Hi to everyone,
Im another new guy trying to figure out what lathe and mill to buy, Im in the market for midrange machines, my main purpose is hobbie, but I want to make sure I can go for some moderate projects, like motorcycle gear, cnc table router projects, as stuff like that. I have around $2000 for a lathe and other $2000 for a mill. I'm looking at X3 mill (Grizzly G0619 (http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0619)) and lathe ( Grizzly)G9972Z (http://www.grizzly.com/products/G9972Z).
Any comments are greatly apprecited, and please comment on the must have tooling required for each machine to have a good start.
Kindest Regards,
Hector

Honestly with that budget and that project list I would buy a larger(12x36 at least) lathe forgo the mill for moment, a lathe can do most of that. I normally say take your machine base cost and double it for tooling when buying new, that seems to work well. Mills are also far more expensive to tool as they require a new tool for every form and size you use. Things to consider in your case a QCTP, dividing head, collets, and a decent 4 jaw chuck to say the least besides what you lack in measuring equipment. With a milling attachment you can mill on the lathe just not as well as if you had a regular mill. Don't foget to alteast look at the used market, that can be if depending upon local conditions. Making gears gets expensive(unless you shape), also if you are talking about helical cuts thats not an easy thing for a novice. I suppose it depends upon the gear.

I am a proponet of shapers, a shaper could do alot of things you need also but they are more advanced in usage but considerably cheaper to tool and are only on the used market. Just some thoughts.
chris