Newbie- 3 in 1 Machine advice

[mngforce]

Hi All:

I am new to the forum, so please excuse me if these questions have been covered in the past.

I build race engines for motorcycle roadracing. I have a shop in NOrthern CA, and live is Southern CA (I work for a motorcycle manufacturer as well). At my "Day-Job", I have access to a SHARP manual knee-mill that works pretty well. I also have access to a chinese lathe that is beyond crap. At my shop in Northern CA, we are just now getting an ACER 3-Axis CNC up and running, but it's not ready yet - and hard to use from 400 miles away. We have no lathe at the shop for now.

I am finding myself wanting to build good engine building tools, fixtures for making parts, test fixtures for the flow-bench and dyno, and other miscelaneous items that can't wait for the ACER mill, or can't be done on the lathe at work. This has led me to originally want to get a lathe for my garage. But, the need for a lathe, a mill, and really the ability to run CNC parts for pieces that I want to make more than 1 or 2 of has led to me look at the different 3 on 1 CNC options.

I started by looking at the Smithy since it looked more robust and precision than the other options. But, a thread here on CNC Zone had some negative things to say about the Smithy and led me to the Shoptask Patriot. I e-mailed them, and the owner e-mailed me back with some vague answers that A): Didn't answer my questions at al and B): gave me the impression he just didn't care for my business.

I am looking for something I can put in my garage and can knock out prototypes or simple production stuff until we can get the ACER up and going, and eventually buy a real lathe (looking at something like a simple Haas CNC) for the shop. I would like to be able to make some precision parts requiring better than +/- .0005" tolerance without scrapping every-other piece.

Can you guys give me some guidance on the quality of the different machines out there, the service available from the supplier, the software and hardware that is available for them, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Mike Norman
G-Force Engine Development
http://mngforce.com

[jalessi]

Mike,

I doubt very seriously that any 3 in 1 machine will be able to consistently hold the tolerances you demand.

Instead of spending your money two or three times over, make sure to watch your parts machined on the CNC in question.

Jeff...

[mngforce]

Hi Jeff:

Thanks for the response. I guess I should have clarified, for 99.9% of the work I wish to do with the machine, +/- .005" will do just fine. Probably even +/-.010" However, I was only after comments from people that have these machines to see if the +/-.0005" was even possible on these machines. As I said, we have the ACER for some of the more accuarate work ,and another machine that will be for extreme accuaracy once it's set-up (but that won't be for a year, or so).

So, given that clarification, what are people's experience with these machines?

Thanks.

Mike Norman
G-Force Engine Development
http://mngforce.com

[eblaschka]

Hi Mike

it's a pity that your thread did not get any responses.

I am new to the forum too and finally decided to answer my life long dream to have a small metal shop with a lathe and milling capabilities.
I am overwhelmed with the choices out there.
Grizzly, Jet, Smithy, Micro Mark Bolton Tools to name a few.

I want a pretty good - but not outrageously - precise machine to create little motors, watches..
Right now I am inclined to get a Smithy Midas MI-1220 XL but I don't know it this is a good choice.

One thing to consider that I can't judge now is additional cost of accessories, or for instance if you are stuck with a certain vendor if you buy his machine, while - with others you might be more flexible to buy universal tools.

If nobody answers to this thread, I will start a new one.

Best regards

[jalessi]

For a quicker response posting 3-1 questions on the Smithy Yahoo forum may be a better venue.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smithy-machines/

Jeff...

[Algirdas]

buy Okuma and Your troubles go away

[smallblock]

Originally Posted by mngforce Hi Jeff: Thanks for the response. I guess I should have clarified, for 99.9% of the work I wish to do with the machine, +/- .005" will do just fine. The Shoptask would work for this and you could get a CNC lathe and mill for under 5K. Probably even +/-.010" However, I was only after comments from people that have these machines to see if the +/-.0005" was even possible on these machines. If you want that extra decimal point, then multiply the price by 10 and then double it for a seperate lathe and mill. As I said, we have the ACER for some of the more accuarate work ,and another machine that will be for extreme accuaracy once it's set-up (but that won't be for a year, or so). So, given that clarification, what are people's experience with these machines? Thanks. Mike Norman G-Force Engine Development http://mngforce.com

Sounds like the guys at Shoptask figured your expectations were not realistic for the money you want to spend.