I agree in principle, but I think the "why" is very pertinent. Are you getting into machining as an end to itself, or to support your other interests? I'm constantly needing bushings, shims, and various oddball widgets for example. Stack of guns needing this or that. Seems easier and simpler to learn how to do for myself, rather than keep paying a fortune to machinists and gunsmiths, spend hours looking in catalogues, kludging up Rube Goldberg workarounds, or throwing away perfectly good parts that a little machine work would make right. Do I want to invest a bunch of time learning the idiosyncrasies of a mini-mill that can't and won't ever, do what I need, spend hours rather than minutes to get results...or cut to the chase and get hardware suited to the job?
That's pretty much where I'm at in this endeavor...a little machine would be a fun toy. But it (mostly) wouldn't do what I need done, and I've got enough toys. Though getting a small machine to begin with really would be the "sensible" thing to do. As The Boss keeps telling me..."Don't come crying to me when you get your arms ripped off!". Not to mention I'm about sick of looking at used lathes and mills. Plonking down my credit card at PM and/or Small Machines and getting a "mini machine shop in a box" dropped in my parking lot is looking better all the time.
TL;DR: still working through this. There's pro and cons each way.
That's pretty much where I'm at in this endeavor...a little machine would be a fun toy. But it (mostly) wouldn't do what I need done, and I've got enough toys. Though getting a small machine to begin with really would be the "sensible" thing to do. As The Boss keeps telling me..."Don't come crying to me when you get your arms ripped off!". Not to mention I'm about sick of looking at used lathes and mills. Plonking down my credit card at PM and/or Small Machines and getting a "mini machine shop in a box" dropped in my parking lot is looking better all the time.
TL;DR: still working through this. There's pro and cons each way.