$2,500.. Lathe and Mill..

[BellyUpFish]

Need to define your max intended work volume before you start shopping. If you are never going to work on anything in your wildest dreams more than a cubic foot (for example), then you need to look at machines that will satisfy that. No fun and an effort waste if you buy a machine and then figure out real quick that it's too small for your needs. It's better in the long run to save up a bit longer and wait rather than having to upgrade a second time in the near future.

That's what I've been trying to do, but have very little reference point. All my work now is fairly small. I don't see myself going too much larger than I am now.

 

[master53yoda]

Yeh, outside of a VFD, I most likely won't have 3PH power run to the shop.

My son has a small commercial operation on a rotary convertor, we have a 30hp Haas mill and a 20 hp Hass lathe plus all the other smaller stuff. He has run both the lathe and mill at the same time, the high hp lathe and mill really never draw the hp that the are rated at.

The rotory convertor is a 40 hp convertor and runs off a 125 amp 240 volt breaker . we do have a 200 amp service in the shop.

The the other smaller 3 phase items are a bridgeport, 3 lathes 12x to 16x a 24" throat verticle bandsaw and his smaller horizontal bandsaw. Typically only one of these would be running along with the CNC lathe and mill. The air compressor and vacumn system are single phase. He also has another 20 hp convertor but we haven't ever hooked it up. I do most of the electrical work and service on his machines.

Art B

 

[Plas62]

When I was shopping for my mill. I was looking at G0704 and the PM25. After talking with Matt at QMT and getting a better understanding of the limitations of the smaller mills, I decided to stretch my budget and went with the PM932M and am glad I did.

I see from your post that your building a GIB are you a knife maker?

 

[epanzella]

Just got my Grizzly 2015 catalog. Grizzly added a mill head to their popular G4003G lathe. It's a G0791 and it's 4 grand. It's in the paper catalog but not on their website yet