In article , Harold & Susan Vordos says...

I'm not against horizontal machines, it's just that I couldn't have produced
the work I did without a drop spindle machine. That is likely to be true
of almost everyone. To be limited by a horizontal machine alone would not
be a good thing, depending on the nature of the work at hand. Doing the
nature of work we encounter is more difficult on horizontal machines. Been
there, done that. The other rather major problem is that tooling (cutters
and arbors) is far more expensive than end mills are. How much money
would a home shop type operation care to invest in tools that are seldom
used?

I use my horizontal mostly with end mills. They fit just fine
in the 5C spindle, I use the same collets as my lathe. One
set fits all.

My real point is, in my shop I've got two choices: either
a horizontal, or no milling machine at all (or a crappy
overpriced milling attachment for a lathe - it would cost me
what I paid for the entire milling machine to buy a milling
attachment for a 10L...) or the horizontal I do have.

It may sound like rationalization, but honestly I've come
to love the hardinge for what it can do. And if I can find
nice newish one, I'm going to try to buy one for here at work,
as well. And the same reasons apply: the machine has a
tiny footprint compared with a b'port, and I have to put
a full sized shop in a vestpocket lab.

The one thing I really miss in a milling machine like that
is a quill, for drilling. I figured that problem out
pretty fast though. I bought a drill press!

Jim

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