mill or lathe ?

[David Ashcroft]

I looking at purchasing a small benchtop mill or lathe ,,which would be more beneficial for things like head buttons,venturis,water jackets etc and any other specialty things I may like..

David

 

[lohring]

A lathe should be your first purchase. A milling attachment can often be added later, or you can buy a full mill.

Lohring Miller

 

[David Ashcroft]

Thanks Lohring ok a lathe will be a good starter,,

David

 

[Brian Sorgente]

How about both? Look for a used smithy.

 

[NOVALTD]

David; Had a Smithy ,got rid of it. It fell apart. 3 in 1. If you want accuracy and quality go with a WABECO from mda precision. Its german and expensive ,but worth it.

Other wise a Chinese Grizzly is your next bet. Half the cost and half the quality,but it will get you by. Stay away from 3 in 1 machines they don't machine as a single component machine. Wait and save your money, its worth the wait. Check out MDA PERCISION the d3000e is all you need. Get tooling from emco. Hopes this helps. DAN

 

[toyotatruckin]

Ive had both and used my lathe a ton more than I did my mill --I had a 7x14 bench top and if i had to do it over again I would get a bigger lathe!

 

[Grimracer]

I have over 10 years on my Smity.. its a nice little machine.

Grim

 

[TimothyJones]

I research many and I found the Smithy to be the most conversational as reviews and from the manufacture.

Some people love them,hate them and sell.

My advice is put great thought into it because it might not be something you really want to do. Once you start putting money into tooling and such, that's where you spend the money not the lathe itself.

My point is you can spend alot on a lathe but factor in tooling as well.

$2500.00 will get you .002" at best.

 

[Don Brown]

I have a Griz Mini Mill and a bench top mini lathe. I also wish the lathe was larger. The first thing I did is take them apart, gave them a good cleaning, and trued up the ways. On the mill I had to add some shims to get the vertical movement perpendicular to the table, without the shims the table sloped down .006” back to front. I also added digital calipers to the mill to increase the accuracy. If everything is adjusted correctly on the mill and I am using a sharp cutter I can cut to +/- .001”.

 

[Patrick Mulvany]

Where are you at and How big of a machine are you interested in?? At my home in Ocoee I have a small 4" lathe Enco I picked up at Harbor freight for 350 bucks.. In Titusville, Fl. I have a twelve inch Atlas/Craftsman lathe and a Bench top Enco mill both have more than enough attachments and spare chucks, bits and various attachments that only my Dad knew what they were for that for the right price will be willing to part with..

Later!!

Pat

 

[Glenn Gates]

David, I think most that buy the very small machines eventually want something larger. You can often find used machines with tooling cheaper than the small ones without the tooling. See if you can find any equipment auctions in your area. The old South Bend "heavy 10's" are decent and you can still get parts and manuals for them. They do not take up as much floor space as my 13" x 6 Ft. South Bend that was built in 1961. Yep it's 53 years old.

And nicely tooled up with a 4 jaw, Bison precision 3 jaw, full 5c collet set and quick change tooling. Probably only have $1300 in it.

 

[David Ashcroft]

Thanks all ,,will be looking at a few different makes ,and checking out some auctions here in Oz.

David

 

[mark voorhies]

My Smithy works just fine for boat parts, good tooling for the mill and lathe helps a lot.

 

[lohring]

I started with a 3" Emco Unimat lathe, moved up to a 9" South Bend and now have a 1947 Monarch 10EE. Things like head buttons were possible on the 3", but easier on the South Bend. Billet gas tuned pipes from 3" steel bar took nearly a week on the South Bend. There's no substitute for mass in a machine tool. Each of these lathes costs around the same amount used, but the South bend weighs 600 pounds and the Monarch weighs 3000 pounds.

Some good advice on buying a lathe:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/page2.html

http://www.mermac.com/advicenew.html

Lohring Miller

 

[Brian Spitzer]

Craigslist can be a good resource. I found a nice old 1947 Southbend Model 9A lathe, fully restored and in pristine condition along with too much tooling to list for $2000, and it was about 20 minutes from my house. If you're patient, can be an option.

 

[Terry Keeley]

Made a lot of parts with this little guy over the years, got a Clausing mill now but the little milling attachment got me going.

 

[lohring]

My Enco Unimat is the 3" version of Terry's. It's a quality machine for tiny parts. The 5" is a lot more capable.

Lohring Miller

 

[Terry Keeley]

My Enco Unimat is the 3" version of Terry's. It's a quality machine for tiny parts. The 5" is a lot more capable.

Lohring Miller

"Enco"? lol!

Super 11 would be nice but hard to justify...