7 months by cncdivi

I discovered a couple of charming small mills in the past week that I felt inclined to share. It’s fascinating how they resemble each other in size. I will also list what I found appealing and those aspects that I didn’t quite fancy.

This Mill is Nomadic and Likes to Be Moved

Prototrak has this neat little 2nd op mill that is so easy to move it actually comes with a pallet jack to encourage dragging it around the shop:

I’m really curious what this little guy costs.

Likes:

–  Easy to move with included Pallet Jack

–  Table comes with pre-installed Jergens ball locks so you can move fixture plates on and off quickly and easily.

–  8-station Toolchanger

–  3 HP BT30 spindle

–  Decent work envelope relative to footprint on shop floor:  14” x 12” x 17”

–  Nice conversational control and “real” handwheels that Prototrak does so well.

–  2400 lbs: it’s solid for a machine this size.

Dislikes:

–  Only 5000 rpm on spindle.  Darn.  Needs 8K.

–  Bet it’s not cheap.

This is Dave De Caussin’s Mill:  A Baby Fadal

Dave was one of the Founders of Fadal and he is back with a new little milling machine and a new company:  Fadec Engineering.  Here is his UMC-10:

It’s fascinating to compare these two mills.  The ‘Trak packs more work envelope into a much smaller footprint.

Likes:

– Dave designed it.

–  At $22K, I bet it’s a lot cheaper than the Prototrak.  Online boards put the Trak 2Op in the low 30’s price range.

– 3 HP 6500 rpm spindle.  Faster than the ‘Trak, same HP.

–  8 station toolchanger, just like the Trak.  Interesting how the Trak’s works in the video.  That accounts for some of the Footprint efficiency, I expect.

Dislikes:

–  Work envelope smaller than Trak at 14″ x 8″ x 8.5″–quite a bit more Y and Z on the Trak.

–  Proprietary taper and toolholders based on a radical modification of the R8.  The BT30 holders used by the Trak are beefier and easily obtained from many sources.