a question for those whoo tried smithy

[aoolfman1st]

hi all
well i am planing to by a smithy 3in1 machine and i am puseled of which to by without puting more mony than riquierd and to get what i nead frome a machine at the sametime,and o wont say no if it is durable and will hold on as one pese long enoph,torlerance is requierd hear too.
i thought that granite industrial are the best frome what i read about them but are they what i nead or too expensiv for what i nead them for?
what am i gonna use it for?
well i wonna build my own rc engins and to do some gunsmith work on it
ofcours it will bicome in handy for allot of work but my greatest concern is mentiond above.
any tips and oppinions in this reguard will b hig apr.

[ELWIZ]

Hello: i purchased a Smithy 1220LTD in 2004. I have had a lot of good luck with it, for the price. I did buy the reducing speed pulley to get better cut and control of spindle. I also found that the backlash in the cross table is a maintenance thing. I discovered that it has a double "nut" type thread lock for backlash adjustment. I can adjust it with the use of a mirror and set it as tight as necessary to have zero slack..... I am a model airplane enthusasist. love to make Parts for myself and others........ I also would recommend a 4 inch rotary Table to work on small things and 6 inch if a little larger. I have made a 5/16" Dia. 10 tooth gear x 1/4 inch. and it worked great.... Another thing I would suggest is check out EBAY for tooling and accessories.. Have got most there. Good luck. ELWIZ

[metal-chips]

Own and Operate a Granite 1340 Max, it’s a great machine, I’m making a ton of machined parts for my home built airplane project. It does pay for its self quick. If your not used to machine equipment the Granite machines are huge and heavy so make sure you have a way to get the box to your house and set up (an engine hoist / crane helps a lot) Grizzly has some great deals when it comes to the cutters and accessories. All the outputs (R8, MT3 D4…) and T slots are standard size on the Granite. If your going to do some gun smith stuff I would recommend the 40” so you don’t cut your self short. I would of bought a 60” if they offered it.

[DaveCa]

I just bought an LTD. While the machine overall is extremely heavy, large castings, decent general machining work (machining to make the machine, not machining as in using it) the overall quality of the machine is so MISERABLE as to make it useless without further modification.

The cross feed and micrometer feed are useless, cant hold 005, surface finish is horrible. Although they say to run the feed 'out and back' to compensate for the play, that doesnt work, the tool bounces around on the loose threads. It is NOT enough to remove the play from the cross feed because the mic feed is just as bad.

Contrary to their instructions, it is NOT sufficient to just spray the Cosmolene out with WD 40, mine was so filthy dirty with debris including metal shavings that I tore it completely down, cleaned all the parts and took about 1/4 cup of dirt and metal shavings out of the mechanisms. The gear box on the front apron had cast iron flaking off and faling into the gears, I had to take a screwdriver and knock off what was loose from a thin sand casting.

Shims between cross feed table and bed badly warped, had to repair them. Stripped/bent screws on the tool holder, had to turn the screws straight to get them to hold a tool without it jumping when tightened.

Multitudes of errors in the owners manual, difficult to read, difficult to figure out how to set the threading gears up.

Im in the middle of major modifications that should bring it out to 3-4 place accuracy. Its about what I expected for Chinese junk.

There was also a SHOCK HAZARD, the ground wire screw hidden behind the metal junction box behind the lathe chuck was screwed down onto a PAINTED surface, and that is NOT a ground. Ive done engineering to both UL and TUV file requirements and that kind of mistake is NOT acceptable.

Smith has refused to respond to the shock hazard issue, as they have not responded to any contact Ive made since they got the money.

[underthetire]

Some guy at work just bought one for the shop he works in here. I personally don't see any quality improvement over the harbor freight one. I'm a little biased, cause I don't like all in ones, for maybe a little more you can buy a small lathe and mill and not have to tear down the setup to make parts.
Out of the box, the manuals stink
Drive unit for the spindle failed
Drive motor went now as well.

The old ones were a lot better, now they even smell like Harbor Freight.

[Molochnik]

I bought a 1220 LTD back in 2000, and it has been a fantastic lathe. The mill head wouldn't allow reasonable cutting w/out walking across the work. I used both locking features, etc. I ended up taking the mill head off the machine and it's sitting on a shelf in the shed. I ended up buying a 9X49 knee mill in 2005 and never looked back.
I can take a .001 cut on the lathe, and haven't had to do any extraordinary maintenance. In fact the only part I've had to replace was the carriage drive gear, and that's only because I "crashed" it.
For the money, it'll be hard to find a decent lathe that has powerfeed on both longitudinal and crossfeed axes as far as my search has shown me.

[AiR_GuNNeR]

I have the Granite 1324 that I bought from a brass instrument store. It's done well for me. I machine mostly aluminum, but steel has not been a problem. It's a bit of a lightweight when it comes to milling steel. Light cuts only. The granite series is much better fit/finish then their other line. It came with a 1.5hp DC motor. I'm putting a 2hp brushless motor on it like the newer MAX line.
Smithy has been great for me for customer service as well. I now also have their CX-329 mill, (RF45). Like the rest of the china square column mills, I had to do some work on it to get it up to snuff.

[sharpshooter90]

Originally Posted by underthetire Some guy at work just bought one for the shop he works in here. I personally don't see any quality improvement over the harbor freight one. I'm a little biased, cause I don't like all in ones, for maybe a little more you can buy a small lathe and mill and not have to tear down the setup to make parts. Out of the box, the manuals stink Drive unit for the spindle failed Drive motor went now as well. The old ones were a lot better, now they even smell like Harbor Freight.

That's because the harbor Freight 3 in 1 and the Smithy Granite 3 in 1 are built in the same factory in Linyi, Shandong Province.
www.linyijinxing.com

[AiR_GuNNeR]

Originally Posted by jonahailsa I have a rc airplane ,but how to fly ?could somebody tell me ?

Hmmm,...errr....aahhhhh,...oops, sorry, your avatar distracted me.