Looking for Mentor in Dayton, OH area

[Cyclist82]

I am looking at getting into prototyping as a hobby and would like some advise and guidance in what equipment to buy (on a small budget of $5000) and proper use/maintenance.

[brojt]

This is a hard question without knowing what you want to accomplish, how much room you have for equipment and the time you have to spend.
It's kinda like asking "what kind of a car should I buy"., it all depends on the purpose.
$5000.00 is relative to what you plan on doing with the equipment. Do you want CNC or manual machines? Do you want a mill or a lathe or both?
If you can be more specific on what the machines will be used for I'm sure there are members here that can give you some great advise.

Brojt

[Boots]

On a Buget of $5000.00 I would suggest a Bridgeport type Mill and a small SouthBend gear driven lathe. These would have to be used to get them both for under 5 grand. So going CNC is out of the question for you. Just the software alone to program a CNC Machine will run you 5 grand or better. We have 30 grand invested in programming software and our machine was 100 grand and counting because we are constantly upgrading and getting more and better tooling.
For prototyping you will most likely need to do turning as well as milling and to do it cheeply. Manual is the way to go.

[Cyclist82]

I am not even sure what I will need it for. Right now, I just have some small parts I need machined. For these parts, I know I need at least a mill and a lathe.

[Boots]

The down turn in our economy has caused many machine shops to close. I'd look there for some equipment you could use. You might even pickup a heat treat oven, tool grinders, surface grinder, parts vibrator (for polishing/deburring) Bandsaw, Drill sharpener etc. all for very cheep. Look around and check the papers for liquidation sales. I'm sure you will find what you need.