marka12161
Stainless
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2016
- Location
- Oswego, NY USA
As a hobbyist, I've carefully considered the warning that "the tooling can cost as much or more as the machine". The lathe and shaper are fairly economical as high speed steel is very affordable but the horizontal mill is another story. I think i've done a good job outfitting the shop by continuously trolling craigslist and jumping on machinery as it comes up. However on those few occasions that i've bought up "large-ish" lots of tooling i fear that I've bought stuff i'll not likely ever use. Which brings me to my question (or maybe just an observation), There seem to be two schools of thought on accumulating tooling:
1. You never know what you'll need so when bargains present themselves, jump on them and build up an inventory of stuff so when you need it, you have it.
2. Only buy what you need when you need it. This basically means buy new stuff. The upside is you won't need to store a bunch of stuff you may never need, and the stuff you get will be new rather than the inevitable occasional worn out or damaged stuff that you get when you buy up old lots.
Given my affinity for old things, i've kind of been a proponent of approach #1 but it seems every time i bring in a box of old stuff i find myself cornering the market in evapo-rust and degreaser and when i'm all done cleaning away the decades of grime, i'm left scratching my head where to store the stuff and then, when i solve the storage problem, i promptly forget what i have.
So, what are the thoughts of the cognoscenti?
1. You never know what you'll need so when bargains present themselves, jump on them and build up an inventory of stuff so when you need it, you have it.
2. Only buy what you need when you need it. This basically means buy new stuff. The upside is you won't need to store a bunch of stuff you may never need, and the stuff you get will be new rather than the inevitable occasional worn out or damaged stuff that you get when you buy up old lots.
Given my affinity for old things, i've kind of been a proponent of approach #1 but it seems every time i bring in a box of old stuff i find myself cornering the market in evapo-rust and degreaser and when i'm all done cleaning away the decades of grime, i'm left scratching my head where to store the stuff and then, when i solve the storage problem, i promptly forget what i have.
So, what are the thoughts of the cognoscenti?