Clarke CMD10 Micro Mill

[henryspringer]

Machine Mart have a VAT free day this Sunday and I was considering buying one of their Clarke CMD10 mill/drill machines. I only need it for light hobby/modelling purposes. Anyone any experience of the machine - is it worth buying at £240

[SteveW]

Henry,

I've just found the CMD10 in the cat. I have a version of the CMD1225C (with slightly longer but narrower table) which I've used successfully for both milling and fly-cutting but like all mill/drills suffers from too much spring in the column.

Back to the CMD10: you might find the X-Y travel at 90/180mm a bit limiting. Someone else here was having problems with a Stuart Kit base not having enough travel/swing to do the base plate (but this was on a lathe). The CMD10 may just end up as an expensive light drilling machine unless your project list includes only small stuff.

The money saved on VAT will go a good way towards a MT2 collette system to hold your end mills properly. There is every chance the supplied chuck will let you down on concentricity. You will also need a good clamping set. If the job moves its over.

At the end of the day you need to go look at it and decide will it do what you want to do with it.

Watch for back-lash in the the quill and table travel and also the measurement system, imperial or metric. The motor rating is 150watts, is this continuous or time limited. There is also every chance that no two units are made to the same 'high' spec so pick a good one. Remember that its only DIY/hobby rated so it's back to what's on your project list.

Finally hope that someone here has one and is totally happy with it and tells you I'm writing total bollocks before the weekend.

[Lee]

I have a Micro Mill similar to the Clark except mine has a tilt head. They are only suitable for very light milling using good quality tooling for cast iron or steel. I improved the performance of mine by "Traming" in the Mill head I had to shim the base of the column using feelergage strips and managed to get it within 0.002" over about 150m radius on a flat plate clamped to the table. They are better than no mill but I would recommend that you buy somthing bigger.

Lee

[SteveW]

Henry,

It's Sunday night and I'm sure I'm not the only one to want to know whether you bought the mill or passed.

I noticed a more positive reply to the question than mine on one of the newsgroups. One theme I did notice was that we all raised the point that is was really a light duty machine. I do hope you found all of the advice valuable for making your decision.

[henryspringer]

Well I bought one complete with collet set as advised. I can't comment on it yet because I haven't unpacked it. If it's anything like other Clarke products I have bought the first couple of days willbe spent fettling it so things work smoothly.

Thanks for all the advice, space precluded anything bigger so I will just have to hope that it will do what I need.

[Phil Sutton]

Well,at the very least,it could save you a lot of filing!
Good luck

Phil