I had a smithy and similar since i was 16yrs old. If you cant get anything else they are great... many a hot rod project was done on mine! ![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.png)
The major down side of a smithy is the milling head. If you can figure a way to double clamp the column like the HF mill drills it would be awsome. I personaly wasn't ingenious enough at the time to do this but It would have allieviated huge amounts of problems and frustrations. That being said the only other problem I had with the smithy (or equiv, had 3 dif. types) is: under heavy load on the lathe sometimes the locknut on the spindle would kick out and spindle would stop. filing the flats (so that they were flat!) stopped this.
the 400oz is probably overkill if my mini lathe is anything to judge buy. but if you find a way to lock down the mill head you might need it.
thanks
Michael T.
"If you don't stand for something, chances are, you'll fall for anything!"