Hello Roger, I have been using one for about 2 years now, they work ok with aluminum & plastic, but chatter pretty bad on harder metals, overall construction is ok. I stripped a gear right to of the box, so I ordered the belt drive set-up from Little Machine Shop and have not had any further problems.
Paintmaker; What model are you using? I'm using the 0731. I make a spindle brake for this model, it is on E-bay. You can also look at it on my web. precisionreplacement parts inc.com. If you look at it let me know what you think? Roger
Painter, Always use the roughing end mills on the harder material. They put much less cutting pressure on the spindle.
I've had mine for about 10 years and use it mostly for routing out for adjustable comb hardware and some aluminum fabricating. No problems other than getting it into my basement single-handedly
