Enco 9 x 42 Mill -4
stars.
The mill has become an
essential piece of equipment in my home shop. I have
had the Enco 9 by 42 step pulley mill for at least 10
years and there are several photos of the mill in the
cylinder head article. The mill was purchased from the
original Enco store (before it was bought by MSC) for
$3495. It came with a 2 axis Sargon digital read out
and I don’t remember if I paid extra for it (probably
did). I bought the mill at an “end of the year
sale.” You can still purchase this mill from Enco
for about $3500 if you catch it on sale.
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The
mill arrived attached to large hardwood pallet.
It weighs approximately 2400 pounds and is easily
moved with a forklift. I recently moved 2380 pounds
of scrap iron with my Chevy 1500 pickup truck
so the mill could theoretically be moved longer
distances with the pickup, provided that the pallet
fits into the bed. Enco ships directly to your
door so moving it around should not be a problem.
You might be able to lift it with a large engine
hoist but I would not try to remove it from a
tuck bed using an engine hoist. I set the mill
down on three or four sections of 2-inch diameter
pipe to roll it across the garage floor, adding
a section of pipe to the front of the mill as
it rolled out the back side. A 1-inch by 5-foot
long steel rod made an effective pry bar to move
the mill into final position. I installed feet
to level the mill and dampen vibration. |
Upon arrival, the mill
was coated with grease, which was easily removed with
kerosene and a brush. During inspection, the on / off
switch was broken, damaged in shipping. I added a replacement
knob I had lying around and the switch worked for a
few years before dying completely. A call to Enco had
a replacement at my door in 2 days. I see this as a
testament of quick service and the availability of replacement
parts from Enco.
I was just starting out
as a machinist when I bought this mill and it has survived
my learning curve. I made some fairly abusive cuts with
this machine and nothing is broken. It still keeps on
going. After several years of
use, I have noticed that when using a 3-inch face mill
on an interrupted cut, there is a little deflection
in the mill. While you can see it on the surface when
milling aluminum, you can not feel it by running your
finger over it. Several aluminum cylinder heads have
been machined on this mill and this has not been a problem.
Perhaps I could adjust the bearings and clean this up.
The Sargon DRO was installed
by Enco and was ready for operation upon arrival. It
works flawlessly and makes accurate location of holes
easy. The mill is now shipped with Acu-Rite brand of
DRO.
Some of the work pieces
I cut push this mill to its maximum capacity. I purchased
a 6-inch riser block to go between the mill base and
the head so that I can fit larger engine blocks on the
table. I have also removed the stops from the table
to squeeze every bit of travel from the table. Eventually,
I broke one of the Sargon glass scales. It costs about
$500 to replace it. For just a little more than the
price of the scale, I could purchase a Shooting Star
3 axis DRO.
Here is where I go from
5 stars to 4 in this review so read carefully.
The mill works well and
does all that one would expect from it however if I
had it to do over again, I would not select the factory
DRO but use the Shooting Star DRO for two reasons. The
first reason is the Shooting Star DRO scales are immune
to breaking from over-travel. Second, for the price
of the factory DRO, you could purchase BOTH the Shooting
Star DRO and a 6-inch riser block for your mill. So
this opinion is based on the selection of options rather
than performance of the mill.
I am pleased with the mill
and would buy it again…or perhaps a 10 by 54…I
know I will eventually buy a 10 by 54 and an 18 by 60
lathe, provided I can hide them from my wife…
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