Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely have to figure out a way to isolate the vibrations and noise - fortunately for now there is no one living immediately below my floor. The lathe is 105kgs and the mill is 135kgs, which should not be a problem for the floor loading.7th floor apartment is interesting. Lots of folks on here have machine shops in their basements, standard procedure for big machines is to disassemble into smaller pieces for transport. Most important thing is making sure the floor of your unit is up to whatever weight you place on it, also making sure that potential vibration is dampened so the downstairs neighbor doesn't complain.
Since you're familiar with commercial tools my biggest concern for you is getting something that is neither accurate nor powerful. Some of the Chinese mini lathes/mills look good in pictures but when you actually start using them often a complete tear-down and rebuild are needed before good results are made. With your background you might consider building your own tools especially if you have access to a shop at work. I've been building a CNC mill myself and have been pleased with how it's coming along. Alternatively, if you can work with something a little smaller a Sherline https://www.sherline.com/sherline-benchtop-precision-lathes/ could possibly be imported from the US. Lots of folks in the live steam hobby get good results with them.
However you go the standard advice around here is to figure out the projects you'll be doing and get something that will meet or exceed the needs for those projects. There's a pretty active mini machine area on this forum that will give some insight on challenges with the inexpensive Chinese machines. Sometimes the best advice is to keep looking, researching and wait until the right machine comes along. Let your friends and relatives know what you're looking for, you never know if somebody has an old machine laying about from some long forgotten business that they would like to get rid of.
Good luck and welcome to the forum.
Cheers,
John
I would've loved to get my hands on a used Sherline or a Myford, but unfortunately, to my knowledge, most sellers do not want to sell it outside of their country for the hassles of packing and shipment.
Some of the more complex parts will be machined in my factory, a bit of cheating
For now I'm going ahead with the Chinese machines to get me going!
Thanks for the inputs!!