Chester 626 turret mill

[Robin Hewitt]

The Chester 626 is a turret mill but it only weighs 320kg

It's dinky, I discovered it existed this morning, I can have one delivered for £1600 plus tax. I am resisting but my resolve is weak

I always wanted a knee mill for CNC so I can lock the spindle and no round column blues. I was put off by the sheer size of the blooming things, but this one isn't.

Is there something I don't know?
Is there a better alternative?
Is it a problem to CNC?
Are they poorly made or what?

http://www.chesterhobbystore.com/626-turret-mill-3999-p.asp

[thinfourth]

Had one

Thought it was garbage.

Loads of backlash, wobbly as hell.

Also not as small as you would think.

I sold it and bought a Bridgeport sized machine which is lovely.

However

Double boost on YouTube has one and gets on fine with it.

[Neale]

I have a Warco VMC which is a very similar machine, and certainly at the time I bought it was about the same price. None of these Chinese machines are perfect (they wouldn't be at that price!) but the 626 just didn't seem as well finished. I added DRO (3-axis, using the knee as Z) plus power table feed in X. My main quibble is that the quill has a tiny amount of shake. It's easily good enough for drilling, and I lock it for milling anyway. I went R8 for the spindle which was the right choice for me. Most of my tooling was Morse 2 so I would have had to buy Morse 3 bits and pieces anyway and R8 is a much better system - undo the drawbar, tap the top of the drawbar, and the tool drops out. Morse tapers can need a bit of a wallop sometimes. However, you do need three hands to hold the drive pulley, support the chuck or whatever, plus use spanner on drawbar. It's not a big problem once you get the knack, but a spindle lock would be nice. Or powered drawbar...

I could have done with a bit more clearance between spindle nose and table for some jobs, especially with long drills, but there's a limit to what I can fit in my workshop. Lack of headroom means that a second-hand Bridgeport would not have fitted, and for some reason my wife objected to cutting a clearance hole into the bedroom floor above the garage. The VMC has a downwards-pointing motor so just fits. If I had known then what I know now, I would have gone for a 3-phase version and added a separate VFD - belt-changing isn't that difficult but it's a nuisance. Warco now sell a version (at a higher price...) which has suitable motor and VFD fitted as standard.

I believe that there are some VMC CNC mods described but I haven't looked closely enough at mine to know if there's enough space under the table for a ballnut without extra clearance needed. I would also want to CNC drive the knee rather than quill (see above) and that needs a bit of work to arrange as well as fairly chunky drive system.

Would I buy another? Given that a secondhand commercial machine wouldn't fit anyway, the answer is "probably".