What should I pay for an Atlas Mill?

[uncle pete]

Hal,
No problem on the info. There's a few ways of looking at your question about milling though. I wouldn't consider the Atlas as a primary mill. It's more of an addition to a vertical mill. The horizontals run mostly blade or slab type mills. And due to the way their designed with the arbour supported at each end, You can take far larger depth of cuts than any standard hobbiest type vertical mill. If I remember the correct rpm figures. My Atlas has a bottom end speed of 46 rpm. That works for the larger diameter tooling that is often used on horizontals. Without a larger Bridgeport type mill with a couple of HP and a 220v 3 phase motor and a VFD. Your not going to get the ultra low rpms from most of the smaller type vertical mills avalible today. Even with the above you'd still have a lot of reduced avalible tourque.

You really can't normally buy a good well made drill chuck for use on a vertical mill for $125 today. Buy the Atlas now, And then start saving for the best and largest vertical you have room for and can afford. Then just add parts if needed to the Atlas as and when you can afford it if their needed. You'll grow into that mill. A vertical is more versitile, But pound for pound the Atlas will remove more cubic inches of metal in a given time per HP than a vertical will. Set up right, The Atlas can machine the full length on both sides of a part at the same time. Using MT 2 collets and shorter end mills you can even use those in the spindle. Set ups are tougher to do on a horizontal than a vertical though.

Pete

[xalky]

^^^^ Hmmm. Think I can find a Bridgeport for $150?

No but if you look long and hard enough on Craigs list you can probably find something for about $1500.

I paid $1700 cash for this one a few months back with DRO and power table feed and vice.



I paid $100 for this SouthBend 9 with collets and the cabinet stand, steady rest and an assortment of live, and dead centers, and a couple of tailstock chucks.
I put a few bucks into the lathe. It needed a 3 jaw chuch and I purchased a chinese AXA tool post fir it.

[hal9000]

Thanks again guys, I'm strictly at the hobby level right now so hopefully the atlas will tide me over for a while. I also don't have much more room for another mill in my garage unless I give up parking spaces (probably an eventuality but I'm not looking forward to it). Between all my wood working tools, several grinders and sanders, welding gear, drill press, compressor, my work bench, the craftsman lathe that I recently acquired, and this mill, I'm running out of wall space pretty quickly. I've got an old wood lathe and a planer still in storage that I need to find space for as well....

.... Unless I stumble across a decent "small" vertical mill

[hal9000]

Well, I went and took a look at that mill this morning. It's an MF model. Fairly low serial number (002828). Appears to be complete, but the table has two damaged areas in the center T-slot. The arbor and arbor support arm are taken off, as is the motor. It comes with two arbors, maybe half a dozen cutting tools. It's been sitting for quite a while and definitely needs a good cleaning and adjustment.

Other than that it's relatively unremarkable. The motor is a Craftsman 1/2 hp 1750 reversible unit which I think is a replacement.

Needless to say I made arrangements to pick it up next weekend when we both have time. In the meantime I guess I'll be building another bench to mount it on....

[Tamper84]

Congrats!!! Did you happen to take any pictures??

[hal9000]

No photos. It was kind of buried behind a drill press and another lathe. Don't worry though, I'll have plenty of pics next weekend.