Hobbymat BFE65 Milling machine opinions?

[carlos420uk]

One of these has come up for sale local to me, as seen here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAWbA3vqSpI

I know nothing about Mills really but want to learn, so my question's are:-

Is it suitable for a newbie to learn with?

Is it a decent machine in general quality wise, research leads me to believe these originate from Germany?

What do I need to check when / if I go to view this apart from the obvious play in slides, head etc?

Any other advise or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm not in a mega rush to get one of these, so if there is a better / more capable machine in the same used price bracket I could pass it up and wait.

The lad selling it wants as close to £1k as possible, but I was thinking around the 750-800 mark, is this price realistic?

Lastly bed travel is 300,135,80 x,y,z.

Thanks in advance

 

[brightspark]

its verry small u havent said what u intend using it for . ?? small parts soft materials steel parts larger stuff . more info needed

 

[carlos420uk]

Looking to make small parts from Steel and Aluminium such as brake calliper mounting brackets, milling the faces of small steel plates up to 150x150x10mm perfectly flat both sides and squaring up the sides, drilling up to 20mm thick plate, tapping holes, cutting slots and recesses into parts etc. Basically just small stuff.

As I say im a newbie to this so not sure if it's realistic, but ideally I'd like to be able to put a 150x150x75mm block of Steel or Aluminium on it.

Not sure what you class as very small tbh could you give me any examples of parts / jobs that the machine is capable of?

The seller tells me he has used it to cut Stainless, mild and alloy and it's suitable for these, does that sound right?

Was going to buy an Axminster mill for around the £1200 mark but saw this and thought it might be worth a look?

Lastly whatever I go for needs to be suitable for at home use, ie no 3 phase and not too loud when running.

Thanks mate.

 

[cumbriasteve]

I am far from a mill expert..very far from but I do watch machinery sales and there seems to be some nice Warco mills crop up on Ebay around the £450 mark.

In fact I was offered one locally last year, it was a lovely set up and he only wanted £400 including a decent range of bits.

Warco are Chinese but apparently they are made to the specs agreed and quality control imposed by the UK supplier and have quite a strong following.

 

[carlos420uk]

The bloke wanted £900 bottom line for the above mill, so I've decided to leave it and hang on before buying anything.

I don't want to buy something that isn't big or capable enough for what I want, and for £900 for a 10 year old machine I think it's a bit steep even with some tooling included. I've seen more capable brand new Mill's at Axminster for a few hundred more which could be a valid alternative.

The search continues....

 

[brightspark]

The bloke wanted £900 bottom line for the above mill, so I've decided to leave it and hang on before buying anything.

I don't want to buy something that isn't big or capable enough for what I want, and for £900 for a 10 year old machine I think it's a bit steep even with some tooling included. I've seen more capable brand new Mill's at Axminster for a few hundred more which could be a valid alternative.

The search continues....

just dont rush out and buy the 1st thing that comes up. i waited 2 years to get a good lathe and miller at the right price and condition