Hopeful Hobbyist

[Michael]

Hello all,

I've always wanted to get into machining as a hobby. Was my favorite part of shop class by a mile. I'm not in a big rush to buy a machine just starting to familiarize myself with whats available around Edmonton. Ideally I'd have the time, space and funds to get a good size lathe, mill and support machines like a band saw but I think for now I'm going to keep an eye out for old bench top machines like an Aciera F1 or South Bend.

 

[Alexander]

I dont think the mill would make a good beginner machine. There are a number of machines that are popular on this site for beginners. The x2 mini mill the RF-45 and similar square colum bench top machines. That machine you showed looks like it would be expensive and hard to find but if you found one at a good deal it would be really cool.

 

[Michael]

Hard to find is an understatement. Some guys in europe restore them and resell for big bucks. The style of machine just appeals to me. Big lump of cast iron. I was at Modern Tool yesterday and had a good look at their version of the RF-45. Wish I had room for a bridgeport clone.

 

[PeterT]

I have a made in Taiwan RF-45 gear head mill I'm reasonably happy with. It happens to a King's of that 1997 era but appears under different paint colors. The Chinese rendition at Modern is a but rougher IMO but in all honesty I didn't examine too closely. If you like or are limited that size from a weight & footprint standpoint, you might want to check around a bit. They current '45' style offerings have some nice features & improvements like power down feed, better head lift & talk of going to VFD control on some.

John Conroy had a PM & spoke well of the customer service & delivery
http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PMMillingMachines.html

I'm really not even sure if King's KC-45 is the Chinese equivalent now & they dropped the Taiwan version? You'd have to check.
http://www.kingcanada.com/Products.htm?CD=36&ID=21734

There might be some CDN suppliers of the Taiwan 45 under different labels. This has been discussed before but I cant seem to find the links right now

Aside from increased cost & weight, the Modern mini Bridgeport might not occupy substantially more footprint actually. If money were no object, this would probably be my current choice.
http://www.moderntool.com/products/modern-model-935vs-1-milling-machine/

 

[Michael]

Thanks for the PM lead. If the dollar was doing better that would be a very tempting option.

That mini Bridgeport is a nice machine. Salesman didn't pull an actual quote but the off the cuff price was $7k. They had another one with power feeds and DRO on it too.

 

[PeterT]

You may well find that the $FX conversion works out to something pretty similar FOB Canada once you have lined up all the cost inputs & confirmed any extra features like DRO & other accessories. I've been checking out lathe prices & that's certainly the case. I also had reservations about ordering from USA & probably there are some vendors I would stay clear from. Its not like you can put a mill or lathe back a little FedEx box & return to shipper for exchange like a defective cell phone. That's the bugger, they are big & heavy & moves are a PITA unless you like that stuff. Having said that, you may want to reach out to John Conroy on this forum, he had firsthand experience ordering from Quality Machine Tools or Precision Mathews or whatever they were called (coincidentally on this same '45' style dovetail mill we are discussing) & sounds like shipping & customs etc. was relatively painless.

 

[Tom O]

Its the shipping and custom charges ( mostly customs ) that make me leary of importing but I haven't researched it that much, I found some sites said no duty. The American dollar doesn't bother me I changed my money to U.S. when it was at par for playing with the stocks.