Hello from London, Ontario

[Susquatch]

Hahaha I agree that a happy wife is a good thing but from there we differ....I can keep my wife extremely happy by keeping an almost unlimited supply of ammo handy for her & cleaning her guns for her when necessary. She will shoot 3-5000 rounds a year most years and she is most happy when she's got two strapped on & two on the tables in front of her and "bang'n & clang'n when the beeper goes off ( in competition ,she regularly shoots 24 rounds out of the 4 guns in 28-32 seconds and it is very unusual if she misses a target at that speed, usually 1 or 2 misses per 250 shots).....so I try very hard to "keep her happy" to do otherwise could be very unhealthy in a very short timeframe LOL.

See. It just goes to prove my old saying. No matter how bad things get, there is always someone who is worse off than I am even on my worst day......

 

[ShawnR]

I see....... You both have huge problems much bigger than I can help you with. Best to just be happy that they put up with you and try your best to keep them happy.

My bride and I will be 50 years in December. The most important rule is to keep her away from guns.

50 years is amazing! Congrats! We are almost half way there and I hope to be able to say that some day too.

 

[Crosche]

I've seen a few of the column mills in the last month but I've heard the accuracy can suffer because the head can spin on the column even when locked. are they worth buying or am I best to stay away?

I can't really comment on the round column mills because I have never owned or operated one. I have heard similar things about the ridgidity and accuracy of the mills as you mentioned and thus stayed away from them. It's surprising that none of the other members have chimed in since there must be guys that have 1st hand experience with round column mills.

 

[Susquatch]

I can't really comment on the round column mills because I have never owned or operated one. I have heard similar things about the ridgidity and accuracy of the mills as you mentioned and thus stayed away from them. It's surprising that none of the other members have chimed in since there must be guys that have 1st hand experience with round column mills.

OK, I guess we round column guys who did chime in were not very clear.

My round column mill is just fine other than its alien crank handles from venus - which don't affect performance. I've never had a problem with repeatability or accuracy.

As already said by others. All you need to do is plan the machining sequence ahead so you don't have to pick up a dimension after raising or lowering the head. Even that isn't a huge problem.

Within the limits of smaller mills, the rigidity was also fine. It isn't any worse on round column mills than it is on any other smaller mill. One should not expect a smaller mill to perform like a big knee mill. That doesn't mean it won't work, it just means less depth of cut and slower feeds. I wanted more so I got a bigger mill. I'm happy for now, but never say never.

You can't expect to get big mill performance out of small mills. But you can expect to be able to make quality parts. Round column mills will make high quality parts. High quality is much more a function of the operator than it is the size of the machine.