[mysterious]

Is this machine any good?



Would I be able to make it CNC down the road, and what about ballscrews?


3in1

[DDM]

It's cute and it looks nice but other than that I'd stay away from combo machines. If you need a lathe and a milling machine and don't have a lot of room it might be worth it but it would be nice to have two or three seperate machines. The guy that I work with says that it's best to get a lathe first and then a milling machine but it's kinda up to you what you want to do. I'd say if you didn't have much room and you wern't going to use it on a daily or weekly basis go ahead. This is just my two cent's I'd be interested to see what others have to say.

Carl

[mysterious]

Yes, it will be just for hobby, don't care about set up time, I know how people complain about that. How accurate are these and how hard would it be to CNC it?

[lsfoils]

Hi M.

Check out the distance between the mill/drill head and the work table. In the photo, the head is as low as it goes and there is probably about 8" of space. That means your quill will be extended a long way before you can start milling a part thats clamped to the table. No rigidity, accuracy and you may go through a lot of end mills. Among other things. There are a lot of combo machines out there with a lot more flexibility. I don't care for combos myself but if thats what your'e after I'd recommend looking around a little. Hope this helps.

[lsfoils]

I guess I should have mentioned that this distance can be overcome with various items. Check out the tilting tables on this page http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2004/495.cfm?

I know someone who is using this bring his work up closer to the quill.

[Bloy2004]

I have a 3 in 1 Shoptask...although a little more in expense, it has features that make it worth it. One feature, the "quadra lift" allows adjustment of the mill head height. As with all these machines, be prepared to "go through it" to make it work as desired. I think with a machine like this, as a hobby, you may learn by making better parts or modifications for the machine itself. check out.. ..
http://www.cnczone.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2139
John

[MikeAber]

I have a Smithy Granite 1324 3-in-one. It is always a hassle to change setups. It seems that if you want to do a little milling you are set up for lathe work and when you want to do a tiny little lathe job the riser table is mounted on the cross slide table for milling closer to the mill head etc.
If I could do it all over again I would get a 13 x 40 lathe and a gearhead square column mill.
If I was working on a small budget I would get a 14" mini lathe and a mini mill for the price of the machine you are looking at. Check out Micro Mark, Harbor Freight, Homier, Grizzly etc. Make sure you look at Little Machine Shop.com. Tooling is more expensive than the machines.

More about my machine tools and observations here: http://www.cnczone.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=9015

Mike