[TheForge] advice needed: beginner machinist

Thu Oct 3 22:20:01 2002

i appreciate your words... in response, i now question whether a combo
machine is really necessary.. is there anything that a combo machine can do
that a seperate lathe or mill can't?
- Loren

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Vida" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 12:07 PM
Subject: RE: [TheForge] advice needed: beginner machinist

its a combo mill/lathe made by grizzly industries. ive had good luck with
grizzly machines, and i'm willing to try something like this from them. plus
they have a showroom north of me where i can just pick it up.

I'm not a big fan of combination machines, but their value depends on
what you are looking to accomplish in terms of quality.  Such machines
are not going to hold very high tolerances, but that can be alright if
you do not require such.  What's more significant is the repeatability.
If you have a machine that is consistently sloppy, let's say 0.0015",
you can still do decently.  But if the repeatability is not there,
you will have problems producing passable work.  These combination
machines are pretty well a crap shoot in this regard, from what I have
seen of them, which isn't that much because they do not interest me.

Another concern I would have is longevity in terms of wear.

what i'd like to know is, if this would be a reasonable machine for learning
on, as well as having the capacity for most tasks i put upon it.

It may be OK to learn on, but if you get serious, I would bet my money
that you may become quickly dissatisfied with it.  It's hard to tell,
not knowing you, your goals, etc.

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