"Harold & Susan Vordos" wrote in message
...

I agree in principle with each of you, but practical experience is a great
teacher. One of the hard lessons learned in life is buying something
that
is ill suited to a job, then trying to liquidate it in order to replace it
with a tool that is better suited. The better investment would have been
the proper tool to do the job at the outset. Often times the money is
gone
and the tool simply can't do the job at hand, and has poor resale value,
if
it can be sold at all.

A better financial investment perhaps, but I'm not concerned enough to have
this be the only consideration. If I have to sell the mill/drill if I find
something better, I will. I don't mind spending the time required in order
to educate myself about which small used higher-quality machine will work,
is in my price range, is truly small enough and is being sold by a source
that I trust or is close enough so that I can look at the machine. While
I'm doing that, I can be making things (or trying to) and learning on an
RF30, which is a known entity.

My point is that if a person buys a mini-mill, it is woefully underpowered
and, in general, not really equipped to make parts, regardless of the fact
that they can be placed on the machine table. For example, how about
drilling a ½" or larger hole in steel? Seems like that would be one of
the
things Peter would encounter in his quest to build his projects.

I've come to the same conclusion.

When it comes to a mill drill, I recognize that they are better than
nothing, but they are, at best, a poor compromise for a reasonable milling
machine. The problems with mill drills have been well addressed, and
addressing them yet again in this thread serves little to no purpose.
Resale value isn't great, but then buying new is not all that expensive,
either. I accept that fact that for those that are limited economically,
and perhaps have no prospects of anything better in the future, they are
better than nothing.

It's not a matter of being limited economically with no prospects of
anything better (Jeez, that sounds depressing). I'm trying to find a
reasonable entry point into this "hobby". I've been heavily involved with -
and taught - bicycle racing, music, car racing and other things that require
equipment. I didn't buy the "best" equipment when I got into them because I
didn't know if I needed it, and what my level of long term interest and
competancy was going to be. I believe that there is a point of diminishing
returns for most things. I'm not yet convinced that for my needs, the
Bridgeport is the point of diminishing return.

I'm a jazz musician and there a ton of players that believe that one needs a
$8,000 guitar in order to make good music. My 30 year old $1,500 guitar
feels and sounds like a $8,000 guitar, but I wouldn't have recognized this
guitar had I not owned and played a lot of other guitars. Those guitars
weren't what I wanted ultimately, but I learned a ton by playing them. I'm
sure that the equivilent of my guitar exists in the mill world. But I don't
yet know enough to recognize the used mill I need when I see it. Maybe
after hacking around on an RF30 for a year or so, I will. Or I may be
satisfied with what I have. BTW, I've got a bunch of guitars, all with
different purposes. You can never have too many - it's just like machine
tools.


I used my Bridgeport for gain, mostly building tooling for the aero-space
industry. I consider it the absolute minimum machine one could own and
get
reasonable results. I do not look at the Bridgeport as a great machine,
but, like in your case, it was the minimum I found acceptable in order to
accomplish my mission. No way in hell could I have done my work with a
mill drill. Maybe now that I'm no longer working for gain I might see it
differently, but I still have the Bridgeport and wouldn't give the idea a
second thought as long as I do. I still do not recommend mill drills,
and
for many reasons.

I'm not going to be making my living at this and I don't think I can fit a
Bridgeport in my garage. I live in San Francisco and my house was built 90
years ago. Garages just weren't a priority. There may very well be a small
Bridgeport or other high quality mill in my future. Using an RF 30 will
play an important role in learning enough to make an intelligent choice on
the "point of diminishing return" machine - assuming that for me the RF30
isn't it.

Regards,

Peter