While
comparing mills It surprised me how little information I could find on
the G6760 or Encos's 100-1525 type
mills. Both mills are model model X6320A according to the
owners manuals. The few people I did find that owned
the mills were happy with them. Since I've had mine awhile
I am happy with it and would do it again. All controls
are very smooth and the powerfeed works great.
Pro's:
Weighs 1620 lbs so it's capable of some heavy milling.
Fit and finish are very nice.
Angular spindle bearings
One shot lubrication for the table.
2 HP motor single phase (Grizzly's site show a
1.5 HP single phase motor, manual shows 1.5 HP three phase)
The belt drive is super quite!
Table uses 1/2" Bridgeport type clamping set.
The base of the mill has a place to mount a coolant pump
if you like (inside the base). The back of the
base also has a drain plug for the coolant. I personally
don't care for a flood coolant
system on a mill with a DRO. Makes too big of a
mess. It would be easy to add if you liked.
Grizzly's customer service was very helpful and shipping
was very fast. Ordered Monday morning
and it was at the trucking terminal Wednesday.
Con's:
Owner's Manual is a joke..... Very poor English and the
pictures are barely legible. Grizzly really needs to work
on this. (Enco's mill has the same bad manual).
Changing drive belt is not the easiest thing to do but
once you have done it a few times it's not too bad.
Open unshielded bearing under the spindle pulley.
There is a roller bearing directly under the spindle pulley that
is open and unshielded. Any dirt or debris from the belt
can go directly into this bearing. The bearing is not very
big and would be easy to change out with a shielded
bearing. This is on my "to do" list.
The owners manual states that way protectors are included.
I spoke with Grizzly customer service and they told
me this is referring to the small metal wipers that wipe
against the ways, not an actual rubber way protector.
After looking at the other larger Grizzly mills I see it's
the same on these also. No big deal, just poor wording.
8X36 STEP PULL VERTICAL
MILL 1.5HP, 3PH, 220V:
This is a great looking mill and it was on sale. The
biggest difference between this mill and the Grizzly G6760 is that
the Enco shows to have 10 speeds compared to 5 speeds on
the Grizzly. This is because the Enco mill has a three
phase two speed motor. Even with the Enco on sale there
was over a $1000 difference when you added the
powerfeed upgrade and shipping cost. I also found that the
Enco and Grizzly have the exact same owners manual
showing both mills to be a
model X6320A.
Grizzly's Model
G0484 9" x 32" Gear-Head Mill / Drill with
Stand
For a bench top Mill /
Drill I think this is a great deal ! It includes a table power feed and
also a power feed to raise
and lower the head. Also weighs in in at 838 lbs
which is nice for a benchtop machine.
This was one of my first choices but after talking
to Grizzly I was told the G0484 was on backorder until May 08.
Grizzly's Model G3616 &
G3617 Vertical
Mills
The G3616
&
G3617 are vertical mills that include a lot of accessories. The G3617
also has a horizontal spindle.
Both these mills include a 5" milling vise, coolant
system, power feed and a set of R8 collets.
The G3617 uses an R8 spindle on the horizontal
spindle and I've never ran into a milling job that I could not do
with a vertical milling machine. Because of this
narrowed my choices to the G6760 & the G3616.
The G3616 looks like a great mill and I have spoke
to owners that are very happy with it but I went with the
G6760 for a few reasons:
The G6760 looks more like a scaled down version of
the Bridgeport's.
Machine weight, the G6760 weighs almost 300 lbs more
than the G3616.
(G6760 machine weight 1620 lbs / G3616 machine weight 1322 lbs)
Coolant system, I personally don't care for a
coolant system on a mill unless it's used for high production.
It makes a mess and you spend more time
cleaning
than milling. (This is my personal opinion)
The G6760 also shows to have Angular contact
bearings for the spindle to where the G3616 uses sealed ball bearings.
The G6760 also has one shot lubrication for the
table and knee.
The G6760 also offers a 4" riser block.