How big a lathe/mill is enough?

[nickmckinney]

IMHO in a home garage setting its tough to beat a 8x30 knee mill combined with a 12x36 lathe. any larger parts than these can cut gets pretty big by home shop standards.

 

[ranch23]

13 X 40 Lathe, standard 9X 42 Mill.

 

[Reeltor]

Sweet looking shaper there, Reeltor. What make is it?
Patrick

Patrick,

It's a 16" G & E
I need to get some Kero to clean the crap off of the surfaces and crank it over by hand.

chuckorlando: While it's cool pealing of 1/4" hot blue "C"s, it's not something that I do on purpose:roflmao:!
Have to be sure they don't melt through plastic gas cans or otherwise start a fire. PING, PING, PING,PING!!!

Mike

 

[chuckorlando]

If I had that size machine, I would do it on a regular. But thats a huge machine in terms of mass. I love watching abm peal off them huge chips. Stuff goes so much faster when she can eat by the shovel

 

[Reeltor]

If I had that size machine, I would do it on a regular. But thats a huge machine in terms of mass. I love watching abm peal off them huge chips. Stuff goes so much faster when she can eat by the shovel

What is a amb?

I don't want to jack the thread, did the OP get back with what 3-in-1 he presently has?

 

[GA Gyro]

13 X 40 Lathe, standard 9X 42 Mill.

I like this size choice...

Just a little larger than I 'need' (at the time), so I can grow into them, and there is enough 'beef' to take a sizable cut when I want to.
Better IMO to have a little extra strength, than to have to limit one's work due to machine capacity.

 

[GA Gyro]

What is a amb?

I don't want to jack the thread, did the OP get back with what 3-in-1 he presently has?

I am not far down I-85 from you...

You have a PM.

John/GA

 

[chuckorlando]

Abom is what that should have said. Youtube channel. He has rather stout machines and can just peal the stock back

 

[Reeltor]

Abom is what that should have said. Youtube channel. He has rather stout machines and can just peal the stock back

My Monarch is the same size as Adam's, just shorter. BUT I wouldn't take the risk of damage my 70 year old machine like Keith, Adam and Tom did to see whose lathe had the biggest Cojones with the Chip Control tests.
IMHO Adam's Monarch would have won the test and taken a much larger cut if he set the terms of the test. Slow down the RPM's to 17 and see what 5hp and a 1" hss bit can do.
Here is a peak under the lid

 

[stupoty]

There is no hard and fast rule for sizing a lathe and mill but I would recommend going as rigid, powerful and stable as possible. Make sure the work envelope of both machines compliment each other.

I have a small hobby shop and I bought the smallest industrial quality machines I could find. My lathe is 550 kg and the mill is 530 kg. I set 600 kg as my limit as the average person can rent and drive a trailer that can handle 600 kg. This is important if I ever want to sell the machines as it makes them desirable to a much broader group of people and therefore easier to sell.

Paul.

the size is a big factor in the second hand price, I paid less for my 13"leblond than my emco clone bench lathe, interestingly the leblond only takes up about 8 inches wider foot print than the bench lathe.

the little one was easier to move.

of all my machinery purchases so far the rf25 mill is probably the winner in work envelope. I have a 10 inch rotory table (again very cheep as it wasnt a 4 or 6 inch) its very heavey and a pain to move onto the mill but (just) works ok for what i do with it. And the mill hasnt colapsed yet(its on a very hevvy wooden bench).

infact sometimes stuff is too big, i'm often tempted by the smaller er12 collets as the holder for the mill would be much smaller and make using tiny tiny milling cutters a bit easier.

an example in my new drill press(new to me neads a new motor or rewind) tea cup for scale, it's to drill holes in pcb's the rf25 was becoming a little boring to use for it, hopefully this will help.

Stuart

edit
please excuse my half finished dinner in the photo (palm face)