# How deep is the hole ?



## mmcmdl (Mar 7, 2021)

The wabbit hole ? You digging in or you digging out ?  This hobby can be quite expensive for those starting out . Buying the equipment ( lathe and mill ) is just breaking ground . Who's digging in ?


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## Aukai (Mar 8, 2021)

Still on the way in, and I know better than to look back over my shoulder to see how deep I'm in, cuz it's a ways.....


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## Brento (Mar 8, 2021)

Not to deep but only have one running machine so i suspect it to get a little worse come this summer.


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## davidpbest (Mar 8, 2021)

The hole is almost always just beyond the depth of your pocketbook.  In fact, it's usually the pocketbook that determines just how deep the hole is.  Attached is a list of what I recently recommended another member here as a "get-started" shopping list, along with hot links to well priced sources of supply.   I own all this stuff and plenty more, and this is just for the mill.  Clearly, you can do it for a lot less - most do.  But it the hole has a great sucking sound and is easy to fall into.


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## mmcmdl (Mar 8, 2021)

Just curious to the answer here . I loaded a plastic container once again . Estimated at $15,000 . I'll never get rid of it in my lifetime . The son will be informed on it all . I put this up as I started out as a business and downsized to more of a hobby shop . As a business , I bought , bought , bought . Show a loss on the books . 30 years later ,


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## davidpbest (Mar 8, 2021)

You are lucky to have a son who is interested in this craft.  I already feel immensely sorry for saddling my kids with the task of liquidating my shop assets when the day comes for the big estate sale.  I've already said "you will have to pry that Herman Schmidt sine plate from my cold dead hands."   LOL


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## Braeden P (Mar 8, 2021)

just keep falling down the wabbit hole now i check facebook market place every day for a mill, shaper, bandsaw and worse yet a planer, those things are impossible to find


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## Peyton Price 17 (Mar 8, 2021)

I now have 7 toolboxes. 3 Kennedys, 3 gerstners, and 1 union. got all for cheap and presents, but 4 are overflowing and need to fill up the other ones with more tools. All I have is a metal lathe but lots of tools I need a mill for. Now I have a reason to buy one. I just turned 13 and spent all of my money on tools and a lathe  Now only if I could get a brand new gerstner rolling tool chest.


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## projectnut (Mar 8, 2021)

Aukai said:


> Still on the way in, and I know better than to look back over my shoulder to see how deep I'm in, cuz it's a ways.....


If you can still look over your shoulder you aren't in very deep.  Then again we have to define how the depth is calculated.  Is it by the dollars spent, or the number of machines and amount of tooling you've accumulated?  I've purchased almost all my machinery used, and since I happen to be in the "rust belt" prices here are considerably less than in many other parts of the country.

I have what I would consider a "reasonably well equipped" shop.  There are always additional machines on my "wish list", but it's more a matter of size, energy, and availability than money.  Two that come to mind are either a Moore or Pratt & Whitney Jig bore and a 3' radial drill.  I passed on both a short time ago at what I would consider ridiculously low prices.  A I was offered a nicely equipped Pratt & Whitney jig bore machine for $900.00, and a Fosdick radial drill for $1,100.00.  Both eventually went to another "hobbyist" in the area.  I say "hobbyist" but he's more of a collector.  He has nearly a dozen machines in his "shop" but none are wired in or up and running.  Space in my shop is now more of a premium, and at my age it's a little more difficult to transport, disassemble, and reassemble larger machines than it was 20 years ago.  In this area machinery is still what I would consider "cheap" compared to the west coast and southern states, especially if you know of shops that are continually changing and upgrading to meet demand.

It might sound a bit odd, but this is the first year in a long time that I've spent the amount of time I'd like to in the shop.  While the pandemic has curtailed travel and social interaction it has allowed me to complete projects I started years ago.  I would estimate that I've spent 3 to 4 times as much time in the shop this past year as I have in the previous 5 years.  In the past it seems there's always been far more to do outside the shop so the time in the shop has been limited. 

I do still visit local used machine dealers on a regular basis, but these days it's more for accumulating metal stock and small tooling needed for a specific job.  In the last couple weeks I've bought some 6061 aluminum round stock, flat stock, a hand full of reamers, and a few other small goodies I could carry in my hands.  Nothing large even though there were literally hundreds of machines and thousands of pieces of tooling looking for a new home.


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## Braeden P (Mar 8, 2021)

projectnut said:


> we have to define how the depth is calculated. Is it by the dollars spent, or the number of machines and amount of tooling you've accumulated?


its both of those and how many times you are told that you have to many tools and getting in trouble for metal in the carpets


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## Shootymacshootface (Mar 8, 2021)

Digging deep!
I should be picking up another mill and lathe this week. A mint Bridgeport J head and a SB Heavy 10 and all tooling for each. 
I need to move on this. My father in law is turning 80 and wants to use his garage. I paid the in-laws a random visit over the weekend and he casually told me that he offered the mill to his neighbor, who said that he wanted it!
I consider this an emergency of the highest magnitude! 
I am working on my trailer today to get it road worthy.


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## carlquib (Mar 8, 2021)

Been working on my hole for over 30 years now. Can't see the top when I look back. The positive is, the shop supports itself more every year. The negative is I may never turn a profit because I enjoy finding new tools for the shop too much. 

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk


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## Flyinfool (Mar 8, 2021)

OHHhhhhh dat wascly wabbit.

Not only has the hole been dug deep, very deep, but is all those side tunnels that have been bored too.

My original wabbit hole started 55 years ago with model airplanes and motorcycles. getting shop tools was a side hole of that original boring. and then there is the side holes of welding, and a side hole of 3D printing, and I have always had a love of anything that flies so had to get a full size pilots license. then some how the tunnel took a left turn and I ended up being a stock car driver. Now that is a tunnel you can drive a truck thru.

It aint just the one wabbit hole, it is the whole cotton pickin metropolis down here.


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## 682bear (Mar 8, 2021)

I'm still digging, trying to find the bottom...

-Bear


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## Larry$ (Mar 8, 2021)

Been there in my business. Now retired and doing it again, this time in metal. It's an affliction, very contagious!


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## FOMOGO (Mar 8, 2021)

How deep is the hole ? Like all holes, it goes all the way to the bottom, but that's why you always carry a shovel with you, merrily throwing the overburden behind you, back filling the original tunnel, and all forms of rationality buried, and denied. Ain't it wonderful.  Mike​


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## John TV (Mar 8, 2021)

I’m fairly new into the digging but already getting questions from friends and family..,I keep telling them it’s cheaper than counseling and for me just as effective. Now I just wish I would have started digging many years ago when I could remember what I learned that day...things don’t seem to stick as well...why am I digging again?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## DavidR8 (Mar 8, 2021)

I might be the poster child for digging in deep.
A little over a year ago I started out with a mini lathe, now own a South Bend 10K, an RF30 mill, surface grinder, TIG welder, two Kennedy boxes and a boat load of tooling for both the mill and the lathe.
Oh and a big shovel


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## Braeden P (Mar 9, 2021)

DavidR8 said:


> two Kennedy boxes


Only two!


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## mmcmdl (Mar 9, 2021)

Braeden P said:


> Only two!


I'm down to one ! And it's a mechanics box  I've gotten rid of at least 5 Kennedy full sets ( roll around , mid and top boxes ) over the past 4 years . Now down to a bunch of Vidmars and 4 of the HF 42 inch roll arounds . Starting to go thru them at the moment . They'll soon be gone also .


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## Braeden P (Mar 9, 2021)

DavidR8 said:


> Oh and a big shovel


who needs a big shovel when you have a tunnel boring machine


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