How long have you been doing this?
The machining bit, about 5 years, but I've been into tools as far back as I can remember. Metal work beyond soldering was pretty much outside of my capabilities and knowledge base. I had shop classes in school, but they also skewed heavily towards wood working. What metalworking experience I had came from one year of high school metal shop so it revolved around full size machines, that were way beyond my space and budget, so I didn't pursue it. I didn't even know small bench top metal working machines were a thing until maybe 10 years ago or I would have probably started down this rabbit hole 20 years ago. Probably a good thing I didn't because I had 6 major moves between 1998 and 2012. Moving portable wood working tools was hard enough.
For the rest a lot of these questions are kind of like what would you have done differently if you knew at 18 what you know now. Fine and all that, but doing things differently might have changed the answers. Also so much of what I have done is shaped by the internet, without the ability to quickly search and find information, look at vendor websites, sites like this one, having access to tools like Craigslist and Ebay. If I started 20 years ago, I have no idea how I would have started. I would not have had any of the resources I used, or even had the exposure that created the interest. It was finding modeling websites in the early 2000s that even got me away from just gluing the parts together that came in the box. Scratch building my own stuff from plastic, aluminum, brass, and wood is what sparked the interest in a lathe in the first place. Having the lathe, sparked the interest in machining as a hobby rather than just the means to an end. It is also only recently that I actually had the time and money to really get into this as deep as I have.
In fact I think it would be interesting to see how many hobby machinists who have been doing this more than about 15 years (so 2005 or about the time the internet had really matured), didn't already have a strong connection to machining through work or friends / family. I know model engineering has been around a long time, but I suspect it has grown much in recent years simply through increased visibility.
Sorry started to ramble on a bit there.
What machine in your shop do you use most?
The welder has actually become my gotta have it tool. I use the machine tools to make gizmos and to support the machines, the welder actually makes stuff I need although a lot of this also comes back to supporting the machining side of things with stands, shelves, carts. If there is one tool in the shop that I wish I had earlier it is a MIG welder, even if I had just bought a cheap 120v welder.
After that it is a horizontal bandsaw, or power hacksaw which is an essential tool for prepping material. Using a hand powered hacksaw is for the birds on anything over about 1/2" or for making lots of repeat cuts.
Of the machine tools proper, it would be my Sherline lathe.
What machine in your shop could you not live without? In other words, if you could have only one machine, what would it be?
Based on the last answer, probably no surprise, the welder.
Of the machine tools, It is a bit of a cheat but it would be the Sherline lathe with the milling attachment. The design of their milling attachment really makes it into a 3 in 1 type machine. Not as handy as separate machines, but if I'm only allowed 1, I could get by with that.
Knowing what you know now, if you had to start over again, what would you buy first, second and third? Assume you need to wait a year between each purchase.
I'm going to look at this from 2 perspectives.
Going back in time? Welder, bandsaw, lathe (I already had a lot of the other supporting tools like a drill press). The second part of this is I couldn't have done things much differently than I did due to time, space and budget restrictions that I had. I'm in a very different place than I was even 10 years ago.
Now if I were starting over today completely from scratch? I might make a few different choices of actual machine chosen, like I would definitely get a bigger drill press (already on my low priority BOLO), and I would probably get a mitering bandsaw vs the traditional horizontal but I think I'm going to stick with the same order.
The differences in machines is not dissatisfaction with what I have so much as simply buying in a planned way I could do things differently, more efficiently and there is always some room for improvement. Since most of my machines are "old" it would also be very impractical to sit around waiting to find the same exact machine. If I were going to buy it all at once I might go with new, but with the stipulation of a year in between purchases I'd probably stick with the vintage theme that I have now. Since the welder is first on my list, and is something I would by new that gives me plenty of time to look for vintage options on the rest.
What is the one thing you wish someone had told you when you were first starting out, or that they did tell you that you wished you had listened to?
I'm very analytical and calculating. I'm also very careful about making large purchases (which to me is anything over $100). I did 2 years of research before buying the Sherline, and it has done everything I expected it to do. The only thing I really didn't prepare for was the trip down the rabbit hole. I was buying a tool for a specific purpose not looking for a new hobby. Luckily by the time I was really headed down the hole, I had a good group of enablers who helped steer me towards some good machines.
The only thing I can really think of where I could have done better, was getting the bandsaw sooner. I spent time and money on work arounds, because I didn't think I could make the bandsaw work in the space I have (yeah, no room for a bandsaw the size of a saw horse but somehow I have found room for 5 lathes, 3 mills, 3 bandsaws and a shaper
). Oddly it was the need to sharpen lathe tooling that provided the space for the bandsaw. I had to find a spot for the bench grinder, and committing to an outdoor workbench for the grinder led to room for the bandsaw.
Really I think the biggest thing I've learned here is how to filter advice because information overload is a thing. There is a ton of good advice offered, the tricky part is figuring out which of it applies to your specific situation. I learn something new almost everyday from how to do something to discovering a new machine that I didn't even know existed.
