I'm having 2nd thoughts on which lathe & mill to buy.

I know next to nothing about using a metal lathe or milling machine, I had been giving much thought toward buying a smithy 1220 LDT combination machine. Now I'm beginning to lean toward buying a sherline lathe and mill package.

I'd like to play with making wind generators, small IC motors, and my robotic hobby. The generator armatures are probably the largest thing I'd need to machine being cast aluminum about 8 to 10 inches in diameter machined to accept magnets and shaft.

My budget is around 2600.00 with nothing left over for tooling and I don't want a machine sitting around that I can't use for 4 months when I can then buy tooling.

Thanks

trilect,
The 8 to 10 piece of cast aluminum, will you have to spin that to machine the outside? If so then the Sherline won't work. If you only have to mill the inside with a boring head then you'll need to consider the length of the piece you are machining, the length of the boring head and then find a mill that is rigid enough to give you the accuracy you need...I'm thinking that you should consider a Sieg X3 for the mill it's about $800, boring head $100. For a small lathe I would consider something like the 9x20 by everyone and his brother, I bought a 8x14 from lathematers.com about $800 with shipping and some carbide tooling, live center, etc. You should be able to get a decent 6 inch rotary table for your mill for around $200.

I'd have to turn the outside of my armatures as well. I'm sure I can find other things as interesting as wind generators as I build a little more money for another lathe and by then perhaps I'll know enough about it that I won't break my investment.

trilect,
Then you going to need a lathe with a much larger swing...the 9, 7 and 8 inch ones won't swing that much with the cross-slide in place. Check you lathe selection for the swing between the carriage. It's the absolute maximum that you can machine with the carriage. The next best option is most likely one of the Grizzly units (4003, if they still have it for about $1600)...I'd check their latest catalog or their website.

Thankyou Viper this isn't the first time you've answered my questions :)

Thanks

The 8 to 10 inch dia. part seams may be a stopper for your budget.
I am wondering is this like a Disk kind of part not very long.
Would you be able to bolt/clamp this from the inside?
Maybe it could be done on a mill with rotating table?
You will have to decide but maybe a decent size mill would work.
Good Luck