I love CL...shop tools upgrade!

So tonite I went to take a look at a Smithy 3 in 1 drill/mill/lathe listed cheeeeeap on CL. I didnt have my hopes up but it was worth checking out.

Score! The seller was a realtor and these things were left in a garage he was selling. No real idea of worth and no care, just wanted them gone. I commented on the nice metal band saw sitting next to it and he threw it in for free.

I don't have any idea how to use the darn thing, but I've been wanting to learn some minor machining so I've looked at these units and cheaper knockoffs before but never could justify the price. This was cheap enough to be a good learning exercise.

So my machinists friends out there....where do I start ( I need some basic tooling )

Killer. I do wish I had the patience to browse CL with some consistency...

Super nice score dude

you must be livin' right

Indeed. I scored these two, plus a new 6" grinder and a big pile of steel for a little less than half the price of the lathe when new last month. I spent a little less than $100 buying new gears, a belt, and a new cross-slide leadscrew. After adjusting and leveling... she holds .0005 easily.

Here.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRHM

They have a good selection of tooling at fairly reasonable prices.

All the rest of my links are on the computer at home. I'll try to get some of them on here tonight.

This is like finding a 356 in a barn. The seller has no idea of the value? How awesome is that!

oh my I do hate you ...lol in an envious I wish it were me sorta way. NIce score...thats a pretty stout machine...will be great for fabricating!

Nice score. I agree with going to Enco for tooling. They are like the Harbor Freight of machinist tools. If you weren't 3 states away I'd come over and help learn you some things about making chips.

nickel_dime wrote: Nice score. I agree with going to Enco for tooling. They are like the Harbor Freight of machinist tools. If you weren't 3 states away I'd come over and help learn you some things about making chips.

Yep, Im gonna need lots of learnin'. But it's something I've always wanted to try so I'm looking forward to it. Most of its practical use for me will probably just be turning things down a size or enlarging inner bores of things but the few times you need to do those things you long for the tools to do it (at a better level than a dremel)

Waiting to hear from the seller, when I asked about tooling he didnt know what it was. He said there was a bunch of stuff left over at the garage and he would look around next time he was there. I gotta imagine there is probably a box there with tooling somewhere.

I still have to build a stand for it and a bunch of other things so I can wait him out a bit.

Stop by the local scrap yard and get you some round stock and plate aluminum. Stop by Harbor Freight and pick up a set of their cheap tool steel bits and a set of digital calipers. That will give you a good start.

Links to come later. I've got to take the boys to Scouts.