A friend of mine has a very similar mill. It's not bad, but the 8X36
is much better. For instance, the G9959 does not have a an adjustable
ram.

I understand at least some of what I could do with that, but how much
does it add? Does it help to compensate for cross-travel limits? At
what cost?

I believe that by extending the ram and swiveling the head you can
actually get the spindle off the table edge. This could be helpful
when you want to work on a the end of a long part clamped to the front
edge of the table (the part would be verticle). And yes, it does
compensate for shorter X travel.


You have, however, hit on the biggest weakness of the 8X36, it's

table to spindle distance. Given the limitations of each I would much
rather have the 8X36. In almost all cases where it was a problem I was
able to overcome the 8X36s short spindle to table distance by creative
setups.

Can you give some examples of what you mean? I deal with that now, but
mostly in relative distance; I am not kidding when I say my mill-drill
gets scary tall


For example, when I had to ream a hole in a tall piece I cut off some
of the shank of the reamer to get the distance I needed from the drill
chuck to the part.

The 8X36 is also called a baby Bridgeport. It is very, very

similar to a Bridgeport (although it has no head knuckle or power
spindle feed, neither one of which I missed).

I would get either the 8X36 or a full sized Bridgeport clone.

Fair enough. Capacity vs. money and weight. Where's that anti-grav
unit I ordered??

Thanks!

My advice is to spend the absolute most that you can afford and get
the heaviest mill with the biggest working envelope available for that
money. You will never regret getting a larger and heavier mill, but at
some point will regret getting a smaller and lighter one.