One tool/machine to level up a moderate shop

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Monochron

anywhere from a couple hundred to a little over a thousand is reasonable.

That's not a big budget, frankly: This puts you in the very small hobbyist market or the used smaller machine market, at best. You can never tell, though: I've seen full-size (many-thousand-dollar) milling machines given for free because it is for robotics.

For your specific needs, I really can only be generic: I would need to see what you build now to identify from which capabilities you may best benefit. Maybe you can do this yourself, or enlist someone unfamiliar with your team (but familiar with machining or constructing things) to take a close look.

That being said: Well, the top 2 are there because they are the most useful.

Data point: At home I have a lathe and mill. I make a LOT more things with the lathe. I find that I can almost always make things that might have been milled...without the mill.

Data point: A lathe for $1k is no problem. A mill for $1k is iffy. Both include tooling.