mills & lathes.....

[dirtbag]

To those who own mills & lathes, I'd like to pick your brain. I'll be making my last house payment in exactly one year & will be wanting to buy hobby mill & lathe. What machines would you recommend & what attachments should I get? Where could I order my stock? Could these be used in my hobby room or would I need to set them up some place else? I have a credenza that is against the back wall of my hobby room that they could set on. Also, are there any books or publications that I could get that would help me get an idea of what I would be doing on these machines?

Thanks in advance for the information.

Jim W.

Amarillo, Texas

[davyou5]

I have never really known for sure if there is a home size Mill or Lathe, but as I did work as a machinist, I can tell you that I have worked with some heavy duty Mills ( very old machines from the 1950's) and 1970's Lathes. What I will suggest to you is to search around, and if you do find the machines you are looking for, Please take all Safety Precautions, I have seen accidents happen that would blow your mind . Take safety Seriously!

[ewaskew]

Try micro mark.com they have what you need for the hobby.

Edited October 4, 2010 by ewaskew

[dirtbag]

Thanks for the replies. I work at a government facility for the DOE so safety is always at the forefront so it's just second nature after working safely for over 20 years. Right now I'm looking at some Sherline machines but I've also got Micro Mark in the back of my mind.

Thanks again.

Jim

[Ray]

www.sherline.com

Should answer all your questions.

[sportandmiah]

I own a Sherline Lathe with the optional milling attachment, as well as a Harbor Freight Micro Mill. The difference between the two is night and day. Sherline is very well made, very accurate, and super smooth...think Honda Accord. The harbor Freight is the exact opposite, but is more affordable, think Ford Pinto. Do a google search for MIT Machinist Video. The website has a free machining tutorials...good ones even. Also check out the Home Shop Machinist BBS forum.I have a ton of links I'll post later for you.

[Pete J.]

www.sherline.com

Should answer all your questions.

amen!!!! I own a Sherline lathe and it is an absolute pleasure to use. Their customer service is beyond reproach and they are made in the good ol' US of A. In fact they are made in my back yard, Vista Ca. They have a ton of accessories that are all very well thought out and work well. The owner wrote a book "Table top Machining". It is very informative and can answere just about every question a beginner might need. You can also call the company for advise and get a skilled machinist to help. If you are in the area, a vist to the museum is a must. This is really a professional machine and not a toy. Expect to pay a little more, but it is well worth it in the long run.

[CAL]

I have a Seig X2 mill and a 7X10 lathe (IE Harbor Freight)

If you are familar with a machine shop and it's tools you can set up these machines to do very well, so far my machines have delivered everything I have demanded of them.

The Sherline is good for very small precision machine but it does have some of it's own short commings, notwithstanding it's very expensive to get a complete set up with everything you need, in the neigborhood of $4,000 to field a manual mill, lathe, fixtures, tooling and measuring equipment. Get seperates and not an all in one machine. The Sherline doesn't use very standard stuff, unlike the Seig machines which used standard MT1/MT2/MT3 standard arbors, uses standard tooling, posts etc. Stuff is pretty easy to get and fractional of the cost of Sherline stuff for very high quality accessories.

But I promise you, if you learn how to use it and do use reguardless if you get a Sherline or Seig it will pay for itself because there is pretty much unlimited possiblities.

There are people building complete running miniture engines with a Seig mill and lathe.