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by **MattyCiii** » Fri May 04, 2012 12:15 pm

Craigslist Boston has the Sherline Ultimate Machinists Package (package #6000) available for $1600. Original cost $2400.

It looks like a really good deal - any reason I should not go for it?

by **dumbass** » Fri May 04, 2012 12:39 pm

Personally, I would never buy an "all in one" machine. I did that once many years ago and found it the be a total PITA. The machine was a band saw, table saw, drill press, wood lathe and so on and so on. It cost $3500 and I could have bought individual machine for about the same cost. But I thought it would save me space so I bought it. I quickly found it had some major problems. 1) it did a lot of different thing but did none of them very well, 2) It took to long to set up to use any individual machines, 3) It was much more limited in the size of raw material it could handle, 4) It was very limited in it's cutting range and 5) I could go on all day.

What I did is bought a really great milling machine from Harbor Freight. IT's a total gearhead machine with 6 selectible gear speeds (no belt changing just flip a lever). IT has a 1 1/2 HP motor with a 10" x 28" table. I also bought a small lathe (9" x 20") from them. The lathe is ok but no where as good as I would like it to be. Both machines were on closeout when I ordered them plus I used 20% off coupon for each of them. They said I couldn't use a coupon on a so called sale item because the system would not allow it to ring up. I asked them to try ringing it up and the system allowed the coupons. So they let it go.

Bottom line; I got the 2 individual machines for around the same $1600 your talking about. Of course I had to buy my own Vice and tooling. But I am very happy with my purchase.

Bob

PS....wait till you machine a part on the lathe and then setup something on the mill. OPPs, you actually ment to make 2 of those lathe parts. Oh darn, now you have to resetup the lathe again. O'yeah, after that you relize you need to mill a hair off the milled part. It just never stops. You spend more time doing setup then machining parts.

by **MattyCiii** » Fri May 04, 2012 1:13 pm

THANKS!
Just the things I wanted to hear... the practical side to owning such tools.

by **etard** » Fri May 04, 2012 1:36 pm

That thing looks tiny and flimsy, might be ok for machining aluminum. I think I have a pretty good setup for about the same price

I paid $700 for the lathe and $600 for the mill plus some tooling and I have a much better setup than that tiny Sherline.

by **dumbass** » Fri May 04, 2012 3:16 pm

I found a few pic of the machines I bought from Harbor Freight. If you go with something form them try to get them to except a 20% off coupon. And if you have it shipped to the local store shipping is free. I rented a trailer for $35 to pick up the mill and the lathe fit in the back of my SUV. Always get the largest machines you can afford. I can not tell you how glad I am to have gone bigger then I thought I would need. And of course consider quality of the machines. Google the machine model and you may find reviews from current owners.

Bob

by **dnmun** » Fri May 04, 2012 3:20 pm

look on CL. so many people are going broke they are selling their tools for nothing. or look for an estate or garage sale where the family is throwing out their dad's tools after he kicks the can. you always need both tools at the same time, combo mombo is no fun.

by **kfong** » Fri May 04, 2012 7:34 pm

Too small to be useful for ebikes. More for small scale stuff. You want an x2 or x3 type mill to be useful. You can see what a modified x1 or x3 on my website looks like.

by **MattyCiii** » Fri May 04, 2012 7:48 pm

Thanks for the advice everyone, I've decided it's not for me.
Great to see all the great tools y'all have!

by **ohzee** » Fri May 04, 2012 9:45 pm

yea makes me jealous wish I even know how to work such tools.

it is neat to see what people have though. When my kids are grown and gone I may invest in some.

by **MattyCiii** » Sat May 05, 2012 7:41 am

ohzee wrote:yea makes me jealous wish I even know how to work such tools.

it is neat to see what people have though. When my kids are grown and gone I may invest in some.

The other option is a "hackerspace" or community garage. I'm spoiled in that I have one nearby. They offer classes (for $200 I got a 4 week/12+ hour introduction to machining class learning the mill and lathe on professional grade equipment). They also offer packages for membership. If I recall correctly, something like $100 a month for access, which gets you use of all the tools. That $1600 can go a long way toward projects as hackerspace membership.

The class I took had only 5 students, the teacher a machinist from Boston Dynamics - they build military grade robots. I probably could not do better anywhere, and yet here it is 5 miles away from home.

by **oatnet** » Sat May 05, 2012 10:17 am

ohzee wrote:yea makes me jealous wish I even know how to work such tools.

it is neat to see what people have though. When my kids are grown and gone I may invest in some.

I took Machine tool clases that taught mill and lathe (and many other courses) at my local community college, as well as stack and gig welding classes. The were really cheap ($80 for a 16 week course and open access anytime a class is running) and fun, if I had an iota of free time I would be taking more now.

I would avoid combo mills, they typically are just OK at both tasks. A round column mill (pictured above) will require you to re-zero your workpiece every time you move the head up and down the column, but a square column mill should stay aligned with the workpiece, so I would stick to square column.

If you want to get started on an affordable home mill that runs on 110v but can has the oomph to mill still, has a decent sized table, and is smaller than a Volkswagen, try one of the rong fu-45 clones like this grizzly for $1300:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill-Drill/G0463

Iwas Surprised when I saw the grizzly website, they used to have 3-4 square column products in the 1000-1500 range, now thatone I posted is it.

-JD

by **dumbass** » Sat May 05, 2012 6:55 pm

oatnet wrote:
ohzee wrote:yea makes me jealous wish I even know how to work such tools.

it is neat to see what people have though. When my kids are grown and gone I may invest in some.

I took Machine tool clases that taught mill and lathe (and many other courses) at my local community college, as well as stack and gig welding classes. The were really cheap ($80 for a 16 week course and open access anytime a class is running) and fun, if I had an iota of free time I would be taking more now.

I would avoid combo mills, they typically are just OK at both tasks. A round column mill (pictured above) will require you to re-zero your workpiece every time you move the head up and down the column, but a square column mill should stay aligned with the workpiece, so I would stick to square column.

If you want to get started on an affordable home mill that runs on 110v but can has the oomph to mill still, has a decent sized table, and is smaller than a Volkswagen, try one of the rong fu-45 clones like this grizzly for $1300:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill-Drill/G0463

Iwas Surprised when I saw the grizzly website, they used to have 3-4 square column products in the 1000-1500 range, now thatone I posted is it.

-JD

I agree a non-keyed round column mills have one disadvantage if you setup your project with the head to low/high causinga need to raise/lower the head before the project is completed. Honestly, I've had very little problem with this though. On ocation I've had to use a verity if different tool lengths. A simple solution is to simply drill a locator hole in the project peace or a on the vice. This allows to to simply and quickly reset the head position with resonable accuracy. I've found a great value in the ability to tilt the head which is something the Grizzly or many square column machines can't do. Another thing I've been very happy with is being able to swing the head to one side of the table and sifnificantly increase the side to side cutting range.

Bob

by **oatnet** » Sat May 05, 2012 8:36 pm

Glad it has worked out for you Bob!

You are better equipped than I am.

The tilting head can be had for 1,595 on GO619, which is an upgraded version of the same square column mill as the $1,295 GO463 I posted earlier.

by **dumbass** » Sat May 05, 2012 9:00 pm

oatnet wrote:Glad it has worked out for you Bob! You are better equipped than I am.

The tilting head can be had for 1,595 on GO619, which is an upgraded version of the same square column mill as the $1,295 GO463 I posted earlier.

Cool......Can't tell ya how much I use those machines. When I bouth them my wife thought I lost my mind (likely have but had nothing to do with the machery). Now she is impressed with what I can fix around the house with the things. And of course how great it is when you have an ebike building hobby. We jokingly say "we have the technology". Meaning we now have the machery. I only wish the lathe had turned out as good as the mill did.

Bob

by **oatnet** » Sun May 06, 2012 12:01 am

The class project as machine tool technology was a finger engine. My wife liked mine enough to want to make her own, so the following semester she took the same class. Her finger engine is way nicer than mine. :oops:

Every 6 months or so I start looking at those grizzlys, then nickel and dime myself up until I'm looking at a 10k CNC mill, which is a silly investment for me so I forget about it for 6 months.

by **Alan B** » Sun May 06, 2012 12:20 am

I went with the Grizzly G0516 which is a 10x24 lathe by Sieg with a Mini-mill on it. The lathe is decent, the mill is, well, a bit small, but useful. I'll get a separate mill later, but this combo saves a huge amount of space. It is not hard to switch between the two.

Tonite I used the lathe to make a tool to press the Greyborg swingarms on. Uses a piece of all thread. The shoulders keep everything lined up. It worked out nicely: