Grizzly Mini Mill- first look

I finally received the mini mill and got it setup. On the whole I think
its a very nice little machine. In general the 'fit and finish' is quite
nice. All the machined surfaces have a good finish, things operate
smoothly, etc.

It was well packed, well sloshed in some kind of presertive oil but it
cleaned up eaisly.

The DC motor is very smooth, operates from a very slow speed where you
can count the revs. I just made a simple plough cut with a 3/8" mill and
it seemed to handle it with no strain. A first pass check looks like
the spindle may have nearly .001 runout, but I'm not sure my measuring
was accurate. I'll do a better check later.

It came with more accessories than I expected- 2 MT3 collets, 3/8" and
1/2", a drill chuck and shank, all the wrenches for every nut, a couple
T-nuts, etc. The T-nut however is metric, and there were no bolts to fit
it.

There is no quill feed, the entire head moves up and down on a V-way, It
is driven by a rack and pinion with a 3 spoke hand wheel like a drill
press. There is an adjustable stop you can set under the head to retun
to a fixed position. I dont think a leadscrew conversion to the head
will be practical. I'm going to continue as a 2D system, plan to operate
the head manually. This will work well for my needs, but may not be
suitable to many.

The X and Y screws can only be called bizzare- they are 16tpi, but the
collars are calibrated in 123 divisons. the divisions are labeled as
.001", but in fact are .0005" and the numbers should read to 6 instead
of 12. I wonder if the collars were made for a lathe to measure diameter
instead of radius? For my use this wont matter but if someone bought
this thing for manual use it would be very screwy to use.

There is VERY little room for a ball nut under the table. Unless I do
some serious carving away I will be limited to a ball nut with an OD of
just about .750". The only screws I find that small are only 1/4"
thread, and that seems way to small for a lead screw.

So, in sum its a very nice LITTLE machine. For less money than a
Sherline you get way more machine, and I think just as well built.

ron