Decisions-- mill lathe combo or separate units.....help with your thought

bob308 said:
if you want a mill buy a mill a clausing 8520 would be a good start. I would take a old atlas 6x18 lathe over any of the mini lathes out there now. the problem with a combination machine is the constant takedown and setup. you want to turn and the last job was a mill job. you would soon lose interest.
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Thank you Bob. I'm not familiar with the Clausing 8520 but will certainly look into. As far as the Atlas is concerned, that is what I really want anyway. I've been looking at them for a long time now. It's just difficult to be able to locate one within reasonable driving distance of eastern NC. I've been looking and searching for the better part of 5-6 years...off and on...too many distractions to be consistent on the hunt, but I've been hunting none-the-less. Maybe I'll run across one sooner than later. I really want one.

Any thing specific to look out for (gears/etc) when standing before one to purchase? I understand there are replacement parts available online for broken or worn sections of the machines. I'm asking is there something to be on the lookout for which would be a 'deal breaker' and would be better off for me to walk away. Thanks, chris
 
Hi Chris, regarding Atlas lathes: many of them out there are so worn you wouldn't want them. For any price. You may find one really good one out of ten you look at. Be picky at this stage and you'll be happier later. Try to hold out for a creampuff with a good set of chucks and tooling. You may also want to consider a good import lathe like Precision Matthews, especially their made in Taiwan offerings- as a rule they are better than mainland China
Mark
 
I was initially taking a hard look at a Smithy 3-1 combo. After a LOT of research and crunching numbers, I decided to scrap the 3-1 combo idea in favor of individual mini mill and lathe purchases. In my situation, I don't have a garage. Any machine purchase I make has to be transported around the back of my house, up a grassy incline, and down my basement bulkhead stairs. There is NO way I could realistically transport a 700# Smith 3-1 into my basement. I recently purchased the LMS4190 mill as it's my prioritized need. A few years down the road as funds permit I will purchase a mini lathe such as the Grizz G0768Z. Moving 200-300# machines into my basement is far more do-able for me without getting killed, LOL
 
Thats one of the advantages of the ones with two motors, you can easily take the motors off, and the top assembly lifts off. Not impossible to hand carry, but still heavy.
 
Mark- thanks for the input. Good information. I had stumbled upon Precision Matthews at some point, a little while back, but didn't really like their slightly steep price on the choice of interest. I'm still waiting on that special Atlas...thinking it might happen. Maybe it will; but I'll certainly remember not to jump on the first thing that comes along. At 1 -->10, it sounds like it's going to make for a very interesting wait but...
While I have you Mark, I know this might be slightly odd, but is there a particular state or region of the US where the Atlas lathes might be found a with a little more frequency. They are very few and far between here in eastern and even central NC, for that matter.

Road_clam-- exactly! After crunching numbers and digging a little deeper myself, I've also decided against the 3-in-1 for that very reason. Although I'm extremely limited on space and that was one of the attractions of the 3-in-1, I'll just settle for a good quality lathe at this point. Vertical mill tables are awesome invents which I've just recently became aware of over the past month. :wink: Speaking of weight, all I can say is the Smithy housing and components apparently are made really well. It is one of the heavier machines of it's caliber which I've seen out there. I like solid-- nothing like cutting a piece of wood on some of the new tablesaws compared to the older ones and dealing with the dance as much as I'm dealing with the wood.
 
Road_Clam said:
I was initially taking a hard look at a Smithy 3-1 combo. After a LOT of research and crunching numbers, I decided to scrap the 3-1 combo idea in favor of individual mini mill and lathe purchases. In my situation, I don't have a garage. Any machine purchase I make has to be transported around the back of my house, up a grassy incline, and down my basement bulkhead stairs. There is NO way I could realistically transport a 700# Smith 3-1 into my basement. I recently purchased the LMS4190 mill as it's my prioritized need. A few years down the road as funds permit I will purchase a mini lathe such as the Grizz G0768Z. Moving 200-300# machines into my basement is far more do-able for me without getting killed, LOL
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You don't have to move a lathe or mill as a complete unit, they can be fairly easily disassembled into several, more easily managed pieces.

I was able to move a 900lb Logan into my basement shop with only 2 people, an engine hoist and a garden cart. Removing the tail stock, chuck, spindle and carriage alone probably removed 150-200lbs. The lathe bed and head was the heaviest at around 300lbs, the base was split into two loads of around 150lbs and 250-300lbs (the heavier being the end with the motor).

If I had gone further and removed the motor from the base and the headstock from the lathe bed that would have made the heaviest load only about 200lbs and eliminated the need for the engine hoist which was only used to place the heavier loads onto the garden cart and then lift the lathe bed back onto the reassembled base once everything was in the basement.
 
For space saving reasons, when i set up my new shop space I plan on using my 12"x48" clausing lathe for my Mill bench as my "Default setup" by clamping it to a plywood base clamped to my lathe bed to the right of my tailstock. This will give me plenty of useful lathe workspace for most of the projects i will probably get into without needing to remove the mill. I also plan on making a mounting plate to mount the same mill onto my lathe carriage so that i can mill work held in the lathe. And for the times when its not needed and would be in the way at the end of the bed i plan on just setting it under the lathe out of the way until its needed again or the current project gets finished.
This way I get a much more capable lathe along with a benchtop mill into the same footprint that would be needed for a benchtop lathe and mill setup side by side on a work bench. Plus the fact that I will be able to use the lathe and mill in conjunction with each other giving me a larger bag of tricks to reach into when necessary.
 
Latinrascal, I guess that would work-- and am certain that's how the whole 3-in-1 animal was conceived to begin with. Might take a little work and time to get things dialed in but still less work and time than building a larger workshop I guess.

KB58, I had already seen that Meyer & Berger creation. I'd like to own it-try it out. I'm certain its quality considering it's Swiss made. But...all the goodies are on the other side of the pond...all we have over here are a few square boxed, cookie cutter machines with very little to no soul.
 
Chris: East coast in general has more machinery than west and for better prices. It tends to come in "waves" though- a long dry spell and then suddenly a bunch of stuff will appear.
It's possible to make good parts on a worn lathe, depending on what you consider tight tolerances. Most older lathes will have wear, usually on the bed near the headstock. But you can often compensate for this if you are familiar with the nature of the error. If you routinely need to make long, precise parts the bed wear is more of an issue.
Mark
 
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