jet vetical mill

[doug]

I'm going to buy a jet vertical mill. any
bad facts?

[George Hodge]

I have a Jet Mill/Drill,works great! No spindle lock,remedied that! T slots needed machining out,still had sand and flashing in them.Head is hard to crank up,a gas strut helped!Made my own table feed drive.Shortened the quill feed handles by about 3in.each. Motor says 1hp,it's never needed more power yet.I'm gonna add either a variable speed control or a variable pulley setup.

[SGW]

The general opinion seems to be that Jet mills are pretty good. Some are better than others. I've got a JVM-830 (no longer sold) that in general is quite nice. It's a pretty basic knee mill, but the "fit and finish" are quite acceptable. Not up to a Clausing or Bridgeport, but quite good enough.

Try to go see the mill you want to buy before you buy it. There is nothing like seeing machinery "in person." My Jet dealer referred me to a local machine shop that had just bought a mill like the one I was considering, so you might see if you can get a reference like that if there is no dealer nearby or if the dealer doesn't have a machine like the one you want in stock.