[Noisebridge-discuss] Mill / Lathe

[ian]

That looks like an okay machine, but it does also seem a little
physically large for NB.  Also, I'd be a little wary of a
high-precision machine that's been used at a high school.  When I've
been in the market for used machine tools, I've tried to buy them from
machinists.  Students are hard on things, and high school students
doubly so.

Machines like this come up used on craigslist pretty often, and
sometimes include a bunch of tooling as well (this one has a vise,
centers, and collets, but no tooling).  If people want a lathe/mill,
it might make sense to establish a fund for it, and keep an eye out
for something that would better suit Noisebridge.

Along those lines, Grizzly sells some really decent machines new, for
a similar price, that take up considerably less space:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/category.aspx?key=465000

It all depends on how large the things are that people intend to make...

There are also some things you'll miss with a combo machine:

- They lack a quick-change gearbox for driving the leadscrew, which
makes them a pain in the ass if you want to cut a lot of threads.
Only matters if you care about thread-cutting, though.

- They don't have a knee for the mill, which means you only get about
3-4" of vertical travel.  After that, you have to reposition the head
and you lose alignment with the workpiece.

These are the main compromises with an all-in-one tool as opposed to a
separate lathe and mill.  Like I said, it all depends on what you want
to make.

-Ian

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 9:00 PM, Shannon Lee <shannon at scatter.com> wrote:
> Hi Noisebridge,
>
> There's been discussion on and off about getting a mill and a lathe for the
> shop.  Today on Craigslist I saw this:
>
> http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/tls/1088127089.html
>
> ...which is both a lathe and a mill, and nice and compact.  It's at a local
> private high school.
>
> I'd like to get it, but I'm not, at the moment, able to shell out $1000 for
> it.  I'd be willing to pitch in a couple of hundred, if others also think
> this is a good enough investment to kick in...?
>
> --S
>
> --
> Shannon Lee
> (503) 539-3700
>
> "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
>
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