Choice between Jet and XLO

[EmGo]

Bench, not Benchtop

Must be an anglicism That style never became popular in the US. For some reason I assume that's where op is located since he didn't bother to say where he's at, then expects us to evaluate milling machine values via the ESP method .... (hint: hawaii and detroit will have different prices on a bridgeport).

 

[GregSY]

I'd rather have the XLO any day, but the horizontal spindle of the Jet is a big plus. I am constantly thinking of setups that would be 100% easier with a hor. spindle.

 

[Andy FitzGibbon]

(Foreground under spindle rebuild)

Bed mill.

 

[IceCzar]

OK bed mill
At work we call them bench but we aren't exactly mainstream "machinists" either. When I first wanted a mill I too went directly to knee mills as a default till it was pointed out retrofitting to CNC with a box column would be better.

 

[4GSR]

Leave your dial indicators and test bars at home, they are not going to tell much about wear and tear on the mill. Unless you are wanting to check runout of the spindle. That could cause you to misinterpret readings and reject a machine that is really just fine. Visual and feel will tell you more about the mill than any indicator will.

 

[ken moss]

is there a parts suppler for Ex-Cell-O mills

 

[Jayco112]

Never see any bed lathes for sale near me much. I apologize I am in upstate NY. They are all going around $1,500. All with in 10 miles of me. Wish I had enough after Christmas to buy all 3 and see which ones works best for my needs and sell the other two within a year or so. But taxes are coming up for my shop and don’t have the extra scratch to get all 3 or look for a more expensive one at the moment.

 

[mattthemuppet]

You're not married to it for life - get the one with the most tooling in the most useable condition and use that until you need/ find something better. At that price I can't see you being out much other than some time and grunt work if you trade up later.

 

[michiganbuck]

The jet is a repaint so may look like new.. that doesn't matter one bit. Good to see and hear them run, original scraping and feed screw/ dial slop give a little indication..
I had the pleasure of running a brand-spanking new Xcello and thought that it was a fine machine/ never ran a Jet so no comment there.

 

[RC Mech]

is there a parts suppler for Ex-Cell-O mills

I’m not aware of any off hand, but IIRC years ago a large old-guard MTB had spares.

The vari-speed heads are straight forward to get working. A few bushings, maybe make a new pulley yoke. Axis nuts can be tightened etc.