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That's an ingenious design, and I get building it as a hack, but old manual machine tools aren't that expensive. I have seen large (16"+ swing 48"+ travel) lat

That's an ingenious design, and I get building it as a hack, but old manual machine tools aren't that expensive. I have seen large (16"+ swing 48"+ travel) lathes sell for under $1000 regularly. A couple of observations about old machine tools. 1. The manual machines are really only used by hobbyists anymore. This is less true for Bridgeport mills (almost every shop has one) and manual lathes. For one off jobs which are always needed in a shop, it's much quicker to perform on a manual machine vs a CNC. Manual lathes tend to have a larger work envelope than common CNC lathes. 2. Price doesn't scale with machine size, often the opposite. Bridgeports are universal and in every shop, larger mills less so. A Bridgeport weighs 2000 lbs and sell for $1500-$5000, when you get into 6000+ lb manual machines, they sometimes sell for $500-$3000. The reason is that they are no longer used in production and they are too big for most hobbyists. Moving larger machines is much more difficult. North of 6000 lbs, it is very difficult to haul the machine without a CDL (CDLs are generally required when the trailer is 10K+). Riggers (the craftsmen who load the machine onto a trailer) and transport can cost more than the machine itself. 3. Tooling (drill bits, lathe tools, mills, fixtures) is frequently much more expensive than the machine itself. Finding a machine with tooling is a really good call. 4. There are great deals on machines in the midwest. I scan the detroit and chicago craigslist in particular. 5. Kearney and Trecker milling machines are super cool. They are noted for being the pinnancle of machine tool engineering - all done mechanically [1]. 6. For lathes the top brands are probably Monarch and Axleson, followed by mid tiers like Clausing, Leblonde. 7. For all machines, the machinist is more important than the brand of the tool. 8. Avoid older CNC machines, parts are hard to get and expensive. I would be afraid of any CNC machine made before probably 1995. 9. Rigging equipment is pretty cool and necessary for running any type of shop. People do all kinds of cool machine moves with combinations of pallet jacks (~$100 - lifts 5000 lbs), hoists, anchors, Egyptian rolling bars, digging bars, machine skates, and engine hoists. [2] [3] Hire a rigger though. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kANvdzoVUfw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kANvdzoVUfw [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx80iYfgXkY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx80iYfgXkY [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjksLl9xur0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjksLl9xur0

jws 8y ago
Patience, a 9’ pry lever, some iron pipe for rollers, and a stack of 2x6 cut offs will handle moving pretty much any machine around the shop. (A pry lever is a long lever with a pair of small sturdy wheels to act as a fulcrum and a short metal tang to jam under equipment. Mine gives me maybe a 2” lift for a 5’ sweep of the handle, so something like a 30:1 advantage.) Mostly it is just lift-pivot-lower repeated many times to walk a machine along. For longer distances I’ll get it aimed right and up on rollers. For raising or lowering you need an assistant to put the cribbing in or out, but raising a ton of lathe 2 feet to work on the motor underneath is pretty easy, just always have secure cribbing in place so it can’t fall.

jws 8y ago

Patience, a 9’ pry lever, some iron pipe for rollers, and a stack of 2x6 cut offs will handle moving pretty much any machine around the shop. (A pry lever is a long lever with a pair of small sturdy wheels to act as a fulcrum and a short metal tang to jam under equipment. Mine gives me maybe a 2” lift for a 5’ sweep of the handle, so something like a 30:1 advantage.) Mostly it is just lift-pivot-lower repeated many times to walk a machine along. For longer distances I’ll get it aimed right and up on rollers. For raising or lowering you need an assistant to put the cribbing in or out, but raising a ton of lathe 2 feet to work on the motor underneath is pretty easy, just always have secure cribbing in place so it can’t fall.