When is this gonna END??

[Lo-Fi]

I bought a Bridgeport... It came with a small amount of tooling. But, of course, you can't do anything useful with it until you've spent more on tools and accessories than the machine itself. VFD, vice, parallels, adjustable parallels, rotary table, dividing head, arbors, cutters, end mills, clamps, ER collet holders and collets, collet blocks, stock to make T nuts, boring head, spindle indicator holder all turned up. DRO is still on the list.

I've just about got most stuff I need to make the mill useful and decide I need a surface grinder. And a bigger lathe...
I'm sure a heroin addiction would be cheaper. And less.... Addictive. I've just spotted a right angle attachment that I really need.

My girlfriend has christened the mill "Bridget" and tells everyone I'm having an affair, and I think I realise now why everyone I've ever met with a well equipped home machine shop has been over 60: you've got to do a lot of work to afford it!

Do loved ones stage an intervention? Do tool suppliers cut you off?? Or do you eventually reach a stage where you can look through tool catalogues and think "there's nothing I really need or don't already have", as I do with automotive/hand tools after 20 years hard purchasing, scrounging and collecting?

 

[RYAN S]

It is an endless hole!

 

[Aaron_W]

I thought having a tiny shop would keep me safe. Wrong! it just made me good at machine Tetris.

 

[mmcmdl]

Or do you eventually reach a stage where you can look through tool catalogues and think "there's nothing I really need or don't already have", as I do with automotive/hand tools after 20 years hard purchasing, scrounging and collecting?

The time comes when you have 5 of everything , and don't need any of it .

 

[Winegrower]

The best way to look at it is that at any time, there is only one more thing that you really need.

 

[benmychree]

You mention a VFD; can you imagine all the years that we got along without them? It seems to me that this is a fad item, however, I'd have to get all that other stuff if I did not already have it ------ Also, I think that adjustable parallels are not essential to milling machine work, they are more of a measuring tool. about parallels, a guy cannot have too many! If you get a surface grinder, you could make your own, as I did, on my employer's time when I was a young guy. I made two sets, one taller than the other so that hold downs could be set on the taller ones and the work on the shorter ones. Hold downs as those made by Starrett are worth having for mill work for work held in a vise.

 

[benmychree]

The time comes when you have 5 of everything , and don't need any of it .

When that time comes you are under the grass -----

 

[DavidR8]

I am so screwed.


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[francist]

David, I can hardly hear you. It sounds like you’re deep insiiide a tunnelllllll......

 

[MontanaLon]

Relax, it isn't even remotely to the terminal stages yet. Terminal stage is when you look at all the attachments and say to yourself, "If I had another mill, it sure would be easier to leave the dividing head, rotary table, vise, angle vise, attached to it so I didn't have to go through all this setup all the time."

That is when you know you are sick, and the only cure is another mill, lathe, surface grinder, work bench, etc.

It also applies to work benches in spades, when the top of one gets full with "stuff" and there is no room left to work, it really is easier just to buy another one.