Grizzly Industrial G8689-4" x 16" Mini Milling Machine

This mill is quite nice for detail work on small items. I bought it to mill some small off the shelf parts that always need to be modified for our use. It handles these mild steel parts without complaint and is more than accurate enough for our needs. I would have given this product 5 stars, except that it is shipped in a very low quality wooden crate and the electrical box on the mill is made from a brittle plastic. When I received the mill the box was heavily damaged in shipping and the electrical box was destroyed, with most of the wiring pulled out. I contacted Amazon and they sent out a replacement. The replacement arrived a couple days later, with no damage to the sides of the crate, but the mill was loose inside of it. When I pulled the top off of the crate I discovered that the electrical box was again damaged, but not as badly as the first time, and the wiring was ok. I contacted Amazon again and this time was given the option of returning the mill for a refund, or accepting the damage and receiving a partial refund. I chose the partial refund.The manufacturer could easily prevent this damage by using a metal or higher quality plastic electrical box, or providing some padding inside of the crate to protect the electrical box from damage. I'm sure either one would be far less expensive than all the warrantee returns I'm sure they are seeing now.

I had my grizzly mill now for almost 2 years. I converted mine to a cnc/hand mill. It can be used for either or. I have used this mini mill cutting everything. Cast iron, steal, stainless, aluminium, brass, plastics and wax test parts. I have had almost no problems other then a spindle gear breaking once but this was my fault actually. I bought all metal ones from littlemachineshop.com and have 0 issues using a 1/2 bit in cast iron now at slow table speeds of course! It may not be a super fine high tech machine. But it gets what i need it for done with .001 give or take with cnc use and digital read outs I added make hand cutting easy. If your willing to spend money and upgrade a few items. You will be really happy. Out of the box it has like all china made products QC issues. Grizzly has great tech support. As far as r8- 3m you can change it to r8 for 35$ if your that confused. Or just buy m3 items. anything you can find r8 I have found m3 with no difference in price. I guess you all don't know how to use simple internet searchs? lol

Great product. It does need some TLC out of the box. Such as gib adjustment and a decent Digital Read Out. It's not accurate by most machining standards but you can get really good results with it if you're patient and get used to the way it is operated. With a DRO you can probably maintain a .002" or so tolerance with this tiny mill which is excellent for small hobby and home based projects. It cuts steel, titanium and stainless but it does take a long time to get through this stuff. It's best uses are for small polymer and aluminum projects. If you need or desire a more accurate/stronger/faster mini mill, check out littlemachineshop.com. They have excellent quality little machines and accessories for all mini mills at decent prices.

This machine is generally is priced competitively in the milling machine market, but there is a reason for this. This machine requires extensive modification to even be an average machine. Either belt drive or gear replacement, column stiffening, and a new spindle are minimum requirements for this. Using the stock machine, I could not make a smooth cut in 7075 aluminum to save my life. No matter tool size, speed, feed, DOC, gib adjustment, ANYTHING, this machine ALWAYS chatters.I don't have the patience, nor do I feel compelled, to replace every crucial part of the machine to make a smooth cut. By the time you invest in new parts, and the time involved in installing those parts, you're better off buying a better machine to begin with.

Got mine up and running in about three hours from delivery. Manageable with a two wheeler and a belt. I was able to get it on my table without help from the two wheeler, using the table as a pivot. I have a larger lathe mill and got this as an excuse for a more precision drill press, then started to look at it for a mill. My major issue is the chuck was not as concentric as needed, and tends to drive one side of the cutters harder, making a hard to soft noise. Switching out the chuck seemed to smooth out the process, so I substituted another chuck which works better. I have most of the tooling and like the MT3 set up because it matches my other machine. My big MT3 machine btw has my collet holder captive! Giving credence to the R8 comment, but my other machine holds everything from 1/8 to 1", so is fine. It takes some force on this one to pop the draw bar, I am using a 16oz brass hammer. I made a couple of replacement x and z knobs to steady the table. The long slide stop hit my vise and a circular knurled knob seems to work better with less torque. The table is very narrow, so get a small footprint vise etc. Finish with sharp cutters and light feeds is very nice. The variable speed is great to use. Noise is moderate with the stock gear package. Numerous after market upgrades are available from other vendors, I am evaluating one now. For layout work this is a base machine, if you add DRO and auto feed, it could be a money maker. Cast and hardened and ground parts are shop quality, and controls feel precise, but with plenty of backlash, so always approach from the same direction. I tried some light climb milling in aluminum, and didn't get any problems. I had the cutter stall at slow speed at a breakthrough point, which beats breaking a plastic gear a bunch. The hp is rated what my other mill is, but with much less torque. Top rpm though is another 1,000. motor is physically about 1/4 the size though. Happy and trying new things.Update after a couple of weeks. I tried several trial cuts in 1/4" aluminum and they give a nice texture especially with small cutters. I put in a 1/2 inch at a low speed, and promptly tore a gear out. I've been doing this with a bigger machine for five years, but was incredulous that it took so little pressure. I got the machine for drilling mostly and as a project for after market upgrades. I assumed I could make an actual part for something before an overhaul. So, no excuse for housing plastic gears in a 100 lb cast iron machine. If you buy one to cut metal with cutters over 1/4 inch, plan to buy the belt drive.

Good beginner machine (which is what I am).

The mill does what i need to do now,but might need a bigger one later on.

Nice, well built