[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

The lathe is going to be much, much more important than the CNC router. I would prioritize even a crummy Harbor Freight benchtop lathe over a hastily bought router. You can buy all sorts of gussets these days, but making custom shafts, spacers, and all sorts of things is more necessary. I'd put that over anything else on this list.

I would guess this is more dependent on your teams design habits than anything else. For instance, we always design to use COTS shafts and spacers (or shaft collars), but often find the need for machined tubing or plate aluminum for gearboxes and the like.

It seems to me like having the freedom to design a gearbox or sheet metal that requires machining saves a lot more time than having the freedom to use custom shafts/spacers but having to fit your geometric design to COTS parts. Machine geometry is the big time sink for us, and a CNC mill/router would alleviate that a lot more than a lathe. Would you agree?