Hobby Type Mill

cfunk11 · October 29, 2018

Ok, I watched a bunch of videos of people bulding putters and I want a mill. Does anybody know of a milling machine for the DIY er. A Bridgeport is out of the budget, if there is somebody in the know about mills please let me know.

hoganapex · October 30, 2018

What is the budget?

cfunk11 · October 31, 2018

Maybe $600, depending on what is out there.

Opinder · November 1, 2018

Maybe $600, depending on what is out there.

More!

Cheapest CNC manual mill machine from China. It's expensive shipping EMS.

Used old manual mill machine about 3k to 7k from North America...

I watch you. Good luck

iteachgolf · November 1, 2018

You might be able to find an old Bridgeport someone is getting rid of for very cheap. But it’ll be heavy and huge. Nothing that you could easily make a putter with will be close to $600 let alone $6,000 all in unless it’s an older manual mill. And modifications and tooling will end up costing more than the mill.

Nessism · November 7, 2018

Have you checked Craigslist in your area? One of those table top drill press style mills would most likely be your best bet. One complication with a cheaper machine like this is that there might not be power cross feed, so you won't be able to create any fancy face milling patterns that some people seem to love so much.

iteachgolf · November 7, 2018

Have you checked Craigslist in your area? One of those table top drill press style mills would most likely be your best bet. One complication with a cheaper machine like this is that there might not be power cross feed, so you won't be able to create any fancy face milling patterns that some people seem to love so much.

Good luck with one of those. And if you do use one swap the drill chuck for a collet otherwise things could get dangerous quickly

Nessism · November 7, 2018

Dangerous? Better tell the hundreds of thousands of people that bought mills like that.

iteachgolf · November 7, 2018

Dangerous? Better tell the hundreds of thousands of people that bought mills like that.

Nobody that uses a mill like that would use a drill chuck to mill anything. A drill chuck isn’t designed to handle lateral loads. It would literally send things flying through the air almost immediately. A collet is 100% necessary to use as a milling machine. Doing otherwise is 100% dangerous. And those table top mills wouldn’t be able to handle the material used in most putter making.

Without doing a good bit of converting those table top mills are essentially useless

golfluvzme · November 7, 2018

Just for grins, I'll share that I started milling putters in my garage with a Grizzly 1 HP Mill/Drill and milled several complete putters on that machine. I believe what is in that picture is a drill chuck, held in a collet, but who can be sure? I have a couple of precision chucks that are held in 1/2" and 3/4" collets, so it is not out of the question that this is what we are seeing. As iteachgolf says, trying to mill with an endmill in a drill chuck is asking for trouble. Been there, done that.

The benchtop mills are not ideal for milling a putter, I can testify. But, if you want to test the waters, give it a shot. Craigslist in my part of the world has stuff like that all of the time. My Grizzly had a power feed on the X-axis and for the most part, it made a lot of things possible. Thank goodness that life lead me the directions that it did and onto larger machines, but we all have to start somewhere.

I did zero converting to my Grizzly, so take that for what it is worth. Ideal? nope. Functional? Sure.

The big question here is "How much machine experience do you have?" If you answer "Zero".........please enlist the help of someone that will keep you from taking off a finger, hand or other accidental loss of blood. Even the small benchtops can grab you quicker than you can believe and a 1HP motor does not stop until IT decides to stop.

Be safe and don't expect miracles or perfection.

Just one Mann's thoughts on the subject.......take them with a grain of salt.

LaMont in AZ

Nessism · November 8, 2018

Most of those small benchtop mills have options to either replace the chuck with a collet or install an R8 end mill tool holder. I agree that doing so would be advised for milling. Figure on maybe $100 or so for such tooling.

cfunk11 · November 8, 2018

Just for grins, I'll share that I started milling putters in my garage with a Grizzly 1 HP Mill/Drill and milled several complete putters on that machine. I believe what is in that picture is a drill chuck, held in a collet, but who can be sure? I have a couple of precision chucks that are held in 1/2" and 3/4" collets, so it is not out of the question that this is what we are seeing. As iteachgolf says, trying to mill with an endmill in a drill chuck is asking for trouble. Been there, done that.
The benchtop mills are not ideal for milling a putter, I can testify. But, if you want to test the waters, give it a shot. Craigslist in my part of the world has stuff like that all of the time. My Grizzly had a power feed on the X-axis and for the most part, it made a lot of things possible. Thank goodness that life lead me the directions that it did and onto larger machines, but we all have to start somewhere.
I did zero converting to my Grizzly, so take that for what it is worth. Ideal? nope. Functional? Sure.
The big question here is "How much machine experience do you have?" If you answer "Zero".........please enlist the help of someone that will keep you from taking off a finger, hand or other accidental loss of blood. Even the small benchtops can grab you quicker than you can believe and a 1HP motor does not stop until IT decides to stop.
Be safe and don't expect miracles or perfection.
Just one Mann's thoughts on the subject.......take them with a grain of salt.
LaMont in AZ

Thanks for the insightful response LaMont. Advice from someone who has actually been there and done that is the only type that really counts. BTW, I've seen a couple MA/66s on here that are works of art.