should treat buying a Mill or Lathe etc as an item that you will write off after a number of years, I seem to remember 5 being suggested. But being a Yorkshire man I like to get my monies worth out of things. That is the bit that is really hard to determine, how long will spares be available.
Keith

That is a good point Keith.

The 5 years suggestion is mainly based on the user. So how long is a piece of string: factors: light use/heavy use/outgrowing original needs/ability.

Regarding spares, there are various observations to be made here:

1. We started selling SIEG machines around 2004. From then until now, we have carried a good range of spares for their machines, be they for machines which we have discontinued, or current, or some other SIEG machines which we don’t sell, but for which the parts are the same. These can be found in machine spares section on our site: LINK . However, we do not sell all parts for all SIEG machines.

2. We only sell SIEG machines. We do not change from one machine manufacturer to another, so the spares we sell will fit SIEG models as specified. Some of our competitors will change factories based on price or relationship with SIEG or new factories, especially for products they think are generic (but not necessarily), for example fixed/travelling steady for mini-lathe, or certain parts for mini-mill or bigger. We don’t suggest any compatibility of spares for machines made by factories other than SIEG. SIEG spares for SIEG machines. NO electrical spares compatibility with non-SIEG made machines.

3. SIEG have plenty of distributors around the world. Their main production is for the U.S. market which has the highest consumption of SIEG machines. So spares for SIEG machines are more easily available for new and old machines. Here is a list to their distributors LINK

There are a few ‘own brand’ machines sold by companies such as Machine Mart – mini-lathe and mini-mill (but not the combo), which are also machines made by SIEG.

Generally, to the best of my knowledge, mechanical spares for SIEG made machines are available for 10 years plus after a model is discontinued by SIEG, depending on how popular the machine is. So even if a distributor stops selling a SIEG machine, I would suggest that probability of spares availability for a good period 10 years+ is high, because very few models have been discontinued by SIEG, even if a distributor has stopped selling certain models. For example: ARC has stopped selling brushed motor models of SIEG machines over time (even though some distributors still sell brushed motor models), but we still maintain a range of spares for those machines which were sold by us.

4. Electrical spares availability: Certain control boards have been discontinued by SIEG – generally around 5 to 10 years after last production of a machine fitted with such a control board. Other than an upgrade/improvement to an existing control board issue, Control boards have usually been changed to meet with new regulatory requirements, eg. lead free. For very old dead control boards, you will usually find someone on a forum somewhere who has managed to replace dead components (such as MOSFETS) on an old board. So information is available for certain obsolete boards on forums. Others have replaced obsolete boards with conversions to 3-phase motors with inverters.

Ketan at ARC

Ketan makes a mention of the dumping of machinery by the Chinese by a worldwide company. It was also a minor problem for us although the pandemic was a blessing when sales went through the roof. Replenishing stock was not a problem even though the factories in China had their own well-documented problems, except the the shipping cost for a 40′ container went from US$ 3000 to US$17,000. Now the shipping companies are vying for business!

The mini-lathes being ‘dumped’ turned out to be of appalling quality and has now stopped after Paypal and eBay were refunding customers who were often able to keep the machine as the suppliers didn’t want them back!

Nevertheless, the same company is dumping machine tool accessories instead on a massive scale. I have found 2500 different eBay seller accounts selling their huge range of products. Most likely to keep sales below the £85,000 (??) threshold for VAT and thus depriving the UK of much needed tax.

Hugh

Amadeal Ltd