jim rozen wrote:

I thought there was a regular here (Ted maybe?) who
swore by Smithy three-in-ones.

'twas me. I bought an AT-300 about ten years ago. I still have it, use
it and enjoy it. I've post this before but I'll repeat it he
"
About ten years ago I had to repair a riding mower (parts were no longer
available) or buy a new one for a couple grand. I felt I would rather
buy a
lathe than a mower and fix the mower. I'd been wanting my own lathe for
a
looooooong time. I mentioned this to my neighbour who pulled out an
experimental/homebuilt airplane mag and showed me a Smithy add. This
would
give me a lathe AND a mill for about what I expected to pay for a
lathe. My
wife pointed out that if we got the Smithy, I could go to a proffesional
machine shop for the odd job that was too big/fine/accurate/whatever for
my
own machine. If this happened more than a couple of times, I could
always
sell the Smithy and get something bigger/better. I bought the Smithy in
'91 or
'92 (forget which) - haven't been to the pro shop yet. Numerous things
have
been improved on the machine. See Smithymods.txt at
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...Smithymods.txt
"

Also
"
As a teenager, I had an elderly South Bend which I had to sell when my
folks
(with me in tow) moved to an apartment. As a math-physics senior and
physics
grad student in university I had access to the Physics Dept work shop
where
they had three SB lathes for student use. I don't recall more than one
or two
projects I could complete without an awfull lot of handwork due to the
lack of
a mill. Once you get into machining, you will be surprised at how soon
you
lust after a mill.

Over 10 years ago I bought a Smithy 3-in-1 which I still have and
constantly
use. Despite the screams of protest from the "buy old 'muricun iron"
crowd, I
have enjoyed my Smithy, still do and expect to continue doing so. It
might be
nice to have bigger lathe (like my friends Colchester) and a Bridgeport
but I
have neither the space nor the money for them. Meanwhile my projects
keep
getting done on the ol' Smithy. If you want to see a couple, check out
http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/paint/paint.html
http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/toolholder/toolholder.html
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/_2001_retired_files/CYLHEAD.TXT
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/_2000_retired_files/BANDSAW.txt
and particularly
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/_2000_retired_files/BANDSAW5.jpg

Pushing the envelope:
http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/Prop_speed_reducer.pdf

Any contacts I've had with the company have been quite satisfactory. I
recommended the Smithy to a friend who bought the model that came after
the AT-300. He, too, was and is happy with his machine.

I will concede that _good_ separates are better than any 3-in-1 if you
can afford both the money and the space but I'm managing quite nicely
with my Smithy.

Ted