Combo Lathe/Mill

What @DavidR8 said. I started with one, a Shoptask 1720, and figured it was the best choice for beginning this hobby. I quickly moved on to an SB 9A, a Colchester 6.5, and a BP clone mill. The combo unit, at least mine, was quite limiting and not worth it for me, but your situation could be different. And wouldn't you know, I still have the Shoptask. It's a sickness I haven't been able to cure. :grin:
 
The combo units are a compromise. The lathe part can actually be quite versatile, but the mill part is inevitably hanging on a vertical with insufficient rigidity. Follow the advice from @DavidR8 - and save up for separates. If you are needing to "do work" on one or the other, often one can help the other. With combo, you kind of end up with the worst of both worlds, and I don't think they are easy to sell.
 
Generally with the combo machines like Shoptask and Smithy the lathe portion is better and more usable than the mill portion.
The machines tend to need frequent adjustment but there are quite a few satisfied owners that turn out good parts on them.
Switching modes between lathe and mill is often time-consuming & inconvenient- and the machines lack rigidity and stability
The Smithy is the better machine from what I have heard, and the company is noted for good support
Far and away the better option is having two separate machines if you can at all manage it
 
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The only one that I ever saw that was halfway decent was a DoAll combination machine. It was in a small shop I supervised for a few years. Back in 1999 it was already close to 40 years old but was still supported by DoAll. When the shop closed, I sold it off to another production facility in the company. I've never seen one since then and haven't even been able to find any literature on them.

On Edit: There's a small amount of information about these machines in a DoAll catalog (Continental Machine Specialties Co.) at vintagemachinery.org
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=26898

Page 13-34
 
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projectnut said:
The only one that I ever saw that was halfway decent was a DoAll combination machine. It was in a small shop I supervised for a few years. Back in 1999 it was already close to 40 years old but was still supported by DoAll. When the shop closed, I sold it off to another production facility in the company. I've never seen one since then and haven't even been able to find any literature on them.

On Edit: There's a small amount of information about these machines in a DoAll catalog (Continental Machine Specialties Co.) at vintagemachinery.org
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=26898

Page 13-34
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I had no idea that Do All had such an extensive product line of machinery, I wonder how much of it they actually made?
 
Those look like they were made by Emco-Maier (super 11 and Maximat 7)
Doall must have rebadged them
 
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