On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 21:42:40 -0700, "Bullfrog"
wrote:

Say guys, I'm tired of hand tools and want to get a real machine tool
besides my drill press. Strictly hobby and shop. Which would you buy first,
a lath or a mill?

BOTH!! When faced with the same question, my neighbour showed me an add
for a Smithy 3-in-1. Not ideal but given limited money and space, I
went for it. No regrets after 10+ years.

I've posted these comments before (and probably will again) but they may
be relevent to your situation.

"
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/to...oolholder.html
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...es/CYLHEAD.TXT
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...es/BANDSAW.txt and
particularly
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...s/BANDSAW5.jpg
for one that I thought might force me to "the machine shop" but didn't,
see
http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/...ed_reducer.pdf

Whatever, enjoy!
"
Also:
"
About ten years ago I set out to buy a lathe. At the time I was living
in North Vancouver, BC, Canada. I watched the local papers, checked the
local dealers, etc. Nothing worth having.

We had started on building our retirement home in the Okanagan valley
and were travelling back and forth, frequently via Seattle. So I
included Seattle and Portland (not *that* much further). Same result.
I could afford to spend maybe as much as a month on this because I had a
repair job that would become a problem in about that time. I could
either spend a couple grand on a machine and tooling or replace the
problem item for about the same amount of money. You can guess where my
preference lay.

While in the Okanagan, my neighbour showed me an add for Smithy in
Kitplane magazine. At that time, Smithy still had a facility in the
Dalles, OR so we decided to go take a look. I liked what I saw. This
was going to get me a mill and a lathe for what I was prepared to pay
for a lathe. I was somewhat concerned about the size of, particularly,
the mill.

My wife made an interesting and fateful comment, "Buy the Smithy. If it
proves to be too small, too inaccurate, too whatever, take the job to a
machine shop. If that happens more than a couple of times, sell the
Smithy and get something else."

Ten years have past. I still haven't been to the "machine shop" except
to scrounge or buy off cuts. I've always been able to get my stuff done
with a little ingenuity. YMMV.
"