Thread: Help me spend $4,000

G'Day,
If you gave me the money I'd spend it on booze and hookers,
Regards

A lathe is handier then a mill...

Depends on if you are an absolute beginner or have some experience in machining . It's a long learning curve, this machining game. Some of the guys on this forum have a lifetime of experience. Others like me , are on the learning curve .

Most of the new lathes and Mill Drills will work OK for you . It's more important to learn about : metal properties, tool properties , speeds, feed rates and all that stuff . To some degree, a skilled machinist can get good results from crap machinery. But a unskilled person cannot get good results from a quality lathe, for example.

Mike

The one thing that counts with a lathe or mill is rigidity. They simply cannot do their job properly if they are lightweight cheapies.

For my money, I figure you would be better off buying the most solid machine (lathe or mill) in the size range that interests you and your budget can afford, plus a kit of appropriate tooling for it when you are ready to, with the object of keeping it for a long time.

Then buy a machine and tooling in the other category (mill or lathe) later on when you can afford it, again with the objective of keeping it for a long time.

Buying cheap machines in either category with the intent of upgrading later seems to be a waste of money, as it will lead to you replacing both machines and probably the tooling as well within a few years. You would end up paying more for replacement machines then than you would for equivalent machines now, and probably won't recover the costs of the initial purchases.

Save some dough and talk to allterrain50 about a good Hercus 260 lathe. Allterrain50 is a respected member here. Australian Metalworking Hobbyist

Ken

As has been noted already, lathes are more useful, so buy a decent sized lathe first (one you don't need to upgrade) and then buy a Mill later on. I think you are just wasting money buying something that you intend on selling at a later date to buy a better one.It will just cost you more. Try and get what you reckon will last you, straight up.
Just my humble opinion....

Sterob

Back again,
Forgive my earlier flippant comment, just a thought, $3.5 k will buy you a bloody nice,well equipped used lathe, provided you get someone with the appropriate level of skill and experience to go over it prior to purchase. If it looks like being a while before purchasing a milling machine you can get by with a milling slide for a small basic jobs (I did for 20 years) then flog it off when you get a proper milling machine.
Regards,
Martin

Hi denncarm,
Some good advice allready given here.
You could look at getting a better Lathe as you will use it more than the Mill. The more rigid the Lathe the better. By using angle plates on the Saddle you can do many milling jobs but if the jobs you are doing for the moment are too big to mill on the Lathe you could look for a relative cheap Mill to use till you have enough to buy a better mill, they come up on Ebay fairly regularly.
I have been going through what you are going through and waited till I had enough to order the better equipment. I have now ordered and payed for my new equipment. Have to wait till December for stock to arrive from H&F, will be getting a L240D Lathe and M607D Mill.

Regards,
Keith.

Originally Posted by Keith_W

Hi denncarm,
Some good advice allready given here.
You could look at getting a better Lathe as you will use it more than the Mill. The more rigid the Lathe the better. By using angle plates on the Saddle you can do many milling jobs but if the jobs you are doing for the moment are too big to mill on the Lathe you could look for a relative cheap Mill to use till you have enough to buy a better mill, they come up on Ebay fairly regularly.
I have been going through what you are going through and waited till I had enough to order the better equipment. I have now ordered and payed for my new equipment. Have to wait till December for stock to arrive from H&F, will be getting a L240D Lathe and M607D Mill.

Regards,
Keith.

Hi keith_w, I have a AL 1000 D Hafco lathe, (L240D) I've had it for two years now and I'm very happy with it. I also would love to get a mill, I only have 240v power supply here so i would like to get the biggest one in 240v, the BM 30A. Just need to save more $$$!

Hi asheddie,
I am looking forward to the AL-1000C to arrive and like you have only single phase avalliable so that determined what equipment I bought. The BM-40V is 415 but I have some VSD's so will be fitting a 2.2kW unit to it and I have ran 6mm feed to the workshop so can handle the 20amp for the VSD. I went for the BM-40V as the work table area is 1370 x 254mm.

Regards,
Keith.