Putter Milling Machine

Hi,

I am looking to get into milling my own putter this summer and I am wondering if anyone has any experience with milling and if so which mill should I get. I am looking between two Grizzly mills, I do have a budget of 1000 for the mill, i know its not a lot. Advice?

http://www.grizzly.com/products/4-x-18-3-4-HP-Mill-Drill/G0781

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill-Drill/G0758

Obviously the second one is nicer but for this what would be the advantage?

Thanks

I've never milled my own golf clubs but have milled car parts, my best advice to you would be to buy the best old machine you can.

A Cincinnati, Herbert, Bridgeport etc would be far better than any chinese machine at the top of your budget!

let me preface what i'm about to say by stating i've never used a Grizzly milling machine. I have however used a smitty 3 in 1 and majority of my experience is on a vintage bridgeport. IMO the grizzly machines you listed will have a hard time holding needed tolerances and lack the power to chew through blocks of carbon and stainless steels. If you were to say that you wanted a mlll to mill a few putter faces i would say the Grizzly would probably work for you.

I don't want to discourage you for attempting, however my guess is that you would look to upgrade the Grizzly in short order if you have any success and want to continue deeper and deeper into custom one off work.

For $500 you could probably pick up a second or fifth hand Bridgeport and have money left over to buy a nice copper ingot pure copper putters are by far my favourite

[quote name='Nuggets' timestamp='1436368281' post='11909900']
For $500 you could probably pick up a second or fifth hand Bridgeport and have money left over to buy a nice copper ingot pure copper putters are by far my favourite
[/quote]

Thanks, do you happen to know where would be the best place to get something like that. The only Bridgeports that I am seeing online are around 2-3 grand at minimun

Find a school or college thats replacing their old machines, my uni scrapped their perfectly good working machines.......had I the money and space at the time it would have cost me £250 for a brilliant harrison lathe.....

Setup an alert on Craigslist and google machine shops in your local area. Give them a call and see if they have any aged machines they are not using or of a local resource that may be selling/auctioning them off. As weird as this sounds, check the newspaper for closing sales.

[quote name='jsams222' timestamp='1436533934' post='11922470']
Setup an alert on Craigslist and google machine shops in your local area. Give them a call and see if they have any aged machines they are not using or of a local resource that may be selling/auctioning them off. As weird as this sounds, check the newspaper for closing sales.
[/quote]



AHHH!!!! that tiger paw is so large ......all the orange....the horror!!!! I Kid the Clemson fan of course!


no but really as stated start hawking craigslist.... you have to be quick when one pops up...call in sick to work, and run...don't walk to the truck cash in hand and be on the way.... I work with a lot of metal for a livng and am always looking for old tools.... I missed a welding jig table with a 80lb anvil and 22 inch jaws vise for $200 last week...this thing had 1/2 plate steel table top with a lot of thread adjustable fixtures for bolting down and welding things ... the 4x8 sheet of 1/2 plate was worth the $200 more than likely... all the rest would have been free.... I called 30 minutes after it listed and guy said he had a guy "coming to look" I said "well its sold then" he said "well maybe not guys kick tires all the time" I said " well that's a $300 anvil and over $100 in steel on the table top etc ..if the guy coming has a brain its sold"..... He said he would call me if the guy didn't buy it ...I knew I wouldn't hear anything back..I would have paid $400 and smiled... said all that to say ... don't sleep on one of these older better machines.. if you find one at a good price buy it on the spot.. guys in the know are hoarding older stuff...its miles ahead of even the most expensive tools made today...

I've owned the Grizzly mini-mill for about 5 yrs and it would be extremely difficult to mill a putter from a block of carbon steel on it. I use it primarily for small brass and aluminum parts and it does very well at that. My machine shares the same problem as the mill/drills is that they are essentially drill presses with a x-y table on them.

Think of this is more of a model makers tool and not a metalworking tool. The gears in the head on mine are plastic (which can be an advantage if you have a crash) but aren't made to hog out steel. I don't know about the gears in the bigger mill/drills. These machines just don't have enough mass to withstand any type of heavy cutting. Any really heavy cuts and the whole bench shakes - and that's in soft brass!!!

This mill would be a good starting place and if you work within its limitations you can do good work with them. There is no way you can find a usable Bridgeport for less than $1,000 or $1,500 so you could buy the Grizzly machine and have some money leftover to buy some tooling.

Also keep in mind that with a Bridgeport you will need some type of phase converter (220 power) and a way of unloading the machine and someplace to set it up.
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Let me know if I can answer any more questions.

[quote name='Mi-Golfer' timestamp='1436874133' post='11944878']
I've owned the Grizzly mini-mill for about 5 yrs and it would be extremely difficult to mill a putter from a block of carbon steel on it. I use it primarily for small brass and aluminum parts and it does very well at that. My machine shares the same problem as the mill/drills is that they are essentially drill presses with a x-y table on them.

Think of this is more of a model makers tool and not a metalworking tool. The gears in the head on mine are plastic (which can be an advantage if you have a crash) but aren't made to hog out steel. I don't know about the gears in the bigger mill/drills. These machines just don't have enough mass to withstand any type of heavy cutting. Any really heavy cuts and the whole bench shakes - and that's in soft brass!!!

This mill would be a good starting place and if you work within its limitations you can do good work with them. There is no way you can find a usable Bridgeport for less than $1,000 or $1,500 so you could buy the Grizzly machine and have some money leftover to buy some tooling.

Also keep in mind that with a Bridgeport you will need some type of phase converter (220 power) and a way of unloading the machine and someplace to set it up.
.
Let me know if I can answer any more questions.
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which one do you have?

Also what about the Taig mills. I know people that have used these for putters but is it similar to the grizzly?