Pillar drill or small mill?

[Cato]

I'm getting close to needing to purchase a pillar drill or small mill for upcoming stuff such as accurate drilling of brackets etc, but also for fitting time-serts to bike cyl heads and cases etc. I had thought that a decent floor standing pillar drill would do the job, but I'm wondering if a small mill may be better both for drilling at odd angles, but also adding options for other stuff.

I can give it about a square metre of floor space, single or three phase power available and I'm thinking about a grand or £1,500. New or used is fine as I can claim the VAT back. Any thoughts/recommendations?

 

[Milkybars]

For that money you could buy a 'bridgeport' style mill with a quill in the vertical head ..buying stuff that's 'small' is where it gets expensive

 

[Cato]

For that money you could buy a 'bridgeport' style mill with a quill in the vertical head ..buying stuff that's 'small' is where it gets expensive

The larger 'industrial' stuff would create problems unfortunately, transport and installation would be a PITA, but space in the unit is at a premium. My initial thoughts were something like this Warco for a mill or this for pillar drill.

 

[premmington]

I use my mill for drilling mostly - bigger X Y table just makes it easier.

I do have a big piller drill - I do use but not that often to be honest.

 

[Morris]

I have a vmc milling machine, wouldn't be without it. It takes up about the space you are looking at.
Like Premmington it gets used a lot as a drill (I had to get rid of my drill to make space for it).

 

[piman]

Hello Cato,

the benefit of a floor standing pillar drill is the depth of table to chuck. Small mills are quite limited in depth. Of course it does have other advantages over a drill although the Warco you linked to doesn't have a tilting head which some smaller mills do have.
My pillar dril (A cheapo Clarke) has a table that can be tilted and I've had very good service from it over very many years.

Alec

 

[Mr Fro]

The larger 'industrial' stuff would create problems unfortunately, transport and installation would be a PITA, but space in the unit is at a premium. My initial thoughts were something like this Warco for a mill or this for pillar drill.

We've got a Warco at work - a few sizes up from the one that you linked and it's pretty gash.

I got rid of my pillar drill when I got the Bridgeport and have been fine without it.

I was really looking for something a bit smaller but as already mentioned, small mills are a lot more expensive than bigger 3 phase stuff.

 

[premmington]

Hello Cato,

the benefit of a floor standing pillar drill is the depth of table to chuck. Small mills are quite limited in depth. Of course it does have other advantages over a drill although the Warco you linked to doesn't have a tilting head which some smaller mills do have.
My pillar dril (A cheapo Clarke) has a table that can be tilted and I've had very good service from it over very many years.

Alec

Valid point - I drilled a stud out big block thing today - I put it on the bottom of the floor standing drill press and brought the head down to it.


I would have got it on to my mill I would think - but it was heavy and I don't wanna knock my mill table about (it is like new and I want it to stay like it!)

 

[Cato]

Whichever way will be a compromise of some sort I guess. So I suppose it comes down to what I'd use it for most often and worry about the oddball one off stuff if/when it crops up.

 

[Cato]

What are ‘ time-serts’?

They're thread repair inserts, like helicoil but better (more expensive) Here for example. The drilling doesn't require the sort of accuracy that 'proper' engineering would require, but getting the angle slightly off can scrap some rare/expensive/impossible to find parts. In my case it would be engine cases, cylinder heads and the like.

So a decent pillar drill would be OK most of the time, but the better table, accuracy and flexibility of a mill might be useful which was what prompted the dilemma. I have a cheap and cheerful bench pillar drill for bits and bobs of normal drilling but I have some stuff coming up which will call for a step up.

 

[500e]

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[fizzy]

The larger 'industrial' stuff would create problems unfortunately, transport and installation would be a PITA, but space in the unit is at a premium. My initial thoughts were something like this Warco for a mill or this for pillar drill.

If palletised correctly we can ship a Bridgeport through our networks and it is ok on a tail lift.
They don't take up a huge amount of space but are quite tall.

 

[northwest]

Raising and lowering the head on that Warco you linked to would get old very quickly. I got rid of my lovely Meddings drill to put the CNC Mill in and I would do it again but the Meddings was a peach AND could tap holes better and easier than my other Mill. I had a three phase motor and VFD on it so tapping was a breeze. Since I put the quck change tooling on the big Mill drilling is now much easier, rather than buggering about with drawbars and R8 tooling but still it can be a pain raising the head and mine is motorised!

 

[Cato]

If palletised correctly we can ship a Bridgeport through our networks and it is ok on a tail lift.
They don't take up a huge amount of space but are quite tall.

Useful to know, thanks.

You'll know better than I, but the problem is getting whoever's selling to palletise something properly as opposed to two loops of baling twine tied down to a collection of sticks which used to be a pallet.

 

[Mr Fro]

Useful to know, thanks.

You'll know better than I, but the problem is getting whoever's selling to palletise something properly as opposed to two loops of baling twine tied down to a collection of sticks which used to be a pallet.

Go down there and do it yourself - it's what I did!

 

[Brad93]

A high quality pillar drill with a rack and then a x-y table might do everything you need.

 

[Cato]

A high quality pillar drill with a rack and then a x-y table might do everything you need.

I keep coming back to that thinking to be honest, there's always a temptation to get a bit carried away with 'new' kit. It was just thinking that I need to get a decent quality floor standing pillar drill so I may as well go straight to a mill. That doesn't take into account that I'd go from the higher end of pillar drills to the lower end of mills. Then there's tooling cost, which as I'm sure many on here can attest can run away very quickly.

Another consideration of course is that I've never used a mill in my life.

 

[fizzy]

Go down there and do it yourself - it's what I did!

Yes exactly.
Several times I have driven a long distance to palletise a machine properly. Then come home empty handed and the machine has been collected through one of our networks.