Opinions on hobby use benchtop milling machines?

I am looking at getting a milling machine (mill) for hobby/home use. Every now and then I need to drill a very accurate hole, cut a keyway, shave down a piece of metal, etc. I do not think I need anything large.
I have the money to buy a nice machine. I don't have to skimp. I have looked at the Grizzly (China) and the Precision Matthews (Taiwan). Anyone here have amy experience with small mills?

I have had a Smithy for 25 yrs. One of those 3 in 1 machines. I like it real well. It is slow but fast enough for me on the farm.

If you got some money, why not look at a Jet? Jap machines that don't cost that much more, and they have at least some sort of dealer network. The Chinese mills were OK in the larger sizes, like the old DO-ALLs, but the little stuff I think is kind of a crap shoot.

Look to some refirbished used mills. p,enty of nice small machines that actually work for a living. Jim

I bought a Bridgeport with computerized read out on an auction for $800. Yes, that is correct. It is way more than I need but the price makes it very worth while.

(quoted from post at 05:40:45 06/29/19) I am looking at getting a milling machine (mill) for hobby/home use. Every now and then I need to drill a very accurate hole, cut a keyway, shave down a piece of metal, etc. I do not think I need anything large.
I have the money to buy a nice machine. I don't have to skimp. I have looked at the Grizzly (China) and the Precision Matthews (Taiwan). Anyone here have amy experience with small mills?

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I've used the small ones a little, and it's easy to run into problems because of their light weight. Hard to get a rigid setup. My preference is for the Bridgeport or one of the clones such as Sharp and Royal.

I would look at Bridgeports. They were the most popular for many years, so when everyone switched over to the robots, there were a lot that got pulled out. A search came up with 29 of them within 200 miles of me.

There is a huge pile of those mill drills sitting in shops and garages collecting rust and dust and there is a reaon for it. Personally you couldn't give me one if I had to use it to make parts. Am a machine tool snob? Maybe but taking half a day to do an hour job and getting it close but not right does not suit my personality.

Three reasons not to own one, maybe 4, or maybe 5. Number 1- the primary issue I have with them is the reason I own a mill which is to make flat cuts on a work piece and end up AT A GIVEN SIZE measured in .001 increments. There no way to do this on a mill drill unless you add scales to it on the quill and good luck. After you add the scale and spend forever getting it set where you want it make a cut and report back how close you got it. Number 2- by the time you add a chuck and vise there isn,t enough distance between the quill and table to use it for anything but smallish parts. Number 3 it is very likely a step pulley drive, wouldn't have one in the shop unless it was converted to VFD,, more $$ to spend. Number 4, not enough table movement to work on anything but small parts. Number 5 they take up space in the shop while rusting away until you find a buyer.
I WISH that somebody had made these points to me in a direct manner before I made the mistake of buying one. I now own a 9x49 knee mill.

Bottom line is a mill drill is OK if you are building models or working on parts that are the size of an egg cartom AND you have lots of time and patience, otherwise get knee mill, lots of them for sale used and new.

I had a mill drill for 10 years before I moved up to a knee mill. There were too many limitations with the mill drill. First, when ever you needed to drill a larger hole like 5/8" you need to drill a pilot hole. The reach of the quill was not long enough to allow you to drill the pilot hole and then use the larger bit. You had to raise the mill head to get the larger bit in the chuck. At that point you lost your zero, and it is pretty time consuming to find it again. The second problem was the table had a huge amount of backlash and was very hard to dial in. This mill drill was from the land of all most right, so a better quality brand might be better. I picked up my knee mill for about $1800 but it was worth every penny. You must remember that the cost of a mill drill or knee mill is minor compared to the cost of all the tooling, fixture and measuring equipment you will need to go with them.

OTJ

I'll vote for the old Bridgeport too.

Try to find one with a digital read out.

If you find a package deal with collets, a vise, toe clamps, a drill chuck, an assortment of end mills, a face mill, whatever comes with it, all the better. The accessories can cost as much as the mill itself!

The draw back, all Bridgeports are 3 phase. You will need an inverter if you don't have 3 phase. If you go with a Bridgeport, or any 3 phase mill, be sure it will run on 240v, not 480 only. An inverter will create the 3rd phase, but will not boost the voltage.

not all are 3ph, they did have single phase 240 motors available. They can be hard to come by, but are out there.

......The draw back, all Bridgeports are 3 phase. You will need an inverter if you don't have 3 phase. .......

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Hardly a drawback IMO. An inverter to run a Bridgeport or clone is less than $150 now. A huge plus is that using an inverter gives you variable speeds without having to change belt on the pulleys.

I bought a Grizzly G 0754 almost 3 years ago. I found it to be excellent quality, and it does everything I ask of it. Two horsepower single phase, gear drive, and a power drive table. Sometimes I wish I'd added a DRO, but it just takes a little more time without it. I have several Grizzly tools, and find them consistently high quality, whether made in Taiwan or in China. A Bridgeport would be nice, but takes up a lot more space, and would need 3 phase or a phase converter.

I'm with the crowd that says get a used Bridgeport mill.

Thanks for all of the replies. Everything I would be working on would be small. I do not have room for a knee mill, and would never need that kind of capacity. Re-keying a shaft, drilling small accurate holes, milling a weld off of a repair, making small parts. Anything large or extensive I would send out. That is good advice about the drill chuck limiting my capacity.

I was just about to buy one of those table top Grizzly mills. Had saved up the $1500 and everything (shipping became a big issue) when I thought "I'm right in the middle of the 'rust belt', there must be full size mills around". Got a Maxport (Taiwan Bridgeport clone) that had resurfaced ways, 2 hp instead of 1, with a power Y axis and cast in Meehanite. The motor had a rewiring diagram for 240 volts and I got a matching capacitor start for $40 (IIRC). With auction company fees and loading fees it was $1015 out the door. For $105 (IIRC) I added XYZ DRO. Happy I went that way because once I got it I kept coming up with more and more uses for it.

I have a Grizzly, it is OK, but I would buy a rebuilt real mill if doing it again.

(quoted from post at 12:39:21 06/29/19) Thanks for all of the replies. Everything I would be working on would be small. I do not have room for a knee mill, and would never need that kind of capacity. Re-keying a shaft, drilling small accurate holes, milling a weld off of a repair, making small parts. Anything large or extensive I would send out. That is good advice about the drill chuck limiting my capacity.

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Blue-tractor-Man; BEWARE OF MISSION CREEP!!!