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lakerH

Plastic
Joined
Dec 8, 2021
Good evening. I am currently running a Tormach 1100M at a custom firearm manufacturer I am working for. I have been building my personal shop for about two years and am looking for a manual mill with DRO and manual lathe with DRO. I have 200amps dedicated to the shop but only single phase. I have build phase converters for the three phase wood working equipment I have but would like to stick with single phase if possible. Suggestions on what machines to look for, used or new. Size wise, growing into it would be better than being to small later. Id like to buy once and have something quality that will last forever. I am new to manual mills and lathes. I have much to learn but I have hope to increase my knowledge and skills. thanks
 
Too open-ended a question. It's like asking "I need a new vehicle".

New or used? What's the used market like locally? For the lathe what size a through-bore do you need? For a mill, how big a table? What's your budget? What sort of accuracy do you need to keep? What sort of materials do you need to cut?

New, you're limited to either Asian imports, a few expensive American brands, or a small selection of European.

Used is "whatever you can find".

Personally, I'd probably try and find a decent used Bridgeport or similarly sized mill from Lagun or one of the better-regarded Asian makers/importers. For a lathe, I'd check a few dealers and see if I couldn't find a decent American make- South Bend, Logan, Sheldon, Cincinnati, Lodge & Shipley, Monarch, Hardinge, etc.

Doc.
 
What do you have against phase converters? I would stay away from anything single phase, it will limit what you can buy and you will be a lot happier with 3 phase mills and lathes over single phase counter parts.
 
Check out home hobby machinist on Facebook. You may be able to see what others are using and get an idea of what you want.
 
Good evening. I am currently running a Tormach 1100M at a custom firearm manufacturer I am working for. I have been building my personal shop for about two years and am looking for a manual mill with DRO and manual lathe with DRO. I have 200amps dedicated to the shop but only single phase. I have build phase converters for the three phase wood working equipment I have but would like to stick with single phase if possible. Suggestions on what machines to look for, used or new. Size wise, growing into it would be better than being to small later. Id like to buy once and have something quality that will last forever. I am new to manual mills and lathes. I have much to learn but I have hope to increase my knowledge and skills. thanks

Depending on your budget and what kind of space you have, I have a really nice Bridgeport and know of a couple different lathes available in the Detroit area?

Kevin
 
The is an old saying in auto racing: Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go son?

The same applies to your question. How much money have you got to throw at this?
 
I would recommend 3 phase with a VFD for each machine. Stay under 5hp and cost is under 200 each. 200 is probably less then the premium to get single phase machine. A three phase machine was probbaly higher quality when new but it may have been run harder in it's life.
Do you need metric?
Bill D
 
Good evening. I am currently running a Tormach 1100M at a custom firearm manufacturer I am working for. I have been building my personal shop for about two years and am looking for a manual mill with DRO and manual lathe with DRO. I have 200amps dedicated to the shop but only single phase. I have build phase converters for the three phase wood working equipment I have but would like to stick with single phase if possible. Suggestions on what machines to look for, used or new. Size wise, growing into it would be better than being to small later. Id like to buy once and have something quality that will last forever. I am new to manual mills and lathes. I have much to learn but I have hope to increase my knowledge and skills. thanks

Buy the machine you need. You can always add a DRO and change the motor out to a single phase later. I have 1 Bridgeport that has a 3 phase that I run off a small phase add box. I purchased a American lathe that came from GM I took out the 20 horse 440v and put in a 10 horse single phase 240v. But we also have several 3 phase machines with rotory phase. I added DROs to 1 lathe and 1 Bridgeport.
 
May not matter for your purposes, but single phase power on a lathe in particular will make poorer surface finishes..
Has to do with the phase strobing. Exception would be the Monarch EE where the single phase is rectified to produce DC power for the spindle..Makes for a very smooth spindle.

Money and space have lots to do with what you choose.
Older iron (lathe) often tends to be a bit larger than most of the pacific rim imports,which is your best bet if going new.

More money on the outset...I would be going with a Phase Perfect to get shop wide three phase...Can supply every machine in your shop with no need to change over switching gear
or motors..... https://www.phasetechnologies.com/products/phase-perfect
If you are like most of us , once you start with acquiring machines, it generally accelerates and you end up with more, bigger , better....This is where the PP will pay off.

As to a Vertical mill, already mentioned Bridgeport (pay premium for the mane IMO) There are good imports that mimic or exceed the BP in price and performance.
R-8 spindles (not my personal choice) are prevalent here and easy to tool up.
Kondia, Lagun, Acer..are just a few that will provide a good solid turret style vertical mill.

Cheers Ross
 








 
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