Looking For A Small Lathe And Vertical Mill

It would help if you told us what you'd like to do with these so people can offer more appropriate suggestions other than "the biggest you can afford". :)
 
I'm looking for at least a 12" swing with 36" between centers. And a mill something similar to 9" x 36" Bridgeport or something I can put at least a 2" Shell mill in. I'm looking to rebuild a couple of hot rods and build a couple of motorcycles, and just want it them for building shafts, turning pins, normal stuff around the farm.
 
Looking to spend around 3500 to 4000 for both with some tooling if possible.
 
You might be able to find a used 13" SB and baby BP for that, but it will likely take some time and patience. Not sure you'll fit much tooling into that total price range, but there are others here more experienced in buying/researching used machines who will likely chime in. Hope you find something. :)
 
Thanks
I have found several across the country. I live in Ohio and would travel a far distance for the right deal. I have been looking a several SB lathes and a couple of BP mills. I have found some that can buy both for around 4500 which is a good price but not sure what kind of shape they are in and would have to travel out to actually look at them, and I'm not real sure what to look for and what would be acceptable wear. I grew up in my Fathers shop which he had a couple of SB's and 2 BP's and one big Clausing. I'm fairly verse in the machines just a little rusty it has been 20 years since I have ran on for any length of time. I thought I would ask some of you guys that have been around this for awhile. Just a lot of Chinese junk out there now.
 
Just a caution Bill, but we have a bunch of people here doing some pretty good stuff on "Chinese junk" (see my avatar), and every other type of machine imaginable, but we don't put down anyone's choice in machines here. Everyone's welcome. :)
 
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I find myself in the same boat in that I'm starting out and am tempted by the small imports. However, in my case I have clear ideas of the things I want to fabricate and having been down the road of buying twice because I bought cheap once, I am wary of committing cash to any deal. What scares me about the imports is the potential lack of spares and support when the brown hits the round. On the other hand, finding spares for old iron isn't necessarily easier. At least when you buy a new import you have some sort of warranty from the local distributor.

I'll be honest, I would buy a small chinese mill and/or lathe in a heartbeat *IF* I already knew what I was doing and already had the equipment to correct any manufacturing defects, ie surface plate, straight edge, primary mill and lathe. I think it might be a fun little project turning a small chinese import into a tight and precise little machine. I have no doubt it can be done but it takes skill, time and equipment which could otherwise be spent making stuff the machine is intended for in the first place.

On the other hand, some guys get lucky and their cheapies turn out pretty good straight from the crate.
 
That's the big IF in my opinion: If a person already knows their way around a machine, then either scenario (new import vs. used US) is acceptable to that person because they know they can 'fix it'. Well, short of having a completely clapped out machine of any parentage... I read a thread on here somewhere where a guy actually scraped in his son's little 7x import lathe! Probably works pretty darn well now. :)

But if someone is a complete novice at this stuff, then you are swimming in deep water no matter which way you go. There is no rule anywhere that says a used machine from some factory is any tighter or more accurate than a new import. Only two machines I've owned that didn't require 'tuning' to get them accurate: My little South Bend 8k (China made) and my PM1340GT (Taiwan made). I've had to tweak everything else I've owned to get it acceptable to me. But then sometimes that's half the fun to some folks. Take the guys here that spend months or more rebuilding a 60+ year old machine and love not only the process but the end result. :)

If you can find someone who will go shopping with you that knows machines that can help a lot when looking at the used stuff. As for spares, Grizzly and Precision Machine (PM) are about the best for this in the import arena according to most folks here. For older, US stuff you can sometimes find NOS parts or use Ebay if the company is no longer in business. I recently passed up buying a Lagun FT2 after I found how how expensive the replacement parts are for that Spanish import. Really good commercial grade machine, but man, they're really proud of those things when it comes to spare parts...
 
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You should be able to find that if you are patient! Probably within a 20 mile radius ....patience is the key though..... It's a strange market if you don't know what you are looking at though , you can overpay for junk and find great machines priced way below their value. Sometimes those oil encrusted users are a diamond in the rough and the pristine ones are good looking crap. Learn as much as you can about what it takes to be a good machine .....I bought an old SB and it will do everything I need it to , and I won't outgrow it's capabilities. Same with a BP you can find them fairly cheap if you don't mine some overdue maintenance and repairs ...(This is an analogy and not meant to offend).I don't care what you ride ,and I'm glad you do .... I don't care to ride a Chang lin pho , rather have a H-D .....same goes for the machining ...they will all get you from point a to point b .... preference is a good thing....Hey I have old Triumphs too, so I'm not anti-import!.....
 
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