My suggestion would be to buy separate tools to do what you want. If you
need a drill press right now then buy the best drill press you can afford.
If you need a mill then figure out what size of mill you need and buy a
decent one or look for a used one in the local want ads. I worked for 5
years in a machine/ manufacturing shop and have been slowly accumulating
tools for 20 years now. If you buy a good piece of equipment you will use
it for a long time and your money will be better spent than buying one of
the $1500 or so 3 in 1 tools and then finding out you are dissatisfied with
it and selling it for half of what you paid for it. If you are looking for
machine tools I would suggest Enco - most of their stuff is Chinese made
but for around $900 I believe you can get a benchtop mill that will do a
pretty decent job. The other thing to take into account is a lot of the
money you spend on the machine equipment will be the accessories, the
tools, the jigs etc. Buying a used good mill or lathe now and buy good
tooling that you can transfer forward to a better rig later might be a way
to go.Based on my experience with a couple of those 3 in 1 jobs you
probably would find you are not happy with it and you will have spent the
money on that instead of one or two better machines for the same money.
Sometimes spending more money will cost less in the long run.
Good Luck
Jim Wilson
At 04:34 PM 7/14/00 , John Thomas wrote:
>OK! OK!, I have had my fill of running around town trying to find a machine
>shop to fabricate parts for me. At this rate I will finish the Z car in the
>year 2010. Has anyone ever used, or currently using, one of the 3in1 Lathe,
>Mill and Drill press machines?? There seem's to be a few different ones on
>the market such as the Smithy and Shop Task. Are they a waste of money or
>should I continue my search for the Holy Grail??
>
>JT
>EP23 Honda
>FP,EP,GT2,??? Zcar
>________________________________________________________________________
>
|