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Originally Posted by GeeTwo
Wow. A rookie team already considering both a lathe and a mill. We're entering year five, and aren't seriously considering either. I'm not familiar with Grizzly, but as far as bandsaws and drill presses are considered, I can say don't bother with the cheap ones. I expect that this is even more true for lathes and mills.
To borrow a phrase from my days at the stable, FRC tools are "rode hard and put up wet". Within a year in the hands of high schoolers, our Ryobi tabletop band saw was significantly less functional (not to mention precise) than our DeWalt "portaband", and our Ryobi tabletop drill press (same model as I have at the house and do reasonably nice things with) wasn't worthy to serve aboard the Millennium Falcon. Both are in the junk yard. I don't know if there is a sweet spot or where it is, but low end power tools are definitely not it.
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The Seig-style mills and lathes are in wide use and are very popular with hobbyists. They are capable of holding good tolerances.
As a rookie team I would want a drill press, bandsaw, sander, and the Vexpro gussets. But once the year is up having a mill and lathe available is extremely handy, and opens up whole new worlds of parts.
We have a couple cheap drill presses (Craftsman), and I have to say they're not bad. The runout on the mini one that's been around several years is definitely under 1/64" (haven't measured it, haven't needed to). As long as new students are supervised while running it and don't do anything too demanding (large holesaws in steel?) I think even a cheap drill press can work for a while.
That being said I agree that bandsaws are not good to get cheap. We have not had luck with cheap bandsaws at all. Whenever possible I try to just use the massive portamatic bandsaw we have in the woodshop.
EDIT: I would recommend against the G4000 however. It's $1000 and I think you'll very rarely make use of the full 9x19 size. Something like a 7x12 or 7x16 would be good to save money for a 5c collet chuck and collets to hold hex stock accurately. The mill looks good (yay DROs!) but with a week to go until build begins it might be prudent to wait on buying until the end of build, when you can learn to use it properly.