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Specificly thinking of the ones sold by Harbor Freight and the likes, in
the $500-$600 price range, can't afford anything more.
Are they any good ?
I'm thinking for home projects such as Milling out 80% lowers and other small gun projects
Pro's
Con's
Harbor Freight milling machine,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, run away as fast as you can !
I purchased my 40 inch gearhead from these folks many years ago and they made me a price I could not walk away from. I you are not in a rush and allow them to use your order to fill one of their large yearly stocking orders you can get a very good price.
Blue Ridge Machinery and Tools West Virginia - Machine Shop Tools and Equipment for Industrial and Home Shop Machinist
second that statement...
look for a Smithy mill drill, late combo.., a used one may set you back 800.00. but well worth the extra money, and you can do much more.
i learned that the the China made tools they sell, are the bottom of the barrel. loose, wont hold zero, and hard to find tooling for them.
Smithy
How about this ?
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/3900
I've got one of those, but mine's red, I think companies who import or distribute them brand them. My motor is only 300W but the rest is exactly the same.
I've done some little jobs on it and it's adequate for the bits and pieces I do now, but it's light, underpowered and a bit rough. Still the price was right for $650(AUD) and I didn't have any experience when I bought it so I got it to learn on, and I've been pretty happy really.
I intend to use it and tool it up over the next year or 2 then sell it and upgrade.
Depending on what you want to do, and how much money and space you've got it could be the go.
Smithy Lathe
heres a smithy FS.....
Here's an old thread on an associated subject that I thought you guys might find to be an interesting read .. :thup:
Optimizing the Seig X2 lathe for basic gunsmithing - a tutorial by Claven2 (click here)
Also, here's another post on lathes by member Tiriaq ...
Lathe (click here)
Regards,
Badger
great info, one reason i recommended the combo,,is our long drawn out posts about muzzle crowning...that little lathe mill combo is great for those sorts of jobs.
The Smithy combo looks a good deal, in the UK we tend to get a lot of small lathes and millers from china and as tbonesmith states are rebranded.
Have enclosed a link to a site in the UK which has probably the most info on machines from around the world an excellent site for info etc, scroll down to the lists of names of Lathes, millers, and woodlathes.
lathes
I would go for the biggest you can fit in to the space you have planned, dont go for the cheapest they are not worth the trouble and build quality is not good. Dont be afraid of buying something big, or an old machine, there are many old machines out there which are far superior to modern stuff.
When I was serving my apprenticeship as a Fitter/turner the machines we trained on were on average 40-50 years old, the backlash on some of these was nearly a full turn, but produced some excellent work.
My own Miller is a Tom Senior and my Lathe is an old Henry Milnes 13" swing, (see links below).
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Smithy Combos are way out of price range.
Alos I don't have much room in my Garage, so it has to be kinda small.
Going used I would have no idea what to look for