#1
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DRO or more hp?
I'm trying to decide on a Chinese import bench top milling machine with 1100 watts (1.4 hp) or a Grizzly (probably Chinese too, but with some customer support) with only 3/4 hp, but the Grizz has DRO included. Which would be more important for purely hobbyist use, the extra oomph of 1.4 hp or the DRO? I don't want to be limited to just machining aluminum or plastic. Thanks for any input.
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Trying to make retirement as much fun as 40 years of working So far,,,I'm succeeding. "I don't care if you like me or not. I'm not even on Facebook." |
#2
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DRO hands down.
My Southbend mill is only 3/4 HP according to the literature.
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Bill in sunny Tucson I believe in gun control. Gun Control: The ability to consistently hit what you are aiming at. Weldor by choice, engineer by necessity. |
#3
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After using a DRO, I would vote DRO. Being a small entry level mill either way, you probably will have rigidity issues anyway, so you will be limited on cutting depth and feeds. Dro will make holding tolerancesss and layout of holes so much faster and accurate.
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Brian You don't know what you don't know. "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." John Wooden |
#4
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Grizz is generally Taiwan, better quality than CCP.
I also would vote on the DRO.
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Shade "Prepare to defend yourselves." -- Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley, Ia Drang Valley |
#5
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Yup, DRO all the way. A mill of that size is going to have the rigidity of a limp noodle so the extra horsepower won't do you much good. On the other hand, a mill without a DRO is a useless tool.
And a word of advice, with a small mill like that, first thing you do is invest in some roughing or corncob endmills, they will remove material faster than anything else you can find. Save your regular endmills and facemills for light finishing cuts and let the roughers do the heavy work. A sharp 1/2" roughing mill running at about 300 RPM with a 1" depth of cut will walk through a chunk of steel pretty nicely without a lot of strain on your machine. Start it off easy with a light feed and push the feed rate up till it's just nicely chewing through the material. Listen to the sound of the cut; it will tell you when the machine is happy...
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Keith Measure twice and cut once...or...wait, was that the other way around? |
#6
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Thanks for all the input. I was just worried that 3/4hp was not gona be enough to do more than aluminum. I'll go with Grizzly.
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Trying to make retirement as much fun as 40 years of working So far,,,I'm succeeding. "I don't care if you like me or not. I'm not even on Facebook." |
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