Peter DiVergilio wrote:
looked at a Smithy 3 in 1 today for $500. Not too bad shape, not much for
tooling, some gears, 3 jaw chuck and steady rest only - I passed, but am
still curious. There are no model or serial numbers present. The plate is
there. but there has never been a serial number stamped on it. The only
model info I could see was a "T" over an"A" on the mill/drill head. Made in
China. No paperwork with it - fellow bought it used -seems to work O.K.
Anyone able to come up with more information from this sketchy (at best)
description? Should I rush back and buy it?

I have a Smithy AT-300 that I've had for over ten years and am still
happily using it.

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. "