Krawlin's Mill Review & Upgrades

[Krawlin]

Originally Posted by redshift

Nice breakdown!

Backlash is an absolute fact of life, the only way to eliminate it would be to use an NC type ballscrew, and that would quadruple the price (at least).

.004" backlash is VERY respectable, I deal with machines with an average of .050" and some nearly .1", the older, the worse.

I agree with your gripe about the .062"/turn, that really should be .050, the standard for larger equipment is normally .1"/turn.

I would work around that by doing your layout & setup according to the .062", kind of a pain but you're stuck with that....

You'll have no lack of uses for it, congrats on the purchase.

Wow, actually I had no idea that .004'' was considered acceptable. The X-axis on my machine only has about .001'' right now, I guess this is higher quality than I thought!

And actually after doing a quick search, I discovered there is a kit to convert my machine over to .050'' per turn, https://www.littlemachineshop.com/pr...ory=1687114045 , so I'll definitely be purchasing that pretty soon.

Originally Posted by Finnster

So how much did everything come to? Ie vice, tooling, etc?

Been looking at these a bit and was looking at the next size up (grizzly 704 equiv.) Had head good things about the mini mark, but also that getting a dro will solve any weird measuring due to the .065 on the other machines.

Like that size tho..looks easy to find home for it.

Price for the mill was $763 shipped, Mill without shipping is $649.95
Tooling ended up being $316 shipped.
Total with mill and tooling is $1079 shipped.

Still need more tooling though. Seems like its one of those never ending things, where you can never have enough tooling for a mill, because one day you will need to use that one special bit, and then it will sit for another year before it gets used, but if you don't have it you're screwed.

Here is a price list of the tooling I bought -

Part #	Product	Price
1213	Drill Chuck, 3/8"	8.50
1236	Dial Indicator, 1" x 0.001"	10.95
1242	End Mill Set, 6 Piece 2 Flute	17.95
1243	End Mill Set, 6 Piece 4 Flute	18.95
1251	Test Indicator Holder	9.95
1254	End Mill Holder, 3/8" R8	15.95
1262	Starter Kit, Mini Mill	79.95
1638	Drawbar, R8 1-Piece, Mini Mill	9.95
1647	Vise, 3" Milling	54.95
2605	Collets, R8 Set of 7	29.95
3094	Fly Cutter Set with Tool Bits	12.95
3125	Vise Mounting Kit	9.95
3999	Arbor, Drill Chuck R8 to 2JT	11.95

And that starter kit included a clamping kit, edge and center finder, t-slot cleaner, parallels, and 1-2-3 blocks. Also, I wouldn't recommend the vise that I bought, seems kind of low quality, and the degree markings and alignment mark seem poorly cut/laid out. Lots of better vise options out there.

I will edit the first post and put a link to the mill in there, I forgot to add it when I made the post. https://www.littlemachineshop.com/pr...ory=1387807683


I looked up that Grizzly 704, that thing looks awesome, now I'm getting buyers remorse and wish I had gone with that.