[Matt Reiland]

Originally Posted by Doug G

We got a Smithy Granite last year and it was a huge step up for us in terms of what we can now do (from hacksaws and hand drills). I agree completely with Dave that you must be prepared for the tooling costs. I think we've now spent more on tooling than on the original machine (4-Jaw Chuck, Rotary Table/Indexer, DRO, End mills, Collets, .....).

As far as Smithy quality - so far I've been impressed. The only trouble we've noticed is that the tolerances on the lathe are only +/- .002 on a good day and usually +/- .005 So much of it depends on how well you setup your pieces. We have had a retired machinist come in and show the students a lot of the basics.

Don't forget to reserve some $$ for quality measuring instruments and tools. Calipers, dial indicator, plunge indicator, Last Word, center/edge finder and their respective holders and bases.

Now I just need about two or three more, because during competition we have about 3-4 jobs lined up at any one time to get done on the mill. It's real easy to go over board with all this machining stuff, you keep saying things like "we'll just bore it open ourselves" and "we can make our own bearing pillow mounts". Remember this during the design process!

I have a Smithy 1220XL Ltd and I can vouch that the accuracy of the factory ACME screws was terrible on my machine. I did upgrade mine to CNC and it was plain unacceptable. Just over the summer I upgraded the X and Y to Ball Screws myself from stock that I bought from MCMaster at quite a deal. Used a dial indicator and the transformation is Night-N-Day as far as accuracy. I think the machine overall isn't bad, just the screws on it suck especially since the brass half nuts on mine wore out so fast from the milled slots to support the power crossfeed. I did lose the power crossfeed but with the Ball Screw setup but I can get that with the Y CNC motor if I really need it.