Starting to outfit a home shop. Need some advice

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Hi all. I'm retired with a lot of spare time and I want to get into machining. I had a long lost education in machining, when I was very young, and I have a lot to learn or catch up on. I'm thinking that I want to start with a nice lathe and mill. I have room in my garage for machines, so that won't be a problem. I've looked at some used stuff online but they don't come up very often out here in Arizona. On top of that, I'm not sure I would know a good machine when I see one, or even worse, a bad machine when I see one and I don't have anyone knowledgable to go with me. So, I think a new unit would be the best way to go. I've looked at the Asian websites and see a lot of offerings but I can't figure which are the better ones and which to stay away from. I'm sure budget is a good place to start so I'm thinking about $4500 for the lathe to start. Probably the same for the mill. I'd love to hear opinions on best bang for the buck machines. Which to shy away from and which are trusted brands. Size-wize I'm probably in the 11 to 13" range, money is going to dictate that I suppose. I don't have to worry about space or stairs as they will be going in my three car garage with level driveway. Any help or recommendations are welcome.
 
Think about what you want to make with your lathe and mill. Let that dictate what to look for. A lathe for making clocks is vastly different from a lathe for gunsmithing. Do you need a large spindle bore. What about length between centers. Metric threading in addition to imperial threading. In your budgeting don't forget about all of the other stuff you will need to actually make precision parts. There are some excellent threads on here that will lay out what you need. Don't be overwhelmed with the seemly endless things to buy. In buying tooling don't buy everything under the sun to start. Just buy what you need for a particular project. When buying stuff buy the best quality that you can afford. Having quality stuff will pay off in the long run.

Welcome to the forum. We are a friendly bunch. The really knowledgeable people on here will help you with any questions that you may have. So don't be afraid to ask any question no matter how trivial you may thing that it is.
 
Howdy and welcome. Precision Matthews is popular here and we also have quite a few satisfied Grizzly owners. I have heard some not-so-good stories about some of the other brands of imports. PM is particularly noted for good service after the sale, but Grizzly has upped their service game in the last few years also.
Taiwan made machines are considered a cut above those made in mainland China, and the prices reflect that.
-Mark
 
I've heard and read good things about PM. For some reason I always thought Grizzly was in the same category as Harbor freight but I am probably wrong. I've been looking at web sites. If anyone else has any brands to look at or stay away from I love to hear about them. As for the use I am intending, it will be variable but probably not gunsmithing. I think I will be looking at about 36" between centers and both metric and imperial thread capability. My belief is to get maybe more machine than I need now to avoid the hassle of moving to a larger one. Does that make sense?
 
I have a question for you knowledgeable folks. Why is a gun smith lathe so much more money than a same size engine lathe?
 
Probably better tolerances can be held for the gun smith lathes. What size projects do you have, or are interested in? That will determine the sizes of machines might fit your needs. What do you have for electrical sources? You will need to expand it.
 
Aukai said:
Probably better tolerances can be held for the gun smith lathes. What size projects do you have, or are interested in? That will determine the sizes of machines might fit your needs. What do you have for electrical sources? You will need to expand it.
Click to expand...
I have 220 in my garage for my welder and I can extend or add probably two more outlets to the other side of garage easily. My projects won't initially use full capacity of 12-36 but probably will in time.
 
If you can separate the garage from the house with 200 amp service, 100 for the house, 100 for the garage with separate breaker boxes without too much expense, that might help. Make a plan for what you want to do. I had a 2 gang plug in the garage, and a 220v for the welder. I cannot expand my service, but I now have 5, 4 gang 110v plugs, 2 x 220v plugs for the welders, 1 220v for the compressor, a 220v for the mill, and now a new 220v for a VFD, and a rotary phase converter. The rabbit hole gets deep quick, my TIG welder has a special plug that will give a full 100 amp service if needed, now if I'm using it at that amperage, and she turns on a light in the house it will trip the circuit. If your needs are smaller scale disregard. :)
 
Aukai said:
If you can separate the garage from the house with 200 amp service, 100 for the house, 100 for the garage with separate breaker boxes without too much expense, that might help. Make a plan for what you want to do. I had a 2 gang plug in the garage, and a 220v for the welder. I cannot expand my service, but I now have 5, 4 gang 110v plugs, 2 x 220v plugs for the welders, 1 220v for the compressor, a 220v for the mill, and now a new 220v for a VFD, and a rotary phase converter. The rabbit hole gets deep quick, my TIG welder has a special plug that will give a full 100 amp service if needed, now if I'm using it at that amperage, and she turns on a light in the house it will trip the circuit. If your needs are smaller scale disregard. :)
Click to expand...
I live alone so when I'm working I don't have other things running. I won't be using two or three machines at the same time. I have extra space in my main breaker box plus a sub in my garage. I have a Hobart 190 mig and never have any problems, even when my whole house a/c is running, which is almost always here in the desert!
 
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