Craftex B2229 Lathe/Mill - Thoughts?

Tyroma

Tyroma

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Hey gang...

Finally got some cash together, and was thinking about one of the Craftex (Busy Bee) B2229 Lathe/Mill combination units. I was wondering if anyone had one, or any other Craftex machine and can let me know what you think.

As for use, I do quite a bit of gunsmithing (threading/crowning/reaming) on a friend's lathe for myself and friends, as well as automobile restoration. I can't really afford professional grade equipment, but thought that this unit might do the trick.

Please ring in with you comments and reviews

Thanks!

TY
 
I have the 2227 and am happy enough with it for my purposes. The 1 1/8" spindle bore and 20" bed are nice compared to my 1"x18". While it is true you get your money's worth out of quality tools I found the tolerances and build quality adequate for my level of machining skill (home hobbyist).

I decided to avoid the mill/lathe combos as most reviews seem to indicate that while they can do both tasks they don't do each one as well/easily as a dedicated unit... That said I still haven't scraped together enough cash to get a mill...

I have used My lathe to crown, thread, ream, make chamber reamers, profile shorter barrels (~14"), make air gun valves and generally tinker about. Working on rifle barrels is harder due to the limited bed and smaller spindle bore but I have been able to find ways to make it work...

I'd say any tool is better than no tool.

HTH
MB
 
i would say don't do it. I have a 2229 and ive never been more dissapointed with a single pc of equipment i own. While adequate for rough turning - i have never been able to any real precise work with it. The mill portion is not anywhere near rigid enough for the basic work i was trying to achieve. Admittedly, the model i have is over 10 years old and it may have been improved upon, but i dont know for sure.

The worst part is that there is little resale value for it as a used machine - nobody wanted it any price.

My advice is to save up and look for a quality unit, new or used, that exceeds your immediate needs and skill level - it will prolong your need to upgrade in the future.

You pay once or you pay twice.
 
the general feeling with most of these combo type machines is that they are sub standard . My personal feeling is that if you don`t work with anything else you might not know the differance. I purcashed one of the mill-drills 15years ago and it lasted in my shop 1 week at which time I sold it at a loss and purchased a proper turrret mill (Bridgeport Clone) your mileage may vary. I would purchase seperate machines. my.02 cents
 
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I have a Shoptask lathe/ mill combination machine. Its massive and well made but set up for either milling or many turning tasks is slow and awkward. I'm thinking of selling it and buying a quick change gearbox lathe and maybe later a heavy table top mill.
 
I spent some time looking into what I should buy.

I spent some time poking about with a friend of mine who is a professional machinist. He has one of the Smithy 3-in-1 machines at home.

He has limited shop space at home, but can work on larger more accurate machines at work.

His comment WRT the 3-in-1's was that you spend more time attempting to figure out how to do your setups, and make them rigid than you do actually cutting chips.

I ended up purchasing one of the little Sherline Mini-mill/lathe setups (4400) and it worked OK for tiny projects. Not so much for bigger stuff.

What took me 100 hours of machining time to mill on the mini takes 10-15 on a benchtop mill.

I ended up selling the Sherline at a 50% loss, having (in the end) almost $1800 in machine, tooling, and accessories, and getting only $900 for it. It wasn't worth more to anyone.

I kept my eyes open on the local kijiji pages, and ended up picking up a used Southbend 10K for $400, and a 2nd for parts for another $300.

Then, as I was pondering buying the milling attachment and collets for it, I spotted a used B096 mill with some tooling for $1000.

For $1700, I have the lathe, and mill I need to do what I want.

I strongly recommend against buying a combo machine. It isn't a good lathe, it isn't a good mill/drill.

Save your $$$ and watch the used machine sales in your area. The right tool will show up at the right price before too long, and used machines usually come with a PILE of tooling. The $1000 mill came with $1400 worth of tooling....some brand-new!

YMMV, but I'd keep looking, else you'll do like I did, and spend the money twice.

NS
 
If your looking to do actual barrel threading and chamber reaming get a decent lathe in 10" swing or better. Old South Bends are hard to find, but the Chinese 12x36" swings can be had real cheap used. I use a 13x40" South Bend and I wouldn't want anything smaller!
You will find that frustrations runs deep with combo/mill drills.

South Bend vintage 1978
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A decent mill starts with a Bridgeport 1 ton class. Anything less and the chatter becomes unbearable or you spend a very long time making very light cuts a 100 times.

It's actually cheaper to get tooling for the full size lathes and mills than you think and get all your money back if you decide to sell. I found/bought both South Bend and Bridgeport at bargain prices on the net. They needed some repair, but if you have machine shop experience and up to the task of refinishing them it can be done nicely. The precision work I get from these old machines is top shelf. Both will cut to .0001 if I do my part. No disappointments, no looking back, no need to upgrade ever!

Bridgeport J-Head vintage 1966
Before

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After a month of teardown and reconditioned back to factory specs by myself.

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i have that craftex mill
now i'm going cnc because its a pain in the @ss to work with it. its descent size to do small stuff but not much.
if you want to do real good stuff, buy an used bridgeport. its my plan, if i'm not going for a nice 4 axis cnc in my garage. . . . . .anyone have an extra 70 000$ for me ? ? ?

next month, that craftex mill willl be converted to cnc and i expect next summer to have my 4th axis done and ready to work.
 
Even as a lathe it is very small. And as a mill it's even worse. The table is basically only just the size of the compound and they are seldome very big. This leaves you very little room to mount anything more fancy than a basic milling vise. So while it may be OK for doing small bits if you want to mill anything long or clamp down anything fairly large that doesn't fit into a vise you're pretty much hooped. Table area and clamping slots on the table are of primary importance in a milling machine. Also the spindle to table is only 12 inches. that sounds like a lot until you start factoring in the milling vise height, room for endmill holders and the length of the cutter itself. Suddenly you've got less than half of that. And you can forget about room to mount indexing heads and the like.

I've also seldom seen any of these machines where the divisions on the lead screws lend themselves to doing fine work to small tolerances.

My own thought would be to go with two separate machines. Even if they are not sized similar to those in lejarretnoir's post you'd be far better off with two small to medium sized dedicated machines.

A proper machine will last for a lifetime and do the sort of jobs you want to stick into them. A poor compromise will do nothing but frustrate you with limitations and in the end represents a waste of money that is seldom used because it just can't deliver on the promise of it's apparent size and weight like dedicated machines of the same size can do so much better.

My money would be on the Busy Bee CT089 lathe. And as a companion mill I'd suggest either the B1977 or for a bit more money the CT054 knee mill. Granted going this route will cost you twice as much but both are far more useable in so many ways and would allow you to do far more accurate work and use holding arrangements that would allow you to do jobs that just would not be practical on a combination machine.

If you can only buy one or the other for now if you go separates rather than a combo machine then suck it up and do it that way. Get the lathe for now and start saving for the mill to be bought next year or two years from now. Like I say, you're looking at life long investments and you have to view their purchase in that light instead of just a whim sort of deal.
 
I have that machine (2229)and sold a small Atlas before. I like the hole in the head stock and made up a collet to hold the barrel at that end as well as the chuck. I find that the dials are hard to read and not as accurate as the old Atlas. If used enough I guess I would get used to it. The mill is big enough for anything I do on a firearm and I find it works well. I wish they had a book for its use.The outfit works fine for me as long as I do my part.
 
Don't discount ordering from the US. I bought my lathe from the US and it was cheaper than Busy Bee and I got a whole lot more with it. Clearing customs if a trivial task.
 
IMHO;
A good lathe would be my first investment.
A milling attachment for the lathe is fairly affordable, and easy to find used.
For example; My Boxford ME10E has a 32" bed. It came to me with a boring/milling table and milling attachment.
I used the milling attachment quite a bit, eventually I bought a Bridgeport style mill from Busy-Bee.
Naturally the size of the work to be milled is severely limited, but not more so than with a combo.

There are some high quality combination machines. These can do excellent work.
ALL combos are awkward, and slow to change over from lathe to mill.
The set-ups are tedious.
Most have limited milling abilities, and a short lathe bed.

I've seen quite a few Southbend lathes and such on Craigslist, and the local Buy&Sell. As well as an assortment of mills, shapers, and filing machines.

2 cents.
 
Buy a lathe. You'll be happier.

The combo machines are a bit of a conundrum. The experience you need to get the most out of them, so that they become useful, comes from lots of time spent on separate machines.

I think they are about the crappiest thing anyone has done to new machining hobbyists.

You can do a huge amount of work on a lathe alone. When the stars align, buy a small milling machine. I used to think that the RF30 style was a pretty good bet, as they make a great drill press too, and can continue to be useful at that long after the purchase of a new milling machine. Then, along came the X2 and X3 series mills. Though I have not used either of them, they have a following, and look a decent tool.

Look at getting The Amateur's Lathe by Sparey. Get Workholding in The Lathe, and Milling in The Lathe, by Tubal Cain. All available from Busy Bee. Huge assets to the new guy.

Cheers
Trev
 
Check out the lathes and combo units from Grizzly. I was just down there and they have some nice machines.

My old boss used to have a vintage Soviet milling machine with a convertible head. That thing would do anything.
 
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