Larry Jaques wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 15:23:32 GMT, Stan Stocker
pixelated:


Larry Jaques wrote:
The G1005 is a smaller mill drill. Side by side with the G1006 that
look the same, just the 1005 is smaller. I think the larger table and
thicker column make the G1006 quite a bit more useful.


I meant the Enco mill/drill and the G1006 appeared
to be the same machine.

They may very well come from the same factory. If one is better than
the other I can't say, there haven't been any complaints on the
mill/drill yahoo group about Enco Mill Drills related to QC problems.
They certainly appear very similar if not identical from the flyer and
catalog photos and descriptions.

Thr loss of registration when moving the head on a round column
mill/drill is always an issue when step drilling/reaming, but spuds or
indicators do well enough for me so far.

I notice on the Grizzly site that the G1005 is now "G1005Z" I don't
know if this now means these are sourced from PRC rather than Taiwan.
My G1006 is from Taiwan, it's either a rebadged RF30 or a darn good copy.

How do you like it? When I finally get tired of
fabricating my repair parts with vise/hammer/file
and belt sander, I may jump for either a mini-mill
or G1006. I like the Griz products but own mostly
woodworking machines from them.

I've been really pleased with the G1006. The provided vise is a tilting
drill press vise, and the provided drill chuck got crunchy in a few
months. Other than that, the only changes I've made were changing over
to power twist belts (a big improvement, putting good quality B sized
belts on the machine would do as well I think), making larger handles as
the plastic handles were small for my hands, and adding a power feed. I
did tram the head, it seems all the mill drills need this done. I've
had mine for probably 6 years now, still feel good about having
purchased it. A large knee mill would be nice, but this machine does
nicely for me.

The Grizzly G0517 appears to be the same (or very similar) machine as
the HF unit the original post referred to, just green :-)

The G1005Z and G0517 look related, too, with 1-or-sub-HP
ratings. Those models and the HF stuff are pretty much
"wannabe machines", wot?

They are quite different. The G1005 has a worm feed for fine down feed
and a well made table. Hopefully the "Z" version is still as good. The
G1005 is just a somewhat smaller version of the G1006, in side by
side photos where the machine heights were the same it would be hard to
distiguish the two apart other than the smaller table. I guess this
machine is a step up in size from Taig or Sherline mini-mills or
benchtop mini-mills. If you don't need the larger table or just plain
can't fit a larger table into your shop it's a pretty nice machine. I
just know how quickly you can run out of table or daylight, so think the
extra $200 to get the G1006 sized machine makes good sense. The extra
mass and rigidity provided by the larger column, and the additional HP
rating are big pluses unless you just can't afford the room or handle
the extra weight. The first time you mill an engine head the difference
in price is paid for.

The G0517 sets height by racking the column up and down through the
base, no fine down feed, an MT3 rather than R8 spindle, a smaller
diameter column, smaller table, and weighs around 130 pounds less than
the G1005.

I would consider the G0517 and other machines that match it to be
wannabee machines, while the Taig, Sherline, and G1005 sized machines
are perfectly usable machines when used for work that fits a smaller
machine.

There are good machines in all sizes, smaller ones have less power and
capacity of course. I love my Taig and jewelers lathes, but sure am
glad to have larger lathes as well. For clock work I've been giving
some real thought to adding either a Taig or Sherline mill. Maybe 4
axis CNC to take out some of the tedium cutting wheels (gears for non
clock folks!) Then again I may just make a dedicated small benchtop
machine for this task and save quite a bit of money :-)

Cheers,
Stan