I have certainly found that to be true Brett, and you obviously know a lot more about it than I do. I have been watching E-Bay and using Search Tempest to see what machines sell for on CL back east. I have bought some fairly big stuff from back east before and put the shipping out for bid on U-ship and had pretty good luck, but I don't know anyone back east that I could have look at something for me and tell me if it was a good machine or not. The price differences I see in Seattle and Portland are certainly much higher than what I have seen listed back east.
Augus7us, I would certainly like to find a deal like that. I see that you are in Ohio, and I am guessing that you have a lot more used machinery for sale in your area.
A good friend found a nice used Bridgeport, but it was after more than 5 years of looking, and it was still 1,000 miles away. A small to medium sized mill is something I really want, and have been looking for over a year now. There have been some less popular makes for sale in the Spokane area, but not many. Spokane, for whatever reason, does seem to have more used machinery for sale, but it's still not much. Right now I am really thinking that something like a Grizzly 704 or PM25 might be the way I end up going. Both are supposed to be more substantial than the Sieg X2 variations, and many folks that have owned both have said they are more rigid than the X3. I don't really want a tilting head as I have been told it's not necessary and decreases rigidity, but I haven't found anything similar that has a fixed head. I know the 704 has the plastic gears, but I've read about the belt conversion and it doesn't sound too difficult. I know bigger/more power is always better, but that size seems to hit the sweet spot for me, and I don't mind going a bit slower and taking smaller cuts. I have some 80% lowers and other gun work I would like to do with a mill. I already have a full woodshop full of equipment, and with my son and I taking the knife making hobby fairly seriously, adding something else that could help with that would be cool. We are beyond excited to get our grinder from Brett on the 23rd.
