Anyone own one of these Grizzly 9729 Combo Lathe Mills?

knifemaker

Participant

January 3, 2008 at 4:37 am

Before you pick up the machine, you may want to check and make sure it doesn’t have plastic gears. H/F is famous for it. Yes JH’F is cheaper, and for good reason. Also, their machines aren’t manufactured in “ISO” factories. They can sometimes have terrible tolerances. And longevity problems. Yes the Grizz is a little Higher, but better built. Not to mention a better warranty.

What ever you do. DO NOT MILL ON A DRILL PRESS!!!!!!! The chuck is pressed on. The slightest vibration, and there will be vibration even in light milling, can cause the chuck along with that spinning mill cutter to become air borne. With everything Including you in its sights. For safety’s sake—DON’T DO IT!!! I don’t care who has gotten way with it in the past. You can get away with Russian Roulette for a while too! Mike

blackops

Participant

January 1, 2008 at 8:01 pm

Hi Jez,

I had never seen that self centering vice before! OMG that would have saved my SOO much grief… I wish I had video’d me trying to get a regular vice mounted centered and clamped…the frigging nightmare of the clamp moving the vice slightly as I tightened it AHHHHHHHH!!

I got one of these to try and solve that problem as well as do some light milling on the drill press…never used it yet though…man that self centering vice would have been nice 😆

I’ve never used a machine with a Digital readout so I’m not sure how it helps you? I am used to dialing the machine back one way then back the other to take the slop out of the gears and stuff… isn’t that how you guys do it?

I had never thought about puting digital calipers on the down feed either 😆 I had just used the ruler on the side of the drill press to drill so deep, although I normally just drill all the way through. For milling though I guess this would help a lot?

Oh yea forgot about the clamp set but I don’t know what size the slots are in the bed so I’ll have to wait till I get it.

I watched EBAY for a while and bought a couple of machinists “lots” of tooling and stuff so I ended up getting prolly $2,000+ worth of tooling for less than $150! 100+ reamers(straight/angled and adjustable), 50+ end mills, drills, taps, circle cutting tools, dial calipers, angle plates, spacers, files, stones, levels, different measuring tool things, deburring tools, a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know what it is 😆 I LOVE EBAY!

Jim.

jezx

Participant

January 1, 2008 at 6:16 pm

congrats , im sure you’l like it . you can do great work on it , one suggestion is pic up one of te 8”or 12” digital read outs and mount it on there i got one for $80 with the display, there is sure to be some play in the crosfeed . also get a set of digital veriers ($14) you can mount on the down feed easyly . (need carbid bits to drill holes in it).
m sure you know already but what ever you pay for a machine you end up palying half again for tool to go with it . don’t forget to pic up a nice 4”self centering vise , best thing you can have on that .

blackops

Participant

January 1, 2008 at 5:51 pm

Well I bit the bullet and went with a combo machine… I went back and forth but lost the battle when Harbor Freight sent me a coupon for the machine @ $1,199.00!!!! they are 10 miles from me and all I have to do is pick it up in 2 weeks(right when I get back from school!), no freight charges either 😀

The Mill Head on this one says it can swing/move out of the way even though it looks exactly like the Grizzly one but Red and it spins at different speeds…

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?function=Search

I’m pretty psyched as I’ve been working on the mini lathe and mini drill press before this.

I’ve got a bunch of tooling already for it but I’m going to order a few more things I wanted before and know I’ll be using…

– MT2 Live center – for turning barrels and long stock between centers…going to let me thread PERFECTLY center to the bore as well as true up barrels that are not drilled/rifled perfectly in the center.
– R8 Collets – I have a bunch of cutters just need the collets to hold them
– 60 Degree Dovetail cutter – going to be cutting some dovetails
– Home made cooling system – used a bottle with light synthetic motor oil before but I really wanted a low flow pump and catch pan to re-circulate the coolant…oh this is going to be SOOO nice!
– Cut off tool – I’d been using a hacksaw and facing the parts off after.
– Indexable Carbide cutter/bits – These look sweet, I’ve been using brazed carbide cutters with no chip breaker.
– HSS bits – so I can grind some custom cutters for cutting o-ring slots and such.

Oh yea going to build a super strong bench to put it on so it is rock solid stable and perfectly flat.

2008 is going to be a good year!

Jim.

knifemaker

Participant

December 17, 2007 at 3:52 pm

I have to agree with the others her. These machines are famous for not being ridgid. That and they are a pain to switch projects on. Here is a pic of the machine I purchaced from Griz. For what it’s worth, I have a spare bench toop mill/drill with a power feed that I don’t une any more. it is a 400 to 500 pounder with a 26 in table. It needs a new home. Mike [/img]

blackops

Participant

December 17, 2007 at 3:18 am

Thanks for the info guys I’m still pondering what to do…

Space is not really an issue as I’m using my garage as a shop and not a place to park cars… I didn’t want to get into 220 volts or phase converiosn though which the 110 volts avoids both of those problems. I also do this as a hobby so I don’t need a commercial machine. My mini lathe held up just fine to everything I threw at it so I’m sure the mill will do the same.

I have an engine hoist if I need to move something heavy around so that’s not really a problem either…not that I would ever move it once I had it set up.

One of my requirements for the lathe is being able to turn at least 26″ between centers and preferably a little more…I NEVER want to have to unchuck a barrel and flip it around again 😆 definitely doable but took me extra time and a real PITA to get centered again.

😆 I’m not building parts for NASA so I’m not real concerned with it being perfect but pretty good is close enough for me…I measure 2-3 times before trusting the guages anyway since I havn’t figured out how to put metal back on yet 😉

Thanks guys, Jim.

walkonking

Participant

December 17, 2007 at 1:51 am

quote jezx:

i have had one of the mill/lathe the same for alog time ,8 years probably and i still use it . it is a good machine , the threading dial and speed are a bit fast , but still work well . i have a 4” selfcentering vise on it all the time for millin , and still run the lathe with no problem , for the price id say there great . i have built at least 10 guns just on it alone .

Very good to hear…lets seem some of you handiwork 😆

jezx

Participant

December 17, 2007 at 1:15 am

i have had one of the mill/lathe the same for alog time ,8 years probably and i still use it . it is a good machine , the threading dial and speed are a bit fast , but still work well . i have a 4” selfcentering vise on it all the time for millin , and still run the lathe with no problem , for the price id say there great . i have built at least 10 guns just on it alone .

walkonking

Participant

December 16, 2007 at 1:32 pm

quote Buba b:

As said before combo,s are bad news .There not stiff enough and the limitation of the size of work will soon piss you off !. As always its about the money and the M/C mill that Adam pointed out is where to start. I wished id gone spent more cash on the next size up personaly. And dont believe the ” High-Precision Heavy-Duty Miniature Milling Machine ” as quoted from the site, precision will come from hours of tinkering to make it better and heavy duty will never happen because it dosnt have the mass to take big cuts ! Its made in China so dont expect the earth ! Keep to the small ,big tolrance stuff and it will be fine 😀

You are right. The minimill has its place and it suited for small to medium size projects. One thing I had to consider was the ability to move it and the space it takes up. The older chinese stuff was really a crap shoot and needed a lot of fiddling to get it accurate. The ones made for Harbour frieght have improved over the last 3 years. Mine has been accurate from the get go and needed no modifications for accuracy…thank God. My mini lathe is older but was not to bad to sort out. The Micro Mark machines are have better quality control and come with metal gears instead of plastic. Micro Mark pays extra for tighter quality control and that is why their version cost more.

Some upgrades I have made for my mill have been a DRO system. This little gem while costing almost as much as the mill has made making parts much more accurate and effiecient. Another modification was I installed a belt drive to the mini mill. This eliminated the use of the plactic gears and the machine runs smoother and I never have to worry about breaking gears….which does happen…believe me.

The best advice for a lathe or mill is get something that is qood quality and it the largest you can afford……and remember….something you can actually move and have space for!

Will post picts later….Photobucket is not loading for me right now

buba-b

Participant

December 16, 2007 at 10:33 am

As said before combo,s are bad news .There not stiff enough and the limitation of the size of work will soon piss you off !. As always its about the money and the M/C mill that Adam pointed out is where to start. I wished id gone spent more cash on the next size up personaly. And dont believe the ” High-Precision Heavy-Duty Miniature Milling Machine ” as quoted from the site, precision will come from hours of tinkering to make it better and heavy duty will never happen because it dosnt have the mass to take big cuts ! Its made in China so dont expect the earth ! Keep to the small ,big tolrance stuff and it will be fine 😀