Comments on: Grizzly G9959 Metal/Wood Mill

By: fred

fred — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:35:41 +0000

@ Shopmonger says:

Our dust collection system in our cabinet/wood shop is about 6 miles away from our metal/pipe fabrication shop - too long to run a hose.

By: ShopMonger

ShopMonger — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:25:05 +0000

I have seen metal mills (bridgeports ect) run for years with little maint. or cleaning and they are around EDM (read: nasty dust) and carbon burners all the time. if hard carbon wont; foul them then a little wood dust would be aof little consequence……Besides fred i know oyu have dust collection so just set up a flexible arm rig to get most of the fine dust at point of contact.

By: fred

fred — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:13:52 +0000

Jaxx

Thanks for the advice. When we used the big bansaw for wood the issue was with the cutting fluid reservoirs and fluid feed systems - plus the residual fluid that attacted sawdust.

By: Jaxx

Jaxx — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:58:26 +0000

fred: there is absolutely nothing to say that you have to run the machine at what I would call dust making speed, you would be amazed how slowly you can go when everything is firmly fixed to the table.

Also if you have an air duster and regulator you can rig it up with cable ties to blow any wood swarf gently towards you, which avoids blowing it downwards into the table rack and pinion gubbins, or up into the machine.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:32:39 +0000

KMR: where are you seeing people giving away Bridgeports? I’d be more than happy to take one off someone’s hands, even if it meant renting a storage unit for a while.

By: fred

fred — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:18:42 +0000

This is an interesting post that has mee looking at our old Bridgeport knee mill as a possible woodworking machine. We had always heard that wood dust would be the death knell for metaworking machinery - but now I’m not sure.

We did have experience using our Armstrong Blum Marvell band saw to taper cut a series of wood 12 x 12’s for a sepentine wall - but then subjected the saw to a thorough cleaning.

I’d be intersted to know about how folks who use their mills for wood and metal both - clean-up in between.

By: Jereme Green

Jereme Green — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:28:34 +0000

Now this is a heavy duty piece of machineary

By: ambush

ambush — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:23:48 +0000

Can’t a router do nearly anything a mill can do when it comes to wood anyway? Buying a new mill exclusively for woodworking just doesn’t make financial sense. of course the obvious advantage of the mill is that it doesn’t require the work to be flat. but even so you’d have to have every other woodworking power tool and hand tool known to man before it would be worth getting.

By: KMR

KMR — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:13:42 +0000

For half that price you should be able to find a really nice Bridgeport with a DRO. I’ve even seen Bridgeports offered for free, as long as you haul it away (no small task!).

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:54:00 +0000

A few more concerns about the G9977/G9959 twins:

The design of the ram head is substantially less rigid than a metalworking-focused mill. Don’t expect repeatable high-precision cuts in metal, especially if you try them with the quill extended.

This mill’s slowest speed is 420rpm. That is WAY too fast for some common metalworking operations, such as drilling and reaming in hard metals. For comparison, I drilled the heads of a set of black-steel socket-head cap screws for safety wiring (1/16-in holes) and didn’t stop breaking bits until I shifted my drill press from 320rpm to 140rpm.

In other words, if you want a wood mill, then this is probably fine — but the design isn’t really suited for anything beyond the occasional lightweight metalworking job.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:44:57 +0000

The G9977, which is the same mill with an x-axis powerfeed factory-installed, is currently $3595 with free shipping. I wouldn’t even consider buying a mill (of any sort) without at least an x-axis powerfeed, so it is very much worth the extra $150. Adding that same powerfeed at a later date, which the buyer WILL end up doing, will cost >$300.

That said, I’m getting ready to order a G3617 mill, and I fully intend to use it for metal, plastic, AND the occasional wood-milling job. It runs fast enough (~3000rpm) to use on wood, especially coupled with larger cutters. The smaller table is a plus for me, because I want my mill to fit in a reasonable working footprint. Besides, the lack of a through-hole isn’t a problem if do all of your woodworking on top of a milled-in-place MDF overlay which is attached to the metal table surface.

By: Maxebitda

Maxebitda — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:42:14 +0000

I have used a mill for both wood and metal for over 10 years w/o a problem…in fact I highly recommend it. I did alot of research originally to see if it was recommended and found very little. What little I did find always leaned against doing it highliting the potential wood dust problem on the ways/bearings…never had a problem.
To add to the functionality I added a wider baltic birch table on top that has a biesemeyer flip stop fence on it for cutting the euro hinge holes on doors. The top is easily removable when working metal. It turns the mill into the ultimate drill press w/ precision, speed and convenience no ordinary drill press could ever dream of.
And 2 more cents worth for woodworkers considering the option…get dro, x/y power feed, and a frequency drive motor if possible…u won’t regret it.