I was sold on the duality lathe as an option for a part I make but now I am second guessing that after doing a search and several people saying they would not buy one if they had it to do over. I am not a cad / cam wizard but I get by drawing 2d parts for my router. I am wondering how hard it is to write code for making some simple profiles. I need to make these parts (photo attached) from 1" 6061 AL. This will be a two step approach I have a manual indexer to do the mill operations but I need to turn the profiles. I have made these parts on my manual machines but they take too long so I have been outsourcing them to a CNC shop. The problem is I have to order a bunch to get the price down and I sit on them for about 1 1/2 years. I would like to make them a few at a time as I need them.
I have other parts to make with the mill as well or I would just buy a CNC lathe. The question is buy the duality lathe with the mill or try and use the mill as a vertical lathe?
Here are some pictures of the shafts and the Fish tables I make the shafts fit into fishing rod holder mounts. The tables are made on my CNC router.
Thanks Mike