Smithy or other Benchtop Mills/Lathes/CNC

[Cory]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

On the CNC Express from MicroKinetics, it is a round column mill. Not as rigid as square column mills. And while it does claim respectable rapids and feedrates of over 100 IPM, I think it is a bit overpriced for what it is, also considering Y axis travel is limited to 7 inches.

More important than rigidty, I'd say, is the fact that you lose your zero anytime you have to raise or lower a round column head. Since you're going to pay some big money for a CNC mill, I'd avoid these at all costs. The mill they start with before conversion (a Jet JMD-18, or other various identical machines branded differently) is not a great mill to start with.

That Smithy looks pretty nice. I've heard good things about the Tormach as well.

Keep in mind that the smithy and tormach don't have handwheels to allow you to use the machine manually. This may or may not be a big deal.

Is this trailer designed to be a mobile workspace for your team during build, support regional events, or both? If the latter, a CNC mill is going to cost a lot for not much return.

We have a Jet GHB 1340. It's a pretty decent lathe once you put a DRO on it. Without it, it's a major PITA to use (The dials are all metric conversions-ie: one rotation is not a whole number). It isn't all that rigid though. It works well for anything small to medium size.