Advice on buying a milling machine

[Paul MallenParticipant @paulmallen24579]

Sorry Clive, i missed a point from your previous post which also fits in with one of Dave's points above – At the moment i'm only looking to reproduce what i've shown in my pics on the start of the post, I've been racking my brains to think of what else i can make but thats it for now (i said the same thing about my 3D printer but have since found endless things to make….). If i get commissioned to make a 4 string bass i only need to make one bridge & 4 tuners, so its not going to have a load of heavy, consistent work through it, and i want to improve on the designs i've done & mess around prototyping when i've not got any builds on. this is the reason i think the WM12 will suit what i need for now, i want precision but anything will be better than what i have now – an old ML4 that sounds like its going to kill something every time i start it up & a clarke drill press with a compound slide vice that weighs more than the actual press! To start with it will only be used for face milling, accurate drilling & the odd small slot, something bigger would be good but it may well be overkill & there doesn't seem to be many decent used machines at a fair price at the mo.

So it will be used for production but not heavy production – i just know i will spend more time messing around with it than actually making stuff as well, so i'm hoping i'm looking at the right power range.

[Terry KirkupParticipant @terrykirkup37827]

Hi again folks. I hope you are all well and staying safe.

Does anyone know roughly what time(s) of the year our handful of regular UK machine suppliers have stock arriving from China, or is it completely random? I was hoping to bag a milling machine before Christmas but my two favoured suppliers are out of stock.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Whether climb milling is safe or not depends on the measured backlash in the movements and the experiance of the operator. Another factor is the stiffness of the movements. I climb mill using smaller depths of cut than conventional. The drill mill has a very stiff X movement but plenty of backlash, and the Tom Senior has a very free moving X axis, but the backlash is well controlled. The diameter of the cutter also matters, climb milling with a 6mm is subject to very much lower forces than if a 16mm cutter is used. Shell mills being larger diameter are to be treated with respect, I would not try more than 0.001", 0.025mm climb finishing with one.

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