Customer Reviews

JET JMD-18 350018 230-Volt 1 Phase Milling/Drilling Machine

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jet machines are quite functional.

A milling machine is the heart of a machine shop.

If this is your first milling machine, expect to
spend and equal amount on the tooling you will need
to make it work. A clamping kit, an assortment of end mills
chucks and holders, a vice, a rotary table, an indexing head
and more will all be required to round out the purchase.

Horesepower translates into speed of material removal.
Bigger bits require greater power.

This is just a starter mill and you will want to upgrade
to something costing ten or twenty times as much when you
want to do production work as this one is all hand cranked
and requires a skilled operator to run it.

Did I mention that it cuts wood etc.? There are even machinable
ceramics which it can handle.

Again, expect to double the price (as a ballpark est.) on any
machine tool by the time it you are done. And plan to put it on
a solid foundation, not in your livingroom.

I use mine (a Jet VMM626) to make thermoplastic injection molds.

I've used this machine for over a year now. And I really like it. As a drill press for wood, it gives me very acurate and square holes. This is very important in my business where accuracy is key. I use a wooden table and fence that I use over the mill bed.

I use it also to do light milling with aluminum. It does a satisfactory job with that. I'm happy with the results. I think that if I were to do only milling and I had to do complicated parts, this mill would not be enough. Running the table back and forth manually can get pretty boring.

There is only one thing that I do not like and that is to raise the head, I have to loosen the clamp that holds the head from moving right or left. So when I raise the head, I can't garantee that I'm still where I want to be. As a result, I have to recenter my work.

The machine is very heavy. Jet installs an eye bolt on top so that you can hoist it up onto your stand. I like this very much. I built a solid stand for it out of 2x6's and that has been very stable.

The mill/drill has been very reliable. I use it every day and I have had no maintenance problems.

As a drill press with wood, you'll not find anything better. As a mill with metal, it's pretty good. And for the price you are paying. This is very good value.

I've been very impressed with the quality of this milling drilling machine. I've already completed several projects with it and found that it performs very well, even when climb milling, which requires good rigidity. There are many accessories available for it such as power feeds and DROs which I will eventually add to my machine.

Great product!