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.
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