milling lathe combo

[gene]

I know that this is a bit off topic but I am looking into purchasing a mill lathe combo machine for metalwork . what would anyone suggest . it will not be a main money making tool but I think that it could be a useful addition to my shop. thank for your input.

[gundog]

I would not buy a combo machine they are not very handy they usually do not do either job as well as an individual machines. Many times when doing metal projects you will be set up on both machines to make parts and reconfiguring the machine to act as either a mill or lathe is not handy and they are usually less quality machines many of them have change gears rather than a quick change box and most do not have a half nut for threading. If I only had room for one I would get the lathe you can do some milling with a lathe by adding a fixture to the carriage.

[coryatjohn]

You might look at Grizzly. They have a number of mill-lathe combo machines that may be worth looking at. I do agree with gundog that whenever you buy something like that, you're going to get a compromise. The Grizzly mill-lathes are actually just stand alone units on the same stand so there is decent quality in both. They are manufactured in Taiwan in ISO 9001 factories and the quality of Grizzly is excellent. I have a couple of their machines and have been well pleased with them.

[gene]

Thank ya"ll , I have looked at grizzly, Harbor Freight, and numerous others and i agree with your findings . I will not buy one that you have to change gears or belts to change speeds , That sounds like you are purchasing troubles. There is a company i found that is called Bolton tools or Bolton hardware ? Their machines look good but when you add all of the accessories it ads up quick . They do have some reasonable prices on sheet metal shears and box forming breaks . I know someone on the forum was looking for a box brake i think R Ball for metal bat roofs , but i am not sure . Thank you again and i think that i will wait until a good deal finds me.

[gundog]

Watch CL sometimes you can get good used American iron for less than the cost of a new import but you need to know what to look for so you don't buy worn out equipment.

[Brian Harnett]

I bought a harbor freight one over 20 years ago it still gets use, I took the mill head off it was pretty limited, I went and bought a mill drill and just use the lathe for small parts, I now have enough space for full size stuff there are really good deals on craigslist for lathes and mills, I lucked out on a 14 1/2" south bend lathe for free I just had to get it out of their shop it was made in 1947, after a little freshening up the beast runs great a bit of overkill for small items.

Same shop wants me to take a full size Bridgeport mill I have to take that one apart its almost 4000 lbs.

[gundog]

There are a lot of good manual machinery out there at good prices more manual shops closing than opening and lots of old CNC & NC equipment to be had for a song you just have to look and be patient and ready to jump on the right deal.

Here is an example in my local CL http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/tls/5007949827.html

Now without looking at it I do not know how much wear it has but I would rather have this one than a new Import for $3k to $5K if it is not clapped out.

[Brady Watson]

I think it really boils down to what you need to accomplish. The mill/drill seems like a good idea at first, but in reality - it doesn't really do either operation particularly well. Plus, some operations are hampered by the small working volume in comparison to the footprint of the machine. The mill portion isn't as rigid as you would expect it to be.

You may want to consider a milling machine with rotary indexer and a 10" lathe. The older iron is what you want, but if you don't want a new career restoring old equipment, the Asian stuff is fine. I bought a Grizzly lathe with VFD not that long ago - no belts to fool with, plenty of power and it runs as expected. It has induction hardened bed & ways, and a digital readout for speed.

When it comes to a milling machine, I still think that an old school cast iron Bridgeport is the best bang for the buck. It pretty much is the standard as far as mills go. The imports are OK, but that old cast iron and overall weight trumps new & shiny. The CNC variant (not a conversion) has ballscrews and can be retrofitted to modern controls fairly easily. Anything from 1979 or newer (BOSS 5 - On) is what you'd want.

-B

[Ajcoholic]

I was in your position 20 odd years ago. I searched for a while looking for a good older lathe in good shape (and found one, a Canadian made variant of the South Bend with a 12" by 48" swing and bed) and bought an import mill to go with it. Been using it for many years and no regrets.

I had a few friends that bought fairly large "Smithy" type combos and they werent as versatile as having two separate machines, at all. Fine for periodic small jobs but if you want to do a fair amount of turning and milling on a job, you cant beat separate machines. I actually have a second mill and sometimes I use all three machines at once.

Dont discount the older manual gear change machines. Unless you are cutting several different thread pitches and are needing to swap gears a lot, the same gears generally stay in when turning. But, make sure that the bed ways are not worn, and the screws all turn slop free, etc. I actually passed up a larger South bend lathe with auto gear changing, for my Moody with manual changing since the lathe was in far better shape.

As Brady said, there are some pretty nice Asian made lathes and mills made today also - but anything new that is decent will be fairly pricey even if its from Taiwan.

[gerryv]

I've owned one and used others of the mill/drill/lathe combos. As others have mentioned, they are not as good a choice as having two separate machines, especially if you need to switch back and forth between milling/drilling and turning operations. This is because of time consuming setups for each changeover.

There are four other issues to consider with most of them, in large part with regard to the milling function. In no particular order, these are: 1. Compared to a conventional mill the rigidity and precision is noticeably less, especially the precision. This is mainly due to the quill and some of them are little better than a drill press with an X/Y table attached. 2. The distance from the spindle/chuck to the table often requires "building up" a support means under smaller work pieces. This is a major, time consuming issue, especially for those models that do not have an adjustable height milling head, which is most of them. 3. The distance from the mill/drill spindle to the front of the lathe chuck is typically small, thereby limiting the Y capacity of the milling operation. 4. A rule of thumb for metal working machines is that you should expect to spend as much on tooling, holding and measuring accessories as you do on the machine itself - or more.

The "somewhat/significant" exception to these issues would be the Smithy Granite Max/Industrial version with the extended head giving you about 8.5" vs. more typically less than 5" mill/drill spindle to lathe chuck face clearance (Y). It also has the adjustable height milling head to get you closer to the table and a superior quill design for milling accuracy. Many of the older Smithy's are not similarly designed. Regardless, it is still certainly not a HAAS.

It is the only one of these combos I would consider IF I were to ever buy one again as its build quality is generally better than the others as well but, unlike the others, finding used ones is difficult. I should clarify that I'm not a current owner, have not been for a number of years so things may have changed and have no connection to Smitty. I have heard that their sales staff are pretty aggressive but don't know.

All that said, there is a place for them where space is a real issue, you're not doing many changeovers between milling/drilling and turning (an issue for all INCLUDING the Smithy Granite Max) and you're not a production shop doing a variety of items.