Recommendations for purchases

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

Much like cities have Coats for Kids and Bike Rescues, I think we need Lathes for Kids. You really can make just about anything on a lathe in the absence of other tools, and we made so many of them to build things in WWII and thereafter that you can pick up a non-basketcase for $200-$400 and get it running for not a whole lot more and elbow grease.

I find it fascinating all the press that these mini 3D printers get. Really all of these people should be getting a lathe and a mill first, then move onto the 3D printer for really exotic stuff.

After all, they made these without a DRO... or even a computer!

FYI that cut away (or one of them) of the Wasp Major you linked to is in our engine museum here at Pratt & Whitney. Of course we also have bigger cutaways of a JT8D and JT9D turbofan engines and the ones we have here are also animated and can fully rotate.

Back to the topic I agree lathes are good, but I loved having our CNC plasma cutter that we got this year. The whole setup was about $10k which was the 4'x4' CNC table and the cutter head. It was a huge time saver.