Trying To Decide On A Mill

I would love to go straight to the 935, but budget constraints are going to prevent that for the foreseeable future (it basically doubles the cost, and would be more than I paid for my truck).
 
Is buying used an issue? Craigslist often has good prices on knee mills in this area.

Matt at QMT may have some used machines in inventory as well.
 
Used is a possibility, I am hesitant to enter that market right now due to my inexperience with the machines, I don't want to end up with an ongoing project or a lemon because I was not aware of an issue, or did not know what to look for.
 
hmmmm... There seems to be a trend here. I need to listen to my initial thoughts and go for the 935... My CFO is not going to like this, it seems to me that to really get the most out of the 935 I may as well order a 1340GT lathe to go with it... So what is the current market price for a kidney? ;)
 
This 'trend' always exist here. It starts with a question about what (insert machine type of choice here) should I buy? You can even apply qualifiers like price, size, space, and these may even be addressed at first. Then it goes down a rabbit hole and you are told to go buy some used 2-3000 lb that may or may not be worth the cost of scrapping it because that is what someone else bought. It doesn't matter if you buy a good used machine or junk as everyone will soon loose interest and move on to the next question. I have a friend that did what was recommended by some and now he has a really large paper weight in his garage collecting dust. You really have to consider these suggestions from your personal perspective, not someone elses.

But...if you truly can swing a 935 and 1340GT and will actually use them you should be quite happy as they are decent quality tools. If you can keep the CFO happy that is... :)
 
Yes... there seems to be that 'trend'... or if it is a bug... it has bit quite a bunch of us... :dollars:

I started out looking at a 1127 lathe only... and ended up with around $15K worth of machine tools. I can say without reservation the machines are well worth the $$$ if one has the work to take advantage of them. And for me... there may be a PM940CNC in the future... depends on something I am in the middle of proto-typing (sorry, cannot talk about the details yet).

:shhh:

The deciding thing for me... is how Matt at QMT supports his customers... and how much support information is available here at HM forum.
IMO one could get in a real mess with little experience (me), and a machine with few places to turn for help.

Will check in this evening... need to go chase a customer... we were talking about that thing called $$$... :)
 
The customer support aspect is something that is important to me with having very little experience with these tools, Matt and Quality Machine tools is almost local to me (I could be there in a couple of hours). That kind of support does not exist with purchasing any of the used equipment on the market, yes I could probably pick up a very nice used Bridgeport, it is going to be huge in size and weight, and there is the risk of picking up a very nicely polished lemon that never works right. If I spend the money now it will only hurt once (in theory anyways) and then I can move on with enjoying working with the tools instead of on the tools.
 
Chief,
I bought a used variable speed bridgeport (advertised as like new condition), it is currently completely disassembled, needs new bearings, motor, all the ways need to be scraped, it might end up being an expensive heavy floor drill press (I have kept it as a constant reminder to never buy any used heavy machinery on EBAY that I cannot go over with a fine toothed comb). I ended up buying a 1340gt and a 935 T-S (waiting to receiving them). I wish I had purchased them sooner, like years ago.
 
jds said:
Chief,
I bought a used variable speed bridgeport (advertised as like new condition), it is currently completely disassembled, needs new bearings, motor, all the ways need to be scraped, it might end up being an expensive heavy floor drill press (I have kept it as a constant reminder to never buy any used heavy machinery on EBAY that I cannot go over with a fine toothed comb). I ended up buying a 1340gt and a 935 T-S (waiting to receiving them). I wish I had purchased them sooner, like years ago.
Click to expand...

I had seriously considered finding a used BP and rebuilding it... until I read about scraping the ways...
That is something I cannot do, would have to pay for... and from the little I have read... not cheap.

I agree... who wants to buy a project... I thought we wanted to build OUR projects... :)
 
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