Anyone have personal experience with combo lathe and mill?

Tanguay Custom Knives

Tanguay Custom Knives

Joined
Jun 15, 2003
Messages
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Does anyone have any personal experience with this Grizzly lathe and mill combo? My shop is almost complete, with the exception of a lathe and mill. I have a family, so obviously, cost is a factor (when isn't it right!).

I've used plenty of different lathes and milling machines in my career, but only once a versa-mill, and never Grizzly's products. I own a few of their grinders, and they're ok, but not great. I use a mill for finger choils, fullers, sawteeth, and milling handle scales, and a lathe for polishing, making pins, etc. Nothing heavy duty or extremely precise. I also do some light gunsmithing like drilling and tapping for scopes and sights, etc. I'd also like to venture into making folders in the not too distant future too. I've looked at quite a bit of used stuff locally, but so far nothing fits. Its either totally run down, too large, 3 phase, etc. Any opinions?
Thanks Alot,
Scott
 
Wow!, Glad I caught this one!

Friends don't let friends buy combo machines ;)

Seriously. For most of what you describe doing, a mill would be much more useful than a lathe. I would consider a Griz table top knee mill way before a combo machine. In a perfect world, you could find a nice South Bend 9" lathe and a mill like that Index at the garage sale just down the block, but some guys aren't that lucky. Virtually every person I've ever spoken with that owned a combo machine has complained about the compromises involved. Sure, you can do some awesome work on one, as long as you don't mind working around the machine's limitations. I'd opt for a mill/drill as a stand alone machine, and wait for a del on a small lathe before jumping on one of them combo thingies.

Don't let three phase scare you off. There's a variety of not too expensive ways to skin the power cat. A simple $100.00 Phase o Matic solid state device will run most single machines under 2HP. That's what's on my Bridgeport. For a few more bucks you can build or buy a rotary phase converter that will provide better three phase power than the Phase o Matic and will run several machines. Check out the Phase Converter forum here:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi

There's a wealth of info on that site.
 
Friends don't let friends buy combo machines .

Amen to that!!!!
I bought one of Harbor Freight's multi machines a few years back and it was a piece of junk. Couldn't do anything right on it. I ended up with a nice Harbor Freight variable speed milling machine and lathe and they worked great.
 
J. Macdonald and the boys are absolutely right!

I too was unfortunate enough to get (as a gift) a brand-new HF combo mill/lathe. It is a horrifying piece of junk. I ended up dismantling the thing and throwing it away in the trash piece by piece.
 
Well let's make it unanimous - Stay away! I too have an HF combo machine and it's been nothing but a pain in the keester. I still use it because after all, I went through urban hell getting it into my basement, and because it's all I have, but wouldn't buy another one. Ever. One of these days I'll get a decent tabletop mill and get that other thing out of the way. (Never thought of taking it apart and hauling it outta there - that's a great idea!)
 
Holy crap am I glad I asked you guys! I was just about to pull the trigger! I've worked in and around machine shops in one way or another since I was 15. I've run dozens of lathes and mills, but only once a versa-mill. That was almost 20 years ago in the Navy.

OK! My mind is made up. Two seporate machines.

J Macdonald, Thanks for the info!

Thanks again!
Scott
 
Lmaooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
Didn't leave any doubt with this one did we?
 
mlovett,
Thanks for the link. That's one of the ones I've been looking at. The model just below that one is on ebay set to end in 3 days. Its about a 200 mile drive, but if the price is right!

Just got a lead on an Atlas lathe today too. The guy didn't know machines, and it was his brother's. He supposed to email me pics tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed!
 
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