Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Expectations, bridgeport

> Out of curiosity, what do you plan to use the mill for?

I looked at Sherlines for a long time and it'd be great because it'd use up
no room at all, I could have it in my bedroom where the spare computer is.
But then I started to find things I didn't like about it like the good but
not brilliant accuracy of the mills and the transverse sizes. They're cheap
but once you add on all the extra bits and then the CNC control it's not
that cheap anymore, not considering what else you can get. I have no serious
demand for a mill at all right now, I'd just like to learn how to use one
and have the ability to do what can be done on one. I doubt there are many
on here who actually _need_ a mill, they simply have one because it's useful
for what they enjoy doing and interesting to use. I have lots of ideas of
what I'd like to make on one, like a small steam engine perhaps or a model
turbine. A Sherline could do that easily but I for a few hundred I can also
have a really heavy mill that would take whatever I could think of and more.
The most immediate thing that springs to mind is building the Gingerly lathe
and cheating with the mill. I can envisage a time when I may want to produce
a number of copies of things all at once so the large transverse on a knee
mill would be very useful, I wouldn't have to keep putting bits under it. I
could set it and leave it for a few hours. We have an art gallery nearby
that has a sort of crafts shop joining onto it that attracts just the kind
of people who might be interested in little working steam engines, making up
a number all at once might be a way to earn some money to pay for other
things. Besides, I've touched a knee mill now so I must own one some day.
However much I look at the desktop things and people saying they can do
whatever you want them to I still feel a bigger mill would have a lot more
ability. I've lost nothing so long as I've learnt, as this group has taught
me.

John