Big Compromise

I own a Smithy 1324 Granite, I've had it for over 10 years and wouldn't if I could do it again. Although I have received good service from the machine as a lathe the mill is a big zero. The first thing I did after buying the 1324 was to buy a square column bench-top mill with dovetail column and ways. After setting up my big mill I took the mill head off the Smithy. I've wanted to replace the Smithy with a new Grizzly gunsmith lathe but I can't justify doing so as I easily have $5K in D1-4 spindle tooling. IMO if you expect to machine to 0.0005" (half thousandths)tolerances a Smithy is going to be very frustrating; it can be done, if you have the training, patience, and time to learn how to get good results with mediocre equipment (experience). As the saying goes "a good machinist can make good parts on any machine but a mediocre machinist needs excellent equipment to make good parts"

WARNING! The cost of the equipment is far less than the cost of tooling for the equipment!

If you think you're going to save money by making your own parts think twice... this is just another addictive money pit like airguns.










My DIY CNC Gantry MiniMill.


My Tormach PCNC1100 CNC Mill


My very crowded workshop (The Boomer Technologies Laboratory) The burgundy colored (HF) mill was replaced by the big IH blue mill. Round column mills are OK but if you unlock the column for any reason it's almost impossible to re-align to your work in progress.

Airguns are a gas

Boomer