I was thinking of cobbling something together; but it has to go down
the basement stairs. Otherwise I would just buy a bridgeport,
universal or convert a horizontal mill.

Buy a good used clausing 8540 horizontal mill and add a bridgport
head. you can make a great combo machine for a decent price.

The rockwell knee mill is also the prefect size for a basement
workshop. Comes apart for moving. Two people moved mine into
the basement is about 4-5 hours.

chuck