New shop. Now I need a lathe and milling machine

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EastTexCowboy

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I finally am getting the new shop finished soon. I'll be doing all the electrical and installing a solar system to run it all so I have a little time, but I've been looking for a lathe and milling machine. For reference, I've been looking for something like a PM 1440GT and PM 949TV. Also looking at the PM 1340GT thinking it might be enough and would save quite a bit of money. I may end up buying exactly that but I'm trying to shop around. Finding a good used one seems to be impossible around here (North of Houston about 1.5 hours) and I've been looking for 6 months or so.

I'll mostly be using these for making or repairing stuff for around the ranch and ranch equipment, and some tinkering of course. I do a little bit of gun work for myself but nothing elaborate or anything like barrels. I'm no expert but I've done some machining over the years and have a friend who has been a machinist in the oilfield for 25 years. I'd like to get something robust enough to handle my needs so nothing like a small hobby setup, but I don't need a 20 inch Lion or anything that large.

I've looked a few times at Grizzly and I don't think it's for me. Also looked a few times at the GMC lathes on Ebay from Sierra Victor but I can't find a lot of reviews on those. There's a place in Houston that sells used machining equipment but I haven't been impressed with what I've seen on their inventory. Either heavily used or over priced or both. I won't say price is no object but I'd rather buy once, cry once than get something low end and regret it. I'm open to suggestions or any guidance y'all can provide me.
 
Hard to go wrong with the PM offerings- pricey yes, but the service and support they give is worth it from what I have seen
You won't get that from Grizzly although the quality has improved of late
 
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Grizzly: Typically the lowest price, excellent manuals and good parts availability. But many arrive needing repairs right out of the crate due to the pathetic assembly at the factory and 'inspection sheets' that don't appear to be worth the paper they are printed on. But you can save a few thousand and that buys stuff like better quality DRO's, QCTP's etc. Support, well they are happy to give you parts but are not very helpful at resolving issues.

PM: Good to excellent manuals, the best support by far, will have fewer issues than Grizzly machines though some do have issues. PM works to resolve them. Price, well they can be pricey. PM's 200 series DRO is the only one I would buy and they are priced less than the same DRO made by the same manufacture at Dro Pros.

All the other brand's manuals, horrible. I can't speak to support and the rest but they seem mostly just volume importers who don't want to be bothered with the hobby market.

That's my 2 cents worth on new.

Used PM's in my area (Pacific NW) are quite rare. A guy did post a 14 inch lathe and a mill for sale a couple weeks ago, he was asking $30k :eek 2: he's now dropped the price to $20k. Fairly steady supply of used Grizzly's up here but then we have a warehouse in WA.
 
Surprised you are not going all Texas on the lathe, the land of big honker Kingston lathes. :D On mills personally I think your money will go much farther buying a used mill given the new prices.
 
coolidge said:
Grizzly: Typically the lowest price, excellent manuals and good parts availability. But many arrive needing repairs right out of the crate due to the pathetic assembly at the factory and 'inspection sheets' that don't appear to be worth the paper they are printed on. But you can save a few thousand and that buys stuff like better quality DRO's, QCTP's etc. Support, well they are happy to give you parts but are not very helpful at resolving issues.

PM: Good to excellent manuals, the best support by far, will have fewer issues than Grizzly machines though some do have issues. PM works to resolve them. Price, well they can be pricey. PM's 200 series DRO is the only one I would buy and they are priced less than the same DRO made by the same manufacture at Dro Pros.

All the other brand's manuals, horrible. I can't speak to support and the rest but they seem mostly just volume importers who don't want to be bothered with the hobby market.

That's my 2 cents worth on new.

Used PM's in my area (Pacific NW) are quite rare. A guy did post a 14 inch lathe and a mill for sale a couple weeks ago, he was asking $30k :eek 2: he's now dropped the price to $20k. Fairly steady supply of used Grizzly's up here but then we have a warehouse in WA.
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I've been coming to the conclusion I may just have to bite the bullet and go PM. Any thoughts on the 1340GT vs 1440GT? I like the idea of 2" spindle bore and maybe more importantly 3hp vs 2hp. I'm going back and forth on whether I'll need the bigger machine. I keep coming back to the old adage that it's easier to do small work with a big lathe than do large work with a small lathe.
 
coolidge said:
Surprised you are not going all Texas on the lathe, the land of big honker Kingston lathes. :D On mills personally I think your money will go much farther buying a used mill given the new prices.
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They are impressive for sure. I don't think I need anything that big. I keep looking for a used mill but so far not much luck. I occasionally find a 30 year old Bridgeport or a number of brands I've never heard of, and they all look like they're at the end of life. I have no interest in learning to rebuild a milling machine from the git go. I'm waiting on my machinist friend to get back in town and pick his brain but he doesn't mess with the small equipment much.
 
EastTexCowboy said:
I've been coming to the conclusion I may just have to bite the bullet and go PM. Any thoughts on the 1340GT vs 1440GT?
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Two completely different classes of lathe. Note the different gear boxes. Note the D1-4 vs D1-5 spindles. Note the larger bed casting of the 1440 and two bolt tail stock end vs single bolt. 1440 all the way. If you go 1340 you may be required to change your name to EastLACowboy and your license plates to Colorado. Unless you move up to monster class lathe, a Kingston, Mori, Whacheon I'm in the buy a new lathe camp vs used.

As for mills what you plan to machine AND the work cube you need (X, Y, Z travel) AND the material you plan to machine (aluminum vs hogging steel) AND the spindle RPM you require AND how many feet in all directions you plan to fling chips are some of the things to consider.

I went full TEXAS on my mill this time around, bypassing knee mills altogether and stepped up to a 5hp CNC bed mill with a 40# taper spindle and box ways. Because GET SOME!

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EastTexCowboy said:
I finally am getting the new shop finished soon. I'll be doing all the electrical and installing a solar system to run it all so I have a little time, \
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Are you running off grid? Battery power only?

The starting inrush current on motors is several times their running current. The soft start on a VFD brings the motor up to speed slowly nearly eliminating the huge inrush current during startup. I mention this because high starting currents is usually very hard on batteries.
 
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