Beginer/economy lathe and mill for me

roachie

roachie

Taco Master
After the truck sells I intend on fully outfitting my shop lift, welders, ect. I have very little experience with machining and I will not be using these every day. Mostly going to get used to make brackets and other small things. As much as I would like to buy and actual bridgport they have been evading me.

Here is what I have found.

Mill
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Drill-Mill-with-Stand-29-inch-x-8-inch-Table/G0705

Lathe
http://www.grizzly.com/products/11-x-26-Bench-Lathe-w-Gearbox/G9972Z

And this saw is quite awesome.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/7-x-8-1-4-Swivel-Metal-Cutting-Bandsaw/G0613

If anyone else has recommendations I'm all ears.
 
The mill just looks like a converted drill press. If it is, they are not built for the side load/thrust an actual like an actual mill.
 
What okie said.

Dont waste your money you wont be happy with either one of them.

The "mill" is what they call a mill/drill works great for drilling and that about it.

Lathe is a joke as the chuck is tiny and you will get crap for surface finish or be accurate.

Search CL and other machinery auctions for a used lathe and mill you will be money well spent down the road.

Mike
 
That mill is $1500, I see Bridgeports around from $1500-2500 in good condition. Obviously you might not get digital read outs, but it's a large step above that Grizzly.
 
Hit the auctions Roachie. Plenty of nice older equipment selling at industrial auctions.
We bought a nice 3axis CNC machining center for 2,000 a couple years ago. Recent got a Cincinnati mill with power feed and a newer DRO for 500.
 
Only issue I have with auction equipment is that most of what I find is 3phase. The single phase stuff is out of my range locally.

I'm not looking for anything massive, just something I can use to make things fit other things, though I am leaning toward a larger mill.
 
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Best option is to have the monies laying around and search craigslist every couple days.

11" on the lathe is the smallest I would go, there just isn't enough weight there to make good cuts otherwise. Also something that spins north of 2000 rpm is real nice.
 
roachie said:
Only issue I have with auction equipment is that most of what I find is 3phase. The single phase stuff is out of my range locally.

I'm not looking for anything massive, just something I can use to make things fit other things, though I am leaning toward a larger mill.
Click to expand...

You can run a phase converter too. It adds cost to your project, but may enable you to get a much better piece of equipment.
 
That starts pushing the budget, I'm looking for moderate size with this stuff. Anything bigger, I have a friend that works in a large machine shop that makes things for the nuclear sector on occasion. If it has to be extremely precise or is larger than I can handle its going to him. I'll just be making vbands, funky bolts, and random brackets.

I'd like to keep the whole operation under 5k and the floor space for teh mill and lathe to less than 20'x4'
 
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That mill drill does have its limitations, but I bought one years ago and it has paid for itself many times over and has been reliable. Yes it is not a Bridgeport, so you have to go a bit slower, and you don't have a knee axis motion so you have to plan what you do if you use different length tooling on the same hole or feature.

There are a LOT of junk-ass Bridgeports out there with shot ways and shot screws and a whole lot looser than a brand new mill-drill.

Everything has its tradeoffs.

Use. HGR Industrial Surplus - We Buy & Sell Everything! to kinda baseline what people are paying for stuff. I love that place.
 
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That link is going to cost me money, I'm waiting on a shipping quote now. LOL

Looking at 0113-051-0001 and 0413-185-0005
 
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I've had several Jet brand tools. 2 grinders, a drill press, a 1236 belt drive lathe, and 2 horizontal saws. I have been running the one Horizontal saw pretty much every day for the last 18 years cutting from 3/4" to 6" steel and stainless steel bars. Not the best machines I've ever run, but no complaints from me.
 
roachie said:
That starts pushing the budget, I'm looking for moderate size with this stuff. Anything bigger, I have a friend that works in a large machine shop that makes things for the nuclear sector on occasion. If it has to be extremely precise or is larger than I can handle its going to him. I'll just be making vbands, funky bolts, and random brackets.

I'd like to keep the whole operation under 5k and the floor space for teh mill and lathe to less than 20'x4'
Click to expand...

Guys in my factory machine shop said when they were in class 30 years ago, they made a 3ph converter out of 2 motors. A single phase turned a 3ph motor and that one ran the mill. Now, the catch was the 3ph motor had to be 1.5 times more HP than the milling motor.
 
Been to HGR several times, they're about a hour from me. Love it. Buddy of mine went to school with the sales manager, we've walked out of there with stuff for 1/3 of what it was priced at.

If you're serious, drag a trailer up some Saturday, Tracey will give Steve the same old song and dance about how we're just a bunch of dirt poor dumb farmers LOL and we'll get you a deal.

Or give me inventory numbers and I'll have him call.
 
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