The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest More useful: Lathe or mill?

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?

Sounds to me like you want to buy the lathe, so go for it. Don't get a combo machine, you will spend most of your time setting up and tearing down. Save your pennies, then you can get an end mill, followed by a bigger lathe, then a vertical mill, by then you will need a bigger shop!

Hey, I already need a bigger shop!

The mrs. and I are talking about jacking up the house and installing a basement, since we live in the city and the property is small. Then I could have my own shop room for metal and woodworking.

I think you have answered your own question there ,, looks like you really want the lathe .
From my experience , the two are completely different tools that compliment each other ,,
I have always found the mill to be the more versitile machine ,, but that will always depend on what you are making .
Oh , yes ,, bigger is definately better .. ..
When choosing the lathe ,, look for the largest hole up the center of the headstock that you can afford.
My preference in a mill is the old but sturdy Bridgeport , a very versitile machine . Add the 3 axis digital readout ....... hmmm ..... and you've really blown the budget , LOL .

4spd - the lathe is probably going to be a better investment from the standpoint that many of the parts that you could make to augment a car or truck project are cheaper to make yourself on a lathe than a mill.

Case in point - if it is a 2D part that can be made on a mill, it can also likely be made on a waterjet or a laser. I have had disk brake brackets made on a laser table in canby oregon for less than $10 a bracket - cheap enough so that when you figure out you shoulda done something a little different, it is easier to toss the brackets in the scrap bin, redraw the bracket, e-mail the file and just have a couple more brackets made - from e-mail to your door in 3 days is typical. Once you get in this mode, it is amazing how many inexpensive parts you can "make" constructed from flat parts cut on a table. (You should see my shop sink surround out of stainless )

Turning on the other hand always involves a setup charge and you have to spend a lot of time detailing surface finishes, radiuses, etc. and if you screw up on the drawing - it is still expensive! I would get the lathe first . . . and if you want to put any kind of DRO on it - drop me an e-mail and I can set you up cheep as I have a lot of surplus stuff laying around from machine tools we have retrofitted over the years.

Most guys seem to start out with a lathe, I think it's easier to learn on as you are always only working with 2 axises. That way you can learn about speeds and feeds on the lathe before you start milling and burning up/breaking end mills. If I could only have 1 machine here, it would definitely be a Bridgeport. I can do plenty of round stuff on a mill, either by using a rotary table for big parts, or by putting smaller parts right in the machine collet and a lathe tool in the vise. Set the tool on center and lock the y-axis, use the x-axis to adjust your part diameter, and the power feed down to turn. In one of the first shops I ever worked in we didn't have a lathe. I had to build a 64-cavity mold all on the mill. The boss told me if I could turn all those cavities (128 pieces total, .750 in dia.) on the mill, we would make enough profit to go buy a nice lathe. So that's what I did. Isn't hard once you get used to it. Especially with a digital read-out. I've never heard anything but bad about the combination type machines. Better off with dedicated machines I think.

Ken, email me the name of the shop in Canby. I am planning on doing a disc brake setup as an upgrade pretty soon, and I have good cad skills.

which ever one you buy there are alot of extra things you will need to buy to use them