Mill or Lathe?

V

VaughnT

Well-Known Member
Pops is looking to add yet another tool to the shop and is thinking about a lathe. He's actually bidding on one that's way up in Ohio!

However, he asked me which I thought would be more usable in the garage, a lathe or a small mill. Says he's seen guys that can make a lathe work like a mill, but I wonder if it's worth the hassle.

For what we do, I would think that it would be easier to use a mill as a lathe than the other way around.

For knife-making, something that I'm not doing big production on, a mill would work great for guards and pommels, and even some handle work.

For general car stuff and woodworking, the mill could do a thousand little things that you'd be hardpressed to get a lathe to do. Right?

A small table-top mill wouldn't take up much floor space, which is always at a premium, but a small lathe (something you could reasonably do wood projects with) would take up at least 6'.

Is tooling for a good mill that expensive? How hard would it be to make a lathe work like a mill? If the prices were similar, which would you get to outfit a small multi-function shop?
 
I have a mill.use it often. Don't have a lathe but have access to one but very seldom need it.I would get a mill before a lathe.
YMMV
Stan
 
I would definitely go with a mill over a lathe. I seldom use my lathe and in most cases lathe jobs can be accomplished another way. To make a precision cut slot to fit a guard, a mill will do a better job in a lot less time than doing it by hand.
 
Slotting a guard was my #1 thought. I've been working on a piece of steel with a needle file, and it just plain sucks! I think my hand's going to give way before the guard does.

I really can't think of anything in a run-of-the-mill shop that a lathe can do for you other than true a part up. I've not done a lot of work on cars, but I can't think of any time I've sat back and said, "Gee, if only I had a lathe!"

What are we looking at price-wise to get the basic tooling for a mill? Figure you'd need several bits, but which are the most used/handy?
 
I was recently offered a small lathe for free. I turned it down, told my friend to sell it to someone who'd actually use it. 99% of my work is is knife-related, and I just couldn't justify the very few times I've wished I had a lathe, versus the bench-space it would have taken up. If you make pens or furniture or other cool things that need a lot of turnings, of course you'd want a lathe.

Now if it was a small mill, heck yeah I'd make space for it.
 
I have both a mill and a Lathe, The mill gets more use. Lately I have been thinking about using the lathe as a disk grinder.

ernie
 
Funny you mention turning a lathe into a disc sander, because that's exactly what I do with the shopsmith we have. It makes a super-great disc sander, but those 12" discs are expensive! We have all of the various woodworking attachments for it, but can't do metal on it. Why he wants a metal lathe is beyond me.

Erin, it was your recent thread that really got me to thinking about a small desktop mill. I'd appreciate it if you'd hurry up and get that Asian-influenced knife finished as I'm dying to see how it all comes together! :D
 
Lately I have been thinking about using the lathe as a disk grinder.

ernie
Thats a great Idea can control the speed and everything
 
VaughnT said:
Erin, it was your recent thread that really got me to thinking about a small desktop mill. I'd appreciate it if you'd hurry up and get that Asian-influenced knife finished as I'm dying to see how it all comes together! :D
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:9:I told y'all that I hate hand sanding. :3:

I've progressed to about 400-grit on one side and 800 on the other. Of course, once I get to about 2000-grit it'll really become evident that I missed some big scratches and I'll have to head back to 800 again. This is what usually happens anyway.:sad:

I'll try to make some progress this weekend.
 
VaughnT said:
Funny you mention turning a lathe into a disc sander, because that's exactly what I do with the shopsmith we have. It makes a super-great disc sander, but those 12" discs are expensive! We have all of the various woodworking attachments for it, but can't do metal on it. Why he wants a metal lathe is beyond me.
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I've got two of those things. They are fun machines to play with and are great power plants for homebrew machines. One I got for free and is being used a variable speed drill press, and the other one is powering my belt grinder/disk sander. I'm actually on the look out spare tools for it because they can often be remade into other tools that are useful for metalwork.
 
I use my lathe almost every week, just not for knife work. As far as tooling goes, to cut slots you will need a vice and end mills smaller than your finish cut and a chuck or collet to hold them. that will get you started.
 
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