Greetings all,

I've only recently heard of the KBC offering, and note that it has more
Z travel and quill to table distance than Grizzly's or wholesale tools'
versions. (and that's been a common criticism of the 6x26" mills, from
what I've read. Some users are making/considering riser blocks.)

But until I found this thread, I hadn't found any info/opinions from
KBC mill owners.

Rich/any other KBC owners reading:
If you can spare a few moments, would you please email/post re how well
you like yours/any issues to be aware of, how much cleanup it
needed.... Similarly, anything you can say about taking it apart to
move/ballpark weights would be appreciated. (Like which chunk was the
heaviest.) (For instance, I can't tell, from the catalog pic, how easy
it is to get the knee assembly off of the "cabinet" below it.) Sounds
like most folks use a shop crane for diss-assembly and re-assembly.
Did you come up with a different scheme?

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greybeard wrote:
snip

Must get down stairs (bed, headstock and parts separate)
That's how my A1-S knee mill came down, not too bad with two people.

Rigidity.
Repeatability.

The second depends on the first here. The larger machines are fairly rigid,
I worked with one for more than ten years before buying the A1-S from KBC.
There is a learning curve, mostly finding out what the machine wants and
doesn't want.

snip

There is a big price difference between the mill/drill and A1-S, a little
more than double. HOwever, KBC delivered my mill the day after I ordered
it, to Burlington, not far from you. I've had no complaints, the only
complaint I had with the mill/drill was the handwheels, they're diecast and
made as cheap as they can make them, I had go machine new ones out of
aluminum to replace them, but not really a big deal. Space requirements for
either are about the same, figure double the length of the table.