mini mill / lathe

[harry hills]

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster...-sx2-mini-mill

Price is high but IMO, its mostly worth it. I work hardox and toolox with this thing, so it has some balls for a child sized mill. The extra 200 or so other x2 mills is kind of worth paying because its deathly deathly quiet and there are no gears to shred. Its fantastic.

Grab a cheap carbide insert face mill, and a collet chuck set (I got mine for £30, 8 collets) and use random ebay tooling with a few nicer carbide endmills I pick up here and there. Boring head is a fun toy but not entirely necessary for starting out. RDG tools sell some great stuff at a decent price.

Work area is small though, but featherweight parts can be easily machined on it with a bit of ghetto rigging.

[Liftoff]

Reviving an old thread for some advice :

Been a long while mulling over buying a lathe and milling, now will defo need one for the coming build - so the question is - a combi lathe/milling or separate lathe and milling?

I'm looking at Warco as they seem to have the best specced lathes for the price you pay. I'm leaning more towards a combi as its compact and will take less garage space ( got to fit two cars plus workshop space for myself), but on the other hand I dont want to spend money on something which would have limited use.
These are the options:

Lathe WM280V
http://www.warco.co.uk/metal-lathes-...80v-lathe.html

Combi mill WM16
http://www.warco.co.uk/milling-machi...n-machine.html

or Mill WM16
http://www.warco.co.uk/milling-machi...g-machine.html

[maddox10]

I'm less enthousiast about combination machines. I had a combo machine, and not a bad one, but the transition to do the job right and the fact you can't use it as a mill when doing lathe work, and visa versa.

I'm glad I changed to 2 seperate machines.

But as you say, with space at a premium, the advantage is clear.

[shakesc]

From my perspective I have a Amadeal lathe. It was around 500 quid and you have to spend time setting it up. I dont have a mill but will be getting one. I wouldnt go for the combined machines. Reading the engineering forums, mags etc its not the way to go

What I would do different
1. I would spend more money on the lathe but not hugely more (at least if feathers and some heavy was my main focus). Something like a WM 250V would be a big upgrade from where I am
2. Making gearboxes, bulkheads and the like a mill would be hugely useful and thats where I would put my money first. I would love to stretch to the Warco turret milling machine but a WM16 or WM18 standalone machine seems decent

[Liftoff]

Exactly my concerns, if it's a hassle to alternate from lathe to milling might as well go for stand alone - will have to find a corner for it.
Or maybe if it's possible to purchase the table separately I could try with the combi first and convert to stand alone mill at a later stage?

[shakesc]

I havent seen any conversion kits myself for combi to standalone. Not sure it would be economic

[Liftoff]

What I mean is the WM16 milling attachment from warco looks like a standard WM16 milling machine minus the table. So if I could purchase the table separately I would first get a combi lathe, then if not happy with it I could get the table later...
Come to think of it, it's only round about £200 difference so it would be worth while get them separate and find some space for it, the mill will be a problem as it will take up more space than its actual size.