I bought my Princess Auto Mill a couple of years ago and I am very happy with it. For the new owners here are a couple of tips.
1)The mill needs a solid base to sit on or it will flex under load.
2)Take the time to thoroughly clean it.
3)Check and tighten the end play in the x and y lead screws. reduce the end play as much as you can with the adjustments available. This end play will cause chatter and busted tooling if left untouched.
4)Never lower the head on the vertical rack while milling, there is play in the leadscrew and it will drop causing tool and part destruction. Keep the lock on at all times.
5)take the time to align and set up the head and table for squareness the time spent in leveling and aligning the machine will save money spent on scrap parts.
6)Buy tooling from tooling stores, the tooling sold at princess is useless, also buy all the accessories for the mill that Princess carries, but be careful of the clamping kit. In the store at Hamilton where I bought my mill they sell a clamping kit that is marketed to fit my machine but it doesn't.
I have bought tooling from Busy Bee, and it was acceptable.
Most of my tooling came from KBC Tooling and Machining, kbctools.com
They are fast, reasonable and very friendly to the small machinist, even though they are oriented to the large factories.
I have also dealt with J&K Tooling in St.Catharines and found them to be very good to deal with.
The PA Mill uses MT tooling which is becoming harder to find as it is no longer being used. I suggest you source a set of MT tapers for holding end mills and cutters, a good fly cutter is also handy.
High speed steel works well and small carbide cutters work ok, but the mill does not have the strength or horse power to run larger carbide tools over 1 - 1 1/2".
Also BE Prepared..... I paid $500 for my mill but I have over $2000 in tooling for it and I'm nowhere near finished.
I also have the PA Lathe and I am quite happy with it as well, both machines are very capable and useful machines for their size.
Kevin in St.Catharines, Ontario
--- In GrizHFMinimill@yahoogroups.com, "tinker3738" <jozef@...> wrote:
>
>
> Sorry it took me so long to reply, everybody. I'm up at The Pas taking my millwright Level 2, and only get home on the weekends...
>
> I went ahead and "ordered" one of the PA mills last weekend, and pick it up tomorrow (as long as they still have it on hold for me!) For that price, and with some of the mods, etc. I've seen, I think it will be a fine little unit for hobby-level work. That and I really want a small mill!!
>
> Thanks all
>
> James
>
>
>
> --- In GrizHFMinimill@yahoogroups.com, "Glen" <glenf99@> wrote:
> >
> > I just checked the PA web site and as Jerry mentioned it is on sale for $420.03 and has the 3MT spindle. I would go for it at that price. I don't think you will get a new one cheaper. They show "out-of-stock", but if you call the stores they may have one in. At that price it would still be worth waiting for the next shipment.
> >
> > Glen
>
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