[john Lucas]

I just found this forum today. I bought a used smithy1220xl this last weekend. I'm really excited. I've been sort of playing in metal for a long time but didn't have any decent tools. I know the Smithy isn't a high quality machine tool but it beats the heck out of trying to rig things with modified woodworking tools.
I am a very active woodturner and the first things I will do with the equipment is to make new gadgets and tools for my wood lathe. In the long run who knows what I'll end up doing with it. Metal spinning is something I'm also excited about but I can do that on my wood lathe. The smithy will help me make some of the tools for this. I've already taken some blacksmithing classes, jewelry making classes, and welding so I'm really getting into metal. this is just the next step.
I will have to clean up and adjust the crossfeed but that's within my skill level. I ordered the manuals from Smithy today.
I am a photographer for Tennessee Tech University so If I can help anyone with thier photography or woodworking let me know. In the meantime I'll be prowling here to learn all i can about metal.

[john Lucas]

I worked on the smithy yesterday. The tailstock just needed a little cleaning and lube. I tightened up the gib adjustments on the cross feed and it works pretty well. I will need to figure out how to get the slop out of the hand cranks. I've never had a cross feed apart so that will be a learning experience.
I cut some metal with it this morning and got a good finish after I reground some of the cutting tools. I think I'm going to really enjoy this thing. Still have a lot of learning to do.
Can someone suggest a newsgroup for a beginner with lots of questions.

[philbur]

Try here.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/3_in_1_Lathe_Mill_Drill/

Phil