Posted by Samuel Lindhorst.
Engineer on team #240, Mach Vee, from Jefferson High School and Visteon.
Posted on 9/14/2000 7:48 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Looking for a Smithy posted by Mike Gray on 9/14/2000 3:35 PM MST:
: Smithy is currently having a sale on the Granite and MI-1720 lathe/mill machines. The 1720 swings 17 inches with 20 inches between centers, and its only $1595. It comes with 3 and 4 jaw chucks, and an indexable tool set. They are good machines for the money. Mine is four years old, and I have no complaints.
THAT is a fabulous price for an adequately sized machine to do most robotics work. At least 30% off. I’d buy the Granite, because of the R-8 spindle, and longer bed and give up a little on the maximum swing. Please note to the steady/follow rest costs an extra $190, but even so this is a deal. Smithy also has a deal on a small vert./horiz. band saw for $200.
Cheaper way to go if you ain’t got the cash: go to Production Tool. They have a small combo lathe/mill for about $800. Not as roboust as a Smithy, but for the money a real buy. Has 3 and 4 jaw, and enough swing for most things on a robot. I don’t remember the exact specs, but I remember it came with a steady rest, which can be used to turn things longer than it’s bed.
1-888-396-TOOL, stores all over metro Detroit, main branch in Warren. I’m going to suggest a couple of websites to you too, but there is nothing like going and looking at something in person.
J&L (Livonia, many places in the midwest) has two interesting products - a 9’X20’, full featured lathe with very good build quality and lots of accessories for $900 (stock #JBB-00005-E), and a couple of table top mills. One is for $1200, is 6’x13’ travel, and looks like it’s light enough to travel(MMD-91000-D). The other one is a two HP beefier heavy looking 7’x16’ for $1300(MMD-91025-E). Both mills have an R-8 taper. http://www.jlkdirect.com/
Also www.grizzly.com (Missouri) and www.ipstool.com (Calif.) have neat, cheap stuff.
IPS especially has wonderful bargains in it’s catalog, that are not on the website. Like a $40 belt driven drill press, small enough to take to the regional, and a $70 combo bench belt and disk sander (4x36’ belts and 6’ disks). We use one a lot. IPS also has a very similar machine to the combo mill/lathe I saw at Production tool, but bigger, for $700. It’s a 220v machine. I think IPS is the bargain king.
Grizzly has what looks like the same machine in 120v for $800. Also they sell a $80 benchtop drill press, and a $110 combo sander. My impression is that Grizzly sells slightly better quality stuff, for more money.
What to get? I’d love to have things light and compact enough to take to the competitions. But the problem with combo pieces is: only one person or one project can use it at a time. If my team had to do a robot build exclusively with the stuff we were buying, I’d opt for a separate lathe and mill if we could, unless I had a lot of time burn (we don’t). Throw in a cheap saw, drill press and sander, and 10 people could stay mostly busy all the time.
On the other hand, I dream about the team from New England I saw at the National last spring. They brought their whole machine shop with them (TWO combo machines plus half a dozen other tools), and feared nothing… :o)
Sam