It all comes down to what you are willing to spend. Do you have ~25-30k you want/plan to spend? Buy it all now. Most people, even if we can afford to buy everything end up buying one at a time. That makes it harder, especially if you know you eventually want it all. For me, buying nicer, more capable machines one at a time makes more sense than more machines at once at the cost of even a little less capability.
Conventional thinking is that a lathe is the queen of the shop. But if you get a dividing head, you can do a lot of things on a mill that you might otherwise do on a lathe. A dividing head costs ~ 1/5th of a lathe or less, and can probably get you through till you buy the lathe. So that's likely the way I will go. (but I still vacillate). I askedTom from Oxtools what he thought, and I though his response was very telling. He said, "Buy whichever one you get the better deal on first. You're going to want both. Don't pass up a steal on a mill waiting for a lathe, or vice versa."
So it comes down to what do you want to do? What's your largest anticipated project? A lot can be done on a 12x36 lathe. How much more can you do on a 13x40 or 14x40? Probably (except for 4 inches of length) not a whole lot more. But you can do it faster with more aggressive cuts on a heavier machine. Personally, I wouldn't go smaller than a 12x36. I will probably go with the PM 1340GT, since it is hard for me to justify the extra 4k for the 1440... but the foot break, 2 inch bore, extra weight of the 1440 is pretty sweet. Of course, if you want the creme' dela creme' the TL series is hard to beat. Only another $5k... you see how it goes.
For Mills, a large format desktop mill like the PM 833 mill, is very capable, and probably all most people actually need. But it isn't a knee mill and if you plan on larger / heavier projects, a knee mill gives you just a bit larger envelope, more table space and more mass to absorb vibration. PM's 949T are pretty nice, but if you do decide on a knee mill, since you are in California, I would take a strong look at the ACRA mills. I don't have one, but have heard very good things about them, even from people who own PM Mills.
As for welding, it's a much lower price concern. A Lincoln 215MT gives you MIG, stick and DC TIG for about $1500 - much less than your lathe and mills will cost. You can do Aluminum with MIG with pure Argon and the right wire, and MIG is a lot easier to learn than TIG.|
You will want something to cut your stock, and ultimately that will be a band saw. But a portable HF bandsaw can stand you in good stead for at least a little while.
Conventional thinking is that a lathe is the queen of the shop. But if you get a dividing head, you can do a lot of things on a mill that you might otherwise do on a lathe. A dividing head costs ~ 1/5th of a lathe or less, and can probably get you through till you buy the lathe. So that's likely the way I will go. (but I still vacillate). I askedTom from Oxtools what he thought, and I though his response was very telling. He said, "Buy whichever one you get the better deal on first. You're going to want both. Don't pass up a steal on a mill waiting for a lathe, or vice versa."
So it comes down to what do you want to do? What's your largest anticipated project? A lot can be done on a 12x36 lathe. How much more can you do on a 13x40 or 14x40? Probably (except for 4 inches of length) not a whole lot more. But you can do it faster with more aggressive cuts on a heavier machine. Personally, I wouldn't go smaller than a 12x36. I will probably go with the PM 1340GT, since it is hard for me to justify the extra 4k for the 1440... but the foot break, 2 inch bore, extra weight of the 1440 is pretty sweet. Of course, if you want the creme' dela creme' the TL series is hard to beat. Only another $5k... you see how it goes.
For Mills, a large format desktop mill like the PM 833 mill, is very capable, and probably all most people actually need. But it isn't a knee mill and if you plan on larger / heavier projects, a knee mill gives you just a bit larger envelope, more table space and more mass to absorb vibration. PM's 949T are pretty nice, but if you do decide on a knee mill, since you are in California, I would take a strong look at the ACRA mills. I don't have one, but have heard very good things about them, even from people who own PM Mills.
As for welding, it's a much lower price concern. A Lincoln 215MT gives you MIG, stick and DC TIG for about $1500 - much less than your lathe and mills will cost. You can do Aluminum with MIG with pure Argon and the right wire, and MIG is a lot easier to learn than TIG.|
You will want something to cut your stock, and ultimately that will be a band saw. But a portable HF bandsaw can stand you in good stead for at least a little while.
) But with a 9 inch bed width, heavier mass and universal gear box, I might be willing to strech a bit more for the ERL when the time comes...