Benchtop Metal Mill
Setup of a Grizzly G-0463 Benchtop Metal Mill. This mill was purchased used from a local seller. The mill weighs about 375 pounds assembled. I had to disassemble the mill to get the pieces down to moveable size.
Re assembly started with the base. This is on a dirt floor. I placed and leveled a concrete block base. I used packed sand to level the base.
The table is welded tube steel with a 1/2 steel plate top. The table has adjustable levelling feet and were used to level the table.
Placing the mill base I leveled each step as I assembled. The base has adjustable levelling feet. Since this is a temporary setup I used the levelling feet, but will bolt it to the table when it gets to it’s final location. The base weighs about 25 pounds the lightest piece of the mill.
The X-Y table was put in place. I made fine adjustments to the table and base to make sure it remained level. Minimal adjustment was needed at the step.
I made gib adjustments to insure smooth X-Y travel of the table. The X-Y table weighs over or close to 100 pounds and wasn’t too difficult to set in place by myself.
I didn’t get a separate photo of just the column installed. The column is quite heavy and since it’s a tall piece I did get help putting this in place. 2 people easily set it on the base and held it in place until bolted to the base. The column itself is easily around 100 pounds.
The head mount was lowered on the column until it closely lined up with the head sitting on wood blocks on the X-Y table.
The head assembly is easily 50 + pounds. I’m guessing the weights since I didn’t measure them. Sitting on the wood blocks and lowering the head mount I was able to line it up and bolt it back to the column. I made sure the head was level while tightening the head bolts.
I installed the back cover on the column, motor and belt cover on the top. This is the assembled mill without the vise.
A power strip to plug it in and other things like lights that will be added later. I was antsy to try it out and cut some chips.
Just another photo of the mill. Ready for the 3″ vise, mill and collet. This mill was listed as not working when I purchased it. It wouldn’t turn on and the history was that when it arrived at the original owner the motor went out and he replaced the motor and board to get it working. He was a wood worker and didn’t use the mill much. When he turned it on to use it the last time it would come on. At that point he decided to sell it. The price was so good I couldn’t turn it down.
Checking the wiring and fuse I couldn’t find the problem. I traced incoming 120 VAC all the way to the power switch. Thinking it was a bad switch I began looking at how to get it out to replace. The board on these grizzly’s use bare wires inserted into screw terminals. Wires attached with screw terminals tend to corrode and oxidize over time and loose connection. I wanted to make a complete wiring diagram so I began disconnecting every wired attached to the circuit board to trace them out and make the diagram. The diagram would help troubleshoot further. As i was reconnecting the wires I did feel a couple that didn’t feel properly connected or they came out too easy.
I documented the wiring and reconnected everything and decided to test it out. I turned the mill back on and it the spindle fired up! It worked! The problem was just a bad connections of the wires to the circuit board. It was an easy fix, but took me a couple hours to disconnect and trace and document the circuit.
I installed the vise and a piece of scrap aluminum and cut some chips.
Here is a closeup of the first chips I cut with this machine. I tested with the oldest mill that came with the Machine and a scrap piece of aluminum block.
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