[AT] OT Milling machine ?

Mike Reggie mrreg_99 at hotmail.com
Sun Sep 10 23:30:01 PDT 2006


   Hello Stuart,
Though I have never owned a combo mill ,drill, lathe machine[I own MORE than 
my fair share of machine tools] I have spoken to quite a few people who 
have, and I'm to understand that they are very limited in their scope of 
work, and deliver less than impressive results for all but the smallest 
pieces. I think they are "pitched" toward the model builders of small 
engines and such, and I would guess they are ok for that.

  That being said, I have come to be of the opinion that a device or machine 
that does multiple things or functions, does none of them very well, so I 
feel that  lathes are for turning and boring, and mills are for milling and 
light boring. I guess the exception to this is the vertical knee type 
milling machine, it also is the handiest light to medium duty drill press I 
have ever used.  My point being, with these two machines and a good bit of 
practice[I.E. a few ankle to knee deep piles of swarf around each machine 
and quite a few screwed up projects] there should be hardly any antique 
tractor/or other rusty iron dilemmas you'll have a problem wiggling out of.

  It would seem to me your budget is realistic for finding a lathe and a 
mill in acceptable condition for what you want to do, and the upside of that 
being your capability and versatility would be so much more increased over a 
combination type machine. I don't know where you are located, but if you are 
a reasonable distance from me, I'd be able to sell you a small lathe and 
std.vertical mill within your budget.

  All this just food for thought, good luck with whatever you decide. Oh, 
one cautionary note, machine tools tend to unexplainably multiply and 
morphisize, and subsequently, the space they occupy tends to shrink.

     Mike




----Original Message Follows----
From: "Stuart Harner" <sharner at starband.net>
Reply-To: Antique tractor email discussion group 
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
To: "atis" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: [AT] OT Milling machine ?
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 13:03:49 -0500

Since it seems a little slow today, I thought I would ask for input 
regarding combo lathe, mill, drill machines.

I seem to always be needing something turned or milled or drilled and the 
nearest machine shop is 20 miles away.  While they do good work, they are 
always behind and it is a several day wait, which means a second trip, plus 
you are not there when the work is done to answer questions.

There is no way I can justify the cost of a machine in terms of the prices I 
pay for the work, but in terms of time and effort, it gets closer to viable, 
especially if I don't have to mortgage the house for a machine.  Besides, in 
the hobby of restoring old things, it is more about the fun of doing it 
yourself.

I am most interested in the Smithy line of machines, but my budget is at the 
lower end of things at best, maybe during a sale.  I have been watching 
Ebay, but most are too far away to ship or go fetch.  I actually won a 
Granite series 40" one in Mpls.  It looked like new and included the tool 
kit and stand.  Bought it for $2100 and figured the trip to pick it up was 
well worth it.  When I tried to pay for it, the owner informed me that they 
had sold it locally several days before and it was already gone.  I was 
PO'ed!!

So, here I am still watching Ebay and hoping for a good deal on one nearby, 
but am wondering if I should be looking at other makes.  The only other one 
I have seen up close and personal was at a Harbor Freight store and I was 
not impressed.  It had a lot of backlash in the gearing.  Now maybe that is 
something that could be adjusted, which would be nice as they are closer to 
my price range.

Any advice on makes, models, features, and sizes would be greatly 
appreciated.

Stuart
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