Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Quote from: Stoker on April 06, 2024, 01:02:11 pm

Looks like a decent hobby mill you have there Charlie ..... but you really shouldn't go barefoot in a machine shop! 

Ouch!!!    ;c)

I was just taking pictures.

I didn’t notice that my ugly foot got in the picture until you mentioned it.

Hey Bruce

Don't know if you are still looking at Precision Mathews, or even column mills of any brand, but since you started this thread, I've been looking around at what's available and comparing it to my little Grizzly mill. I am still perfectly happy with my G0704, but it seems like you have jumped up a level or three as you are now talking about an 1,100-pound machine it seems, and that is in a completely different class from what I have.

However, one thing I've noticed about PM column mills that would make me lean that way rather hard were I to be buying now, is the way that the column is mounted to the base on the PM machine looks to be much more ridged than how my Grizzly mill column is attached. Of course, being more ridged, does not mean that it is necessarily square to the table as received from the factory, but it does mean that once properly squared up, it is less likely to go out of square caused by taking a heavy cut or similar stress.

Just another point to ponder!

I have no knowledge of this Baileigh mill, but the picture makes it look like it has the same base casting and column attachment style as does the Precision Mathews, which I would definitely rate as a better system than my Grizzly. The specs I'm seeing say that the VMD-931G has 4.75" of quill travel which is only 1/4" less than the Bridgeport I used to work with, and more than twice what my little G0704 has available. I'd say the 4.75" should be more than adequate for almost anything you'll need to do, but the column can give you over a foot more Z-travel drop should you need it.

I will say that perhaps my biggest disappointment with my little Grizzly mill is the small amount of quill travel at just barely over 2", but rarely do any work that require accommodations for that short travel, while in spite of that shortcoming, I'm still quite happy with it and wouldn't likely be able to give any bigger of a mill a home anyway. Looks like that Baileigh is nearly four times the ship weight of my little G0704, but also twice the horsepower as well. I'm sure that it also has a host of other superior features to offer such as the power table feeds shown!