Getting in the market for a milling machine and metal lathe

[John K Jordan]

Check out littlemachineshop.com
theres a whole community around getting the most out of Chinese lathes and mills.

I bought a mill and metal turning lathe from the Little Machine Shop and they have been great. They also have everything you will need and more. I don't think the collet type makes too much difference. Mine uses R8.

[Jim Becker]

FYI, SMC actually does have a metalworking sub forum...

https://sawmillcreek.org/forumdispla...9-Metalworking

Once I have my new shop building up, I'm tinkering with the idea of adding some basic metalworking myself.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

They are indeed top heavy. Ive had the misfortune of having moved my Enco (Bridgeport clone knockoff) at least three times. Ive turned the head upside-down and then run the table up to snug things up (block of wood between the head and table). as mentioned,...shouldn't be be too much trouble moving it through a 3-0 door

[Anthony Whitesell]

I bought a mill and metal turning lathe from the Little Machine Shop and they have been great. They also have everything you will need and more. I don't think the collet type makes too much difference. Mine uses R8.

Not that I am interested in buying new, but LMS is out of stock on all machines (or were the last time I looked).

[Howard Garner]

Little Machine Shop may be out of stock on mills, but does have a good selection of lathes in stock.

Howard Garner

[Bill Dufour]

FYI A bridgeport breaks down into several 200 pound pieces with the main base being about 400-600 pounds without the knee. Head, arm, turret, table, knee.
Rather then r8 consider NT-30 spindle taper. bigger stronger, more expensive new. But they may be cheaper used since no home shop demand to drive up prices.
BillD.

For a lathe or mill expect to spend as much as the purchase price on tooling and work holding stuff. That does not include metrology stuff.

[Anthony Whitesell]

For a lathe or mill expect to spend as much as the purchase price on tooling and work holding stuff. That does not include metrology stuff.

That was my thought already on the tooling. I have a lot of metrology stuff already.

[Bill Dufour]

If you go the insert type tooling look into just a few same size inserts that are cheap to buy and stock. Some makes are only made by one company and they can charge as much as they want. For general work I like the round inserts. In theory they have a infinite number of new cutting edges as you rotate them to expose a fresh edge. Certainly more then 3 or 4 edges.
BillD