I've never run a Shoptask, but when I looking into my first personal machine, I lucked out and got an original Emco M8; one of the last built in Austria. Now they are all farmed out to Taiwan, or the current lowest bidder.
The great thing about it is that the milling head bolts on the back of the lathe, in the middle. Looking at the Shoptask, with the milling head on the headstock, I couldn't see how much could be done except drilling holes in the chuck!
And the EMCO is all gear driven, no belts. The only bad (good) thing about it is that the screws (longitudinal feed, mill head height) are 16 TPI, so it is really precise but takes forever to raise the head.
Are there any advantages a Shoptask has over an EMCO? |