I am getting my annual bonus from work next week and I'm thinking of buying a real power tool, either a metal lathe or milling machine. I'm thinking small- the mini kind. I'm trying to decide which would be more useful. I know if I get the lathe all my work will be round, but there are some things I want to do that are. I figure if I get the lathe I can make a basic mill out of my extra drill press. I can make good screws with the lathe (I would get one with power feed and indexing) to get nice fine control and modify a cross-slide vise for finer control to make an ok mill. I don't have the money or desire for a combination machine, so which do you guys think is more useful?
My interests for projects are making clocks out of wood and metal. I also want to design an electronic speedometer/odometer that will fit into an AD housing and look stock from the outside. I also want to put disc brakes on my truck and need to make adaptors of the round variety. I don't mind spending a lot of time with a file and vise to make other non round things that I want, so I'm leaning toward the lathe. Any opinions?
