MiniMill

[ElectronWrangler]

Is the MiniMill from HF Tall enough to mill out the FCG on a Tactical Machine AR 10 style 80% lower in their jig?

[rabagley]

Depends on how you clamp it to the table and set up your tooling. If you use a vise and tool holders that protrude from the spindle, you're going to get crowded fast. If you clamp directly to the table and use collets to hold the correct length end mill, there's plenty of space.

Also, if you're going to spend that much money, get the littlemachineshop.com mini-mill variant instead. Variable speed brushless motor with lots more torque, belt drive instead of gear head, and a bigger XY travel. It's the upgraded model made by the same company (Sieg). All for about $100 extra. Finally, Chris is a nice guy whose shop is right here in California (Pasadena).

http://littlemachineshop.com/3900

Basically Harbor Freight is selling the Sieg X2 Mill and littlemachineshop is selling the Sieg SX2L (super X2 long). Here's a review of the Sieg SX2 mill: http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_mill/...%20SX2/SX2.htm that goes into some detail as to why you definitely want the SX2 over the X2. The longer XY travel with similar stiffness of the SX2L over the SX2 is just gravy IMHO.

I'm currently saving up for an SX3 (Grizzly has the best price on these and Chris doesn't want to try to compete with their price, so Grizzly it is) but I did a lot of reading/learning/playing with the X2/SX2/SX2L and you really want the SX2L if you can possibly swing the extra $100.