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I had to take lighter cuts and more of them but in the 15+ years of owning the Smithy there were only a handful of parts that I had to outsource due to not having the capabilities in my own shop. That said, knowing the machine and what it can and can't do is paramount in turning out quality parts. We have a 12x36 tool room lathe at work and a Bridgeport clone at work and the Smithy was no where near the machines as far as power or rigidity.

I owned a Smithy CB1239, which was the larger combo machine Smithy offered for several years, for 15+ years and made a lot of parts and a lot of money over that time frame with it. That is fine, there is a tool for every shop just like there is an ass for every seat. I know there is a lot of import bashing and most will say they would never own or use an import machine. Great for learning metal feed rates, tool grinding and machining processes. Doesn't look bad to me to start with and get your feet wet. Hope to find a good tooled up clausing someday at a good price.īut for me, a mill is far more useful than a lathe.Ĭongrats on your new to you lathe/mill combo.

I looked at the 9x grizzly, but I think I would be much happier with a 14x40 for the projects I would like to do. However, a large engine lathe is high on my priority list as well. While a bridgeport would be nice, CNC conversion cost is prohibitive, and if I have a large part mill job (very rare I am thinking) I can always outsource/ask friends to help until I get a bridgeport to supplement it. I plan to CNC ASAP after gaining experience running manually to the point that I can mill the motor mounts to acceptable precision. IMHO the grizzly is a great starting point.awesome support community, very decent work envelope, and affordable CNC conversion. I am going to buy a G0704 AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. But I have learned I am a mill guy, just does more for me. Haven't gotten around to lapping the gibs yet, but just adjusting them was 1000x improvement over how I got it. Of course the slide will not be as rigid fully in or out as it will be in the middle, but you should be able to find a happy medium where its not TOO tight. You just need the slide to be tight at as many locations across the travel as possible. It should not move, but it shouldn't be hard to turn the handwheel to move it either. After I got all the rust cleaned off with concrete etch, I just started playing with all the gib adjustments. I occasionally read up on adjusting the gibs over several months but felt like it was complex and I would screw it up. It sat on my bench, alll rusty for over a year because it had so much slack in both slides. Don't be afraid to adjust the gibs on the cross slide.