I picked up a magazine a couple of weeks ago.  It was about hobby

machining.

My question to the group is about some of the machines in the adds.

Do these small (1-2 hp) combination lathe, verticle mill machines work?
Most of the parts I can see making for an aircraft would fit on a table

that

is 6"x12" and 4" of vertical is minimal.  Does anyone have any

experience

with one of these machines?

They even had some economical NC kits to allow for some interesting
possibilities.

tc

They do work and it takes some time to makes changes. Big stuff takes HP.
Some pretty big stuff can be done but it takes a long time.

Tracy may fill us on on this as he has one. He is slowly adding larger

machines

however.

Paul Lamar

I've got a larger lathe on the way now but been using a Shop Task
lathe/mill.  It works OK for prototyping but I'd hate to do volume
production on it.  It is set up for NC step motors on it but I don't think
its practical.  There are some sources of error that a human can compensate
for  (for example,  the tool post will move in the Y axis by 1 - 3 thou.
depending on which way the X axis is running) but this makes NC not
realistic.  The vertical mill is a real pain to use because of the limited
vertical range that it can accomodate.  I got a "real" vertical milling
machine shortly after using the Shop Task milling function for the first
time.  If you are looking for reasonably price machine tools, I'd suggest
Enco.

Tracy Crook
rws@altavista.net
www.rotaryaviation.com

 
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