Come on Mark... just google mini lathe mini lathe 196,000 hits via google..
realistically, there are about 25-30 sites that are very good.

TONS AND TONS of info out there. Google Minilathe and Sherline via the
"search groups" command.. even more "pro and con" commments from the peanut
gallery. And, these are REAL people with REAL life/use comments... not just
some marketing hack.

If you want to go a "better" than Sherline that will still fit in yo ur
one bedroom apt, , look at the Prazi lathe from Germany. Cost wise about
1.5x and maybe a 1.5x betterlathe. But in reality, it is the person behind
the controls that makes a part fit.

And now, with your add'l info, we can start to make some recco's:

And I think you are right... the Sherline may be the best bet for you.
Right out of the box, it will work. The minimill and mini lahte need some
tweaking and I don't think you are up to that yet. (give yourself about 3-6
months, though and you easily could be)

Since you are doing "shirt pocket projectz" you can will do very excellent
work with the Sherline lathe and mill.

Looke at the book Table Top Machiniing by Joe Martin... excellent reference
for the beginner.

Good luck... keep posting with specific detailed questions and you will get
a ton of info back...

Steve


"Mark Healey" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 08:00:32 -0600, Steve Koschmann wrote:


"Mark Healey" wrote in message
news
As I've been bemoaning my lack of access to a proper metal shop I've
come
to realize that about 80% of the milling and lathing could be done on
table top machines.

I've never done any metal machining but to my untrained eye the Serline
products look pretty good (and their CNC software is GPLed).

Opinions?



--
Mark Healey
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com


HI Mark:

This is a very generic question with not really enough info to answer
properly.

Bob's "kind of short" retort is not really meant to turn you off
metalworking (he is a good guy, usually with very good comments and
posts)
but you need to do some work too.

Like:
What are you making -- big stuff, small stuff?

Mostly small. Things I could fit in my pocket.


How much space do you have?

Very little, A 1 bedroom apartment.

How much money do youo have?

It depends on what I want to forgo. I'm planning to sell a 71 vw Type 3
which should yield me about U$1,500, and I can add to that if I have to.

Have you done a google search on Sherline?
Have you checked out the mini mills and mini lathes from all the
suppliers?

Hence the question. Serline is the only one I can find any detailed
information on.


--
Mark Healey
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com