Help me spend my future budget! Help a newbie out!!

I'd buy the best machines I could afford with the bare minimum of tooling to make them useful, then add tooling after that. It's a lot easier to get a better vise or face mill than a bigger/ better lathe or mill :) My tip on the tooling would be to get anything specific to the machine (chucks, rests, power feeds etc) with the machine, used or new, and get the universal tooling as you need it afterwards. You can get a lot of good tooling for little money on eBay/ CL, but anything specific to the machine (D1-4 6in 4 jaw for example) would be a lot harder to find. I think that there's a tendency to plan for every eventuality when you have a budget that size, but you're better of getting the basics set and accumulating what you need when you need it.

Another thing to consider too are DROs, especially for your mill but also for the lathe. Can be pricey, but a great investment.
 
You could keep an eye out on craigslist and ebay. Things of interest pop up from time to time. Of course buying used has its share of pitfalls.

On ebay you can run a search within a specified mileage radius.

On craigslist you should search your surrounding area plus Dallas and Houston.
 
You mentioned your experience is basically none. That tells me If you go CL shopping or anywhere for used tools/machines. You might be better off taking along someone with trade experience. There are too many “car saleman’s” out there! Please be careful and good luck in your hunt.
 
chips&more said:
You mentioned your experience is basically none. That tells me If you go CL shopping or anywhere for used tools/machines. You might be better off taking along someone with trade experience. There are too many “car saleman’s” out there! Please be careful and good luck in your hunt.
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Way too many "machine refurbishments" out there done with a rattle can of gray paint sprayed haphazardly across machine, screw heads, and label plates. If you are "lucky", a hand scraping job designed to give you that "fish scale" new mill look on the bed... except it was done to get rid of wear marks, not flatten the ways, and actually makes them worse.

It is amazing how a $7 can of paint adds $1500 to the price tag...
 
tmarks11 said:
Way too many "machine refurbishments" out there done with a rattle can of gray paint sprayed haphazardly across machine, screw heads, and label plates. If you are "lucky", a hand scraping job designed to give you that "fish scale" new mill look on the bed... except it was done to get rid of wear marks, not flatten the ways, and actually makes them worse.

It is amazing how a $7 can of paint adds $1500 to the price tag...
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Good to know tmark. I'm a little aprehensive because of stuff you just pointed out.
 
If used is an option, it aint that hard to learn what to look for and how to check them. And IMO if your wanting to make parts, learning to and carrying it out is really not that difficult. With your budget you could slide into a fine fine used machine. Or an expensive turd if you dont do your part. It's no more difficult to tram in the mills head then to check for sag and slop in a table. No harder to tighten a spark plug then to check for and adjust the gibs.

I'm not saying buy used at all. But I am saying you should not be afraid of them either. With 10k in machine tools, you sure shouldn't be afraid to learn how to check a machine with a indicator IMHO
 
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