Metal lathe/mill suggestions?

[daved]

Hey, all you machinist types out there!  I've been toying with the idea of getting a lathe and mill or lathe/mill combo for ages.  Although primarily a wood worker, I enjoy working with metal, but with my air guns, I have projects in mind that require more precision than I can manage with my previously used work arounds.  I can make shop space, but money is always an issue, although my wife is better about tool purchases than air guns :-)!

So here's my questions:

1. Which first, mill or lathe?
2. How big?
3. Features to look for?
4. Best bang for the buck (brand/model specifics)
5. Most important accesories?

This might be a seperate issue, but how about some pros/cons on combo machines as well?  Bear in mind, I have no intention of machining up a new ring gear for my Suburban, so I'm difinitely looking at the mini machines.  I suppose a rifle barrel would be the longest item I might want to work on, and a metal breech for my 61 is a milling project I have in mind, just for an idea of needed capacity.

BTW, if someone has some old equipement they don't use or want to upgrade, I'd be interested.  TIA, guys!

Dave

Well I have a lathe that Harbor Freight sell it's the 9"X20” and it does a great job.  $700.00
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=45861

The main thing if you find a used lathe make sure it can cut metric threads, and what ever lathe you buy there is a bunch of tooling you would need like cutting bits, a live center, and if you can find one that has a four jaw chuck you need one to make odd pieces like square parts, or drilling and boring a hole off center in some part.

I have another, a big lathe 16"X 48" but it can't do metric threads so it's sits up at my nephews shop and he uses it.

A milling machine for what you are going to do with it is a story, I have just a little one but for what I do on it, it works just fine.
It's not heavy enough to do any major cutting on steel or big chunks of aluminum.
If you do find something make sure it's big enough to do the job, like what is the distance between centers, how big is the chuck, how big is the hole in the headstock, it all makes a difference on what you can machine with it.

If there is harbor freight around go look at them

[ribbonstone]

Just to get a better idea of what you might need, take a look here:
http://www.varmintal.com/alath.htm

Have used the milling attachement...it certainly isn't a mill, but for small occaisonal work, it will work.  A LOT of lathe/mill work depends on the operator rather than the equipment...we're all learning as we go.

Very true I use my lathe as a sander, cut off saw, sometimes as a milling machine.
The lathe IS the most versatile machine there is it’s the only metal working machine that can duplicate itself, you can make a lathe on a lathe, but you can not make a milling machine on a milling machine.

You can even make square things on a lathe like a pair of dice.