The Home Machinist!

Hi All: anyone have anything good, bad or indifferent to say about the Baileigh MLD 1030? Anybody own one? Thanks, Rick

I have never seen one live, or heard from anyone who has one. Out of curiosity, I looked it up on their website. From the pictures and specs, it's pretty small. Only 2" tailstock travel and 4-1/2" cross-slide with 6-1/2" from the spindle to the column and 11" max to the table.

The mill column looks interesting --dovetail rather than round. Looks a bit spindly from the pictures though. It would be nice if it was as deep as it was wide, as it is I wonder about fore-and-aft vibration and stability issues. That may be why the mill motor is only 3/4 hp compared to the 1hp lathe motor

Variable speed is nice. They aren't clear on how it is accomplished. The mill says "DC Motor" so my guess is SCR control, which reduces torque at low RPM. PWM would be better for torque. Looks like both the lathe and the mill have two ranges, which would help recover some of the lost torque at low rpm. And it looks like you can run both motors simultaneously, so as to use the lathe motor as a power feed for the mill.

The electronic tach is nice, but looks like that is for the lathe motor only? However, the mill has a simple digital readout on the quill depth -- I assume it's the quill only and not additive of the column setting, since the column handwheel has an index.

Fit and finish looks nice in the pictures. I noticed the grammar on one warning label looked like Chinglesh, so despite the company's implied North American roots, I think this particular machine came from overseas. No different than Grizzley, HF, etc. in that practice though. At least Baileigh had enough sense to mount the tool post in the centre of the table!

Thanks for the reply Torch. Can you explain what you mean by SRC versus PVM speed control? I guess this 3n1 caught my eye because of the squared mill column. I thought this might make it more stable.

Rick

A touch of dyslexia seems to have crept in here. SCR (Silicone Controlled Rectifier) vs PWM (Pulse Width Modulated). Basically, an SCR controller clips the voltage to regulate the speed. A PWM controller supplies full voltage, but in pulses, with the duty cycle varied to control the speed. Since the torque is directly proportional to the voltage, the PWM controller provides better torque at low speed. Also, motors powered by PWM tend to run smoother, quieter and cooler because the frequency is upwards of 15,000 hz, whereas the SCR controller is clipping the standard 60 hz supply voltage.

I don't know which they are using, but SCR controllers are a lot cheaper.

Hey Torch: Thanks for the explaination re my question. There is a ton I do NOT know here. And yes it was my fault on using the abbreviations. I had in my head one thing and typed another.....Rick

Hello Motorcop,

This looks like a very nice machine to me.

From what I found at this site.

http://www.emachinetool.com/new/catalog ... uctID=1147

It should work well for you.

Ken.

_________________
One must remember.
The best learning experiences come from
working with the older Masters.
Ken.