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yourdaddyjoe · Supporting Member

I have an extra 4" XY vise I bought for the little press... I just don't use it if someone wants to pay the shipping and say, $25 bucks for it...

yourdaddyjoe · Supporting Member

Hey Jax,

Here are a couple of thoes drill press operations you don't want your shop teacher to see...

Side cutting...

Double Boring...

End Milling... Plastic is fun...

Jaxom · Senior Member

What shop teacher? I went to a private "college prepratory" highschool. Instead of having shop or automechanics like my public school friends had, we had classes like Humanities, advanced physics, and freshman college level socialogy/psyhc classes.

Everything I've learned about that deals with tools, I learned from my grandfather, friends that went to public school, TV, or books. Only offical class I had was in welding, and that was a disaster, didn't even bother to teach me how to read the welding symbols. But I can do a mean horitzonal stick weld on 1/4" steel! LOL

Seriously though, Joe, what would you recommend? I'm just at the tinkering stage of things. I've a few projects that I'm going to have to machine my own parts, because, well they're of my own invention. Can't exactilly go to a store and by a part for something that's never been built before, eh?

For the most part, we're talking about small parts. Although one project that I have in mind, I would be working on air gun rifle barrels. (nothing you make, so don't think I'm gonna steal any biz from you!) And that'd be for myself anyways, nothing I'd wanna start selling anywho.

Let's just say, for now, to get my welding buisness going I need to invest more into those type of tools. Benders, sheers, twisters, heck I don't even have a stand mounted grinder yet! Would be nice to have one of those fancy auto shade helmets too! Kinda hard to justify spending over $500 for a tool that's going to mainly be used for hobby items, when I need multiple tools costing well over $1000 to get biz going.

One good thing about Harbor Frieght, since they opened their stores, is they're notoriously known for fantastic prices on returned, dented, dinged items. Most welders build their own carts, not me! I got mine from them for 1/4 of what it would have costed for the steel alone! Not bad, eh?

Question is, even if I bought a lathe at half or quarter the normal price, would it be worth it? It certainly won't be if it just sits because it won't do what I need or want it to do, right? How would I know if it can?

yourdaddyjoe · Supporting Member

Jax,

Sorry to hear about the education... Mr. Green

Some public schools have advantages... & Grandpa's make the best teachers.

I started off with the drill press... It is the work horse of my shop.. Then I built up from there... . Now I have two… One for the ruff stuff and a precision one… Just make sure you "Need" the machine before you buy it... I have made the mistake of buying tools that I really did not need and it hurts the bottom line and is non productive...

Craigslist.org is a great resource for used tools. I bought my Rexnard ½” 6 speed drill press for $50.00... It is HS shop quality for a bench top... The guy offered to throw in a new B&D Dragster belt sander for another $10.00... I took it of course. Then turned around and sold the sander on craigslist for $75...
Bottom line... It's like he paid me $15 bucks to take the drill press off his hands...

I wanted "New" for the lathe... So of course I choked out the $400 for the mini... It was based on what I could afford and the availability for parts.

Just remember... Harbor Freight (H.F.) is not the only source for the mini... and you can get upgrade parts & tooling for them through www.littlemachineshop.com I can not stress that enough...

I can say this... don't buy the lathe/mill combo... No auto feed... They are a big mistake and they should just give them away...

The decision to buy any tool is ultimately up to you... I needed the lathe to do what I do so I bit the bullet and did it and I have no regrets except one... I should have bought the 7x14 to start with... but that is on me... I did not ask anyone's advice...

I have very little issues from buying from H.F... Just know what you are getting into and don't cry if you break it... It's not a Snap On or Craftsman...

I have a table saw that I personally owned for 15 years that I bought from H.F. It still works fine & I only replaced the brushes once and I need to replace a handle on it I just broke last week moving it around.

Don't worry about making what I make... It's not a competition with me...
It's all about the air guns in my book...
Heck... you might take some of the load off me and I can put a link to your stuff on my site... Just put your design twist on things and don't copy mine... If my work inspires you… then it becomes a complement to me…

Remember... Necessity is the mother of all inventions... and you can not be taught creativity or how to think for yourself... Those things can only be nurtured... Talent is gift. What you do with it is ultimately up to you.

That is my yen and yang on all of this... Wink

waka, waka, waka... Mr. Green