would you recommend a smithy 1220 ltd combination lathe/mill/drill?

I'm thinking strongly of buying a smithy 1220 ltd for my home. I'm a complete beginner that has been on autocad for the past 15 years or so. I really want to get into miniature firearms, gas engines and perhaps a sterling engine or two.

What do you think of the smithy machine?

Reply to
Modat22
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||I'm thinking strongly of buying a smithy 1220 ltd for my home. I'm a ||complete beginner that has been on autocad for the past 15 years or ||so. I really want to get into miniature firearms, gas engines and ||perhaps a sterling engine or two. || ||What do you think of the smithy machine?

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Parts Guy

Reply to
Rex B

Had one, realized that it was not acceptable for serious work that I needed to do, dumped it, been happy ever since. Regretted ever buying it

Reply to
GMasterman

Ahh thanks didn't know I could search old messages.

Reply to
Modat22

Over 10 years ago I bought a Smithy 3-in-1 which I still have and constantly use. Despite the screams of protest from the "buy old 'muricun iron" crowd, I have enjoyed my Smithy, still do and expect to continue doing so. It might be nice to have bigger lathe (like my friends Colchester) and a Bridgeport but I have neither the space nor the money for them. Meanwhile my projects keep getting done on the ol' Smithy. If you want to see a couple, check out

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one that I thought might force me to "the machine shop" but didn't, see
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Whatever, enjoy! " Also: " About ten years ago I set out to buy a lathe. At the time I was living in North Vancouver, BC, Canada. I watched the local papers, checked the local dealers, etc. Nothing worth having.

We had started on building our retirement home in the Okanagan valley and were travelling back and forth, frequently via Seattle. So I included Seattle and Portland (not *that* much further). Same result. I could afford to spend maybe as much as a month on this because I had a repair job that would become a problem in about that time. I could either spend a couple grand on a machine and tooling or replace the problem item for about the same amount of money. You can guess where my preference lay.

While in the Okanagan, my neighbour showed me an add for Smithy in Kitplane magazine. At that time, Smithy still had a facility in the Dalles, OR so we decided to go take a look. I liked what I saw. This was going to get me a mill and a lathe for what I was prepared to pay for a lathe. I was somewhat concerned about the size of, particularly, the mill.

My wife made an interesting and fateful comment, "Buy the Smithy. If it proves to be too small, too inaccurate, too whatever, take the job to a machine shop. If that happens more than a couple of times, sell the Smithy and get something else."

Ten years have past. I still haven't been to the "machine shop" except to scrounge or buy off cuts. I've always been able to get my stuff done with a little ingenuity. YMMV. "

Reply to
Ted Edwards

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