The extent of my fine metal working has been to shape aluminum blocks on a cheap wood lathe, welding and spending hours and hours filing and grinding parts for my Unimog. Working out of a 10'x10' shed meant I could only have a lathe or a mill. A couple of weeks ago I visited a local Busy-Bee tools and saw a combination machine that they had on sale. It looked like just what I needed so I plunked my money down. Last week I picked it up (after fabing a crane to move it off my truck and 35' into my shed. Well the crate was much larger then I figured and the crane would not work. I deflated my truck tires on the back and jacked up the front. Slid the machine off on some planks and my son and I (one foot at a time) got it into the shed. (2.5 hours from truck to shed) The next day I bought some more steel to extend my crane base and was able to get the 600lb tool onto its bench. Ouch! I read links from this list where others disassembled the unit (motors, tables etc) to move them, which I will do next time, but it was snowing and so I did not want to take it out of the crate. Any way my (Chinese made) tool seems to be an excellent learning tool and the dual motors mean, when using the Mill the lathes lead screw will power the table in two axis (though not at the same time). The instructions are in a duo-tang(sp?)and the translations are amusing.
Dave D.