Pondering a small metal shop

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Snorting his way across the USA
Okay, Pops used to have a couple small metal lathes and a decent shop that traveled around the world. I used to play around with it, and made a couple little steam engines plus I got to play with big league equipment in lower division ME shop classes. I know my way around machinery. But I'm rusty. You see what I did there.

I don't have much space. I can set up something semi permanent, but I would like to end up with a setup that allows me to machine small things. Not an @Ted DuPuis Cobra differential, but a reasonably priced setup as to where I can have metal lathe and milling capabilties, making, say, little engines and (I hate the word) whatnot. Maybe I can machine a replacement part in my bike that broke or upgrade it.

I have like... a small corner in a garage to play with. That's it. Think about a machine shop in a submarine. Or on the ISS. I do not think there is a machine shop in the ISS. But I wouldn't be surprised if submarines have them. Ships do.
 
Emco Maximat Super 11 lathe and Mill.

I have the lathe (without the mill attachment) in my lab at school - not a heavy duty metal hogging machine, but nicely made.
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re: machine shop on a submarine, A few years ago I toured the USS Torsk in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. There was a small repair shop on board that included an Atlas 6x18 metal lathe.
 
I keep thinking I would like to do something similar, not sure what kind of machine to recommend. My issue is I have friend with a nice mill and lathe in his garage that he is usually looking for some small project to work on. I highly recommend this method for getting small machine projects done. Just finishing up installing a new brake system on my sailplane.

Brian
 
As a manufacturing engineer I get to machine occasionally at work on-top of the extensive amount of machining I learned at school. It's always been a dream of mine to set-up a small machine shop and get PMA's for Cessna parts.
 
I think that is the first one I have seen that actually had the guard on it!
 
Buy a solid used "Bridgeport"... the machine that can make itself... if you Google, you will find a pile of them for sale... for under $3k.
 
AGLyme said:
Buy a solid used "Bridgeport"... the machine that can make itself... if you Google, you will find a pile of them for sale... for under $3k.
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If buying old mills take someone who knows how to tell if they’re clapped out. The cheap ones are often cheap for a reason. But you’ll get an education in rebuilding a mill and getting all the slop out of it. LOL.
 
Not to hi jack but it is POA... this just brought back a fond memory... in high school metal shop we had a well equipped shop all WWII surplus stuff, built like a brick outhouse. They were great machines but aging and we had this retired machinist that volunteered in our class. When a machine would break that old man would hustle about w his micrometers and such, often explaining to me what he was doing with his still very noticeable dutch accent and he would work all the other old equipment to build a new part as if nothing had ever broken or wore out... He passed away when I was a senior and still often think of him...

Good luck! Sounds like cool goal
 
Taig and Sherline both make small equipment. For Chinese, Sieg has a line of small to large mills and lathes.

Personally I'm working on a small CNC router, light duty laser cutter and my fleet of 3d printers(3 is a fleet, right?)
 
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Sac: The first thing you need to do is decide what you want to do. Turn or mill stuff or both. Now what size work envelope do you need for it. After that, what materials do you want to work in? Each of these questions have a significant influence on what size and capability of a machine that you should be looking for. Once that has been determined, you have to decide if you want something that is ready to go right now, or do you want to do some repair or overhaul work on it first. With that, now you can start filling in the search boxes for machines that will meet or exceed those criteria, and at the price you are willing to pay.

Someone mentioned the Wazer...For the cut speeds and abrasive use rates, you need to consider that as an expensive toy. .016" 4130 sheet at less than 3" a minute cut speed and approaching .5 lbs of abrasive a minute, is pretty abysmal. My band saw will cut the same stuff much faster with only a slightly rougher cut, and couple it with a bench shear, it's no contest. The Wazer is even worse when it comes to 6061.
 
I've gradually built up a small metal shop in my garage, all used stuff bought cheap when the opportunity arose. A Jet 15 benchtop mill/drill, an Atlas 6x18 lathe, 1920s vintage 10" bandsaw set up for metal cutting. You can do a lot with small machines if you take your time.

IMG_20190303_171324.jpg
 
AGLyme said:
Buy a solid used "Bridgeport"... the machine that can make itself... if you Google, you will find a pile of them for sale... for under $3k.
Click to expand...

Those things are great, pretty much do anything. But the machine is just the start, the tooling is pretty spendy. I'd love to have one. A Bridgeport might also be problematic if all you have is a small corner in a garage.
 
Dana said:
A Jet 15 benchtop mill/drill,
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That looks like the perfect size Mill for me starting out, especially while I don't yet have a shop. What kind of precision do you get out of it and how heavy is it?
 
Mtns2Skies said:
That looks like the perfect size Mill for me starting out, especially while I don't yet have a shop. What kind of precision do you get out of it and how heavy is it?
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I'm not sure how precise it is, better than my amateur skills and good enough for anything I've needed to do. Weight, 440# per the manual, my son in law and I were able to get it off my pickup and into the garage.

It's an older one from when they were made in Taiwan, the later Chinese ones are reportedly lower quality. I'd love a real Bridgeport but I don't have the space for it.
 
Hmm, some ideas. What I'm looking for ideally is a small lathe with milling capabilities. I don't really have the space for a free standing unit.
 
There are milling attachments for lathes. One was available for the Atlas lathes, though I don't have one. OTOH, I used my mill to turn small parts before getting the lathe. Or you can go for a combo machine like the Maximat mentioned above, or one of the offerings from Grizzly... though for more than occasional use many people say switching them back and forth is a PITA.
 
This is a very interesting thread to me as I've been thinking about the exact same thing. I've been wanting a mill specifically and have been looking at various lower cost used ones out there.

One thing that I've struggled with is most of the good ones (old Bridgeports, etc.) are so heavy that moving them is pretty difficult. Of course I have heavy equipment so I could probably make something work to move it.

A good welder is probably the first thing on my list, or at least an argon bottle to convert my crappy flux core to a mig (it is designed to do either).
 
If I don't know the difference between a mill and a lathe, I guess that means I need to stick (SWIDT?) with my "thinking about a welder" thread (that I haven't yet posted - it's in the "thinking about posting a 'thinking about' thread" that also is not posted).
Now I just need to find a welder like my dad taught me to weld with when I was a kid ...
c9502d7cf775616d7823f2cd48f5f78a.jpg


and then figure out what MIG and TIG mean? :D
 
Ted DuPuis said:
(old Bridgeports, etc.) are so heavy that moving them is pretty difficult.
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And you need either three phase power, a phase converter, or a VFD to run them.

"A good welder is probably the first thing on my list, or at least an argon bottle to convert my crappy flux core to a mig (it is designed to do either)."
Sell it and go to stick or TIG.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
And you need either three phase power, a phase converter, or a VFD to run them.
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Yeah, I left that part out. I was browsing Facebook Marketplace the other day looking at a lot of the older mills that were reasonably priced and noticed a large number required 3-phase, so there's extra cost and effort associated.

I'm probably best off starting with just a better welder if I want to do something.
 
I went for an oxy-acetylene rig instead of an electric welder.
 
If I had some equipment like a tractor, I would want a stick welder. A used transformer will be dirt cheep. You can weld dirty/rusty stuff outside if necessary. No need to fiddle fart with argon. None of that wire nonsense to break down.
For aluminum / stainless / fancy work - TIG (+ Stick).

I have gas at home, TIG at school (and MIG, but I don't bother with that.)

Don't see much point in a wire welder unless you are doing production. But, then, I ain't no welder.
 
gkainz said:
If I don't know the difference between a mill and a lathe,
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In a Lathe the work spins. In a Mill the tool spins.

In a lathe/mill or mill/lathe you can do both. Often a compromise but good for some. Can be often found used when people upgrade. Also almost forgot Smithy as a good(expensive) vendor of combo machines.
 
Dana said:
I went for an oxy-acetylene rig instead of an electric welder.
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If you can weld good technique with gas, you can weld with anything.

Those square wave, mig, tig, stick combination boxes are getting pretty price competitive. I used the Lincoln version for a while. It was nice to be able to quickly change from one to another depending on what the job was, whether it was inside or outside etc.
 
Years ago I bought a Miller Eco-TIG It work great, So bought a new Lincoln 200 AMP Square wave. Wished I had saved my money.

Make me an offer.
 
Dana said:
I went for an oxy-acetylene rig instead of an electric welder.
Click to expand...

I have an oxy-acetylene torch as well. Love it for heating/cutting but never used for welding. Want to learn that someday...

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
If I had some equipment like a tractor, I would want a stick welder.
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I think you're giving me a good excuse to buy a new welder.
 
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