I am not a professional machinist or engineer. I'm not giving advice, just my opinions. I'll endorse no use of this
information, nor accept any liability for its use or misuse.
Yeah, the mill and the lathe are the really exciting part of the shop (the "big" machines). I wouldn't have
put up this webpage without them. A lot of these other tools are pretty common. You've probably got some of them in your
garage/basement/shop right now. But, ordinary as they might seem, you can't run a shop without at least some of them.
Not all of your work will be with machine tools. You will need a good workbench for hand work (fitting, finishing, etc.)
You will also want a good vise on your workbench. I built this bench from ordinary lumber. It is quite roomy (3'x8') and
solid enough to be useful. The vise is just a plain bench vise from Sears. It's not exciting, but it works fine. The organizer
drawers on top are great for fasterners and small parts. You can get them at any office supply store.
A drill press is really handy. This is a little Rockwell benchtop drill press that I've had for years (a lot). It isn't at all
fancy. Similar models can be purchased for well under $100. But, even a simple press like this is many orders of
magnitude better than drilling the same hole with a hand-held drill. I'll admit, since I've got the mill I use it for drilling a lot of holes. (Imagine
a 700lb., 2hp drill press with a very precise X-Y table and you'll get some idea of how wonderful the mill is for drilling.) Still, if you only have
a few holes to drill, or the accuracy isn't critical, the drill press is a great tool.
Pretty much a necessity is a good bench grinder. If you are
running a lathe you will want to grind and sharpen tool bits. Even if you don't have a lathe you will often find that
you need to reshape a piece of metal and the mill/lathe isn't quite right. I worked for a lot of years without the mill and lathe and the bench
grinder was my main means of removing metal. Of course it works best on ferrous alloys. This is my main grinder. It's an old Craftsman (Sears)
model. It has some good points (and some not so good). It's rated at 1/2 hp and that seems to be a serious rating (not like some of the hp ratings
you see these days). But Sears seems to have a policy of producing tools in non-standard sizes and then selling replacement parts at a premium
price (see the belt sander comments below). This grinder uses 7" x 3/4" wheels with a 1/2" arbor. Not impossible to find, but not common. I bought
a lot of wheels from Wholesale Tool when I was in Tulsa. Even so, it's a great grinder and I like it a lot.
A
new (the newest) addition to my shop is a small horizontal bandsaw. OK, so you
get yourself a lathe and a mill (or one or the other). You will be buying metal
stock in large pieces (try Online Metals)
and you will need to cut it into pieces that fit into your machines. Sure, a hand
hacksaw is great exercise, you could develop shoulders like Arnold what's-his-name.
People pay good money for that kind of exercise program. But it isn't much fun
and it takes a lot of your time. A metal-cutting bandsaw is a whole lot easier.
This is one of the Asian 4x6 bandsaws. Very similar models are availalbe from
several suppliers (Enco, Grizzly, Harbor Freight). This one is a Clarke that I
bought from the local Tractor Supply Co. store. It was a few dollars more (not
many) but I could pick it up today (sometimes I'm not real patient). I'm real
pleased with it. I've been using the carbon steel blade that came with the saw
(bi-metal blades arrived from Enco today, but I haven't tried them out yet) and
it cuts great. It isn't fast (I cut a 1"x4" bar of 1018HR steel in ~20 minutes)
but you don't have to just wait on it. Start the cut and it turns itself off when
it's done (probably a good idea to stay nearby). There's a lot of information
about these saws out on the web.
Update (2 January 2002) - After just three months of use (admittedly, I use it a lot) the Chinese motor on the bandsaw
died. Pretty strange how it happened...I was cutting slices off of a 3" dia. piece of aluminum bar. I'd made 2 or 3 cuts and I wasn't paying a lot of attention
to the saw (I was in and out of the shop) when I noticed the saw had stopped (and something smelled bad). The saw actually stopped because it tripped
the ground fault circuit interrupter on that circuit. I unplugged it and let it cool off. The motor had obviously gotten very hot and had done it very quickly. The
gearbox wasn't hot, the blade was free in the cut, it didn't appear to have stalled - just heated up and shorted out.
So I went back to Tractor Supply the next day. The manager was very helpful and very friendly. He offered to order a new motor from his supplier but said
it would take a couple of weeks. Of course, I needed the saw today. I suggested that he might just make me a good deal on one of the US-made motors
that he had in stock. He sold me one for half-price. So, for a minimal investment I had a better motor. With about an hour's work and some minor
modifications to the belt guard, the bandsaw is up and running. But now without that ugly, cast iron, Chinese motor.
So you've got all these machines that convert large pieces of metal into small pieces of metal. Sooner or later you're going to want to put some
small pieces together. There are a lot of different welding systems available (I'd love to have a mig welder), but none are more flexible than a good oxy-acetylene rig. You can join
pieces of different metals, you can weld, you can cut pieces of steel (assuming you don't have a bandsaw). I've had this rig for years and it's one of
the most useful tools in my shop. OK, I'll admit it, I never learned to arc weld well (I can stick two pieces together, but it isn't pretty). With the gas
torch I can weld things together and it's almost artistic.
Sometimes you need to remove stock, or smooth pieces, or round corners and even the grinder isn't really appropriate. A good belt sander is
really handy. It works great on even non-ferrous metals. Aluminum doesn't grind well on a bench grinder, but works great with a belt sander. There
are a lot of different sanders available of similar capacity (some are pretty cheap, inexpensive and cheap). This one is a Craftsman (Sears) sander.
It's a little more expensive than some of the other models on the market, but it has some real advantages. The motor is an (honest) 1/2hp. The base
is all cast (not stamped sheet metal). It has a really nice mechanism for adjusting the tracking of the belt. However, this is another example of Sears
selling something in a not-quite standard size and charging a premium price for disposable materials. This sander takes a 2"x42" belt. Try finding
that somewhere other than Sears. The 2x42 belts are ~ $3 each at Sears while 1x42 belts are ~$0.50 from Enco. The sander is supposed to take
1x42 belts so you don't have to buy the expensive ones from Sears. I bought several of the 2x42's when I bought the sander and haven't worn them
out yet. I'll let you know if the cheaper 1x42's work as well.
Shop Vac???? Is that really a tool. Sure it says "shop" but
it certainly isn't in the same category as a bench grinder or a horizontal bandsaw. Well, I don't know about your house. My wife is extremely understanding
and long-suffering, but she's a whole lot happier when the chips stay in the garage and don't wind up in the carpet (that means I'm happier too). Actually
it works really well and makes clean-up a lot easier. This is one of those cases where the horsepower rating really doesn't mean much. 2.25 Horsepower?
Sure, if you stall the engine it probably draws that many amps just before it melts down into a puddle of slag.
Not all of your work will be with machine tools. You will need a good workbench for hand work (fitting, finishing, etc.)
You will also want a good vise on your workbench. I built this bench from ordinary lumber. It is quite roomy (3'x8') and
solid enough to be useful. The vise is just a plain bench vise from Sears. It's not exciting, but it works fine. The organizer
drawers on top are great for fasterners and small parts. You can get them at any office supply store.
A drill press is really handy. This is a little Rockwell benchtop drill press that I've had for years (a lot). It isn't at all
fancy. Similar models can be purchased for well under $100. But, even a simple press like this is many orders of
magnitude better than drilling the same hole with a hand-held drill. I'll admit, since I've got the mill I use it for drilling a lot of holes. (Imagine
a 700lb., 2hp drill press with a very precise X-Y table and you'll get some idea of how wonderful the mill is for drilling.) Still, if you only have
a few holes to drill, or the accuracy isn't critical, the drill press is a great tool.
Pretty much a necessity is a good bench grinder. If you are
running a lathe you will want to grind and sharpen tool bits. Even if you don't have a lathe you will often find that
you need to reshape a piece of metal and the mill/lathe isn't quite right. I worked for a lot of years without the mill and lathe and the bench
grinder was my main means of removing metal. Of course it works best on ferrous alloys. This is my main grinder. It's an old Craftsman (Sears)
model. It has some good points (and some not so good). It's rated at 1/2 hp and that seems to be a serious rating (not like some of the hp ratings
you see these days). But Sears seems to have a policy of producing tools in non-standard sizes and then selling replacement parts at a premium
price (see the belt sander comments below). This grinder uses 7" x 3/4" wheels with a 1/2" arbor. Not impossible to find, but not common. I bought
a lot of wheels from Wholesale Tool when I was in Tulsa. Even so, it's a great grinder and I like it a lot.
A
new (the newest) addition to my shop is a small horizontal bandsaw. OK, so you
get yourself a lathe and a mill (or one or the other). You will be buying metal
stock in large pieces (try Online Metals)
and you will need to cut it into pieces that fit into your machines. Sure, a hand
hacksaw is great exercise, you could develop shoulders like Arnold what's-his-name.
People pay good money for that kind of exercise program. But it isn't much fun
and it takes a lot of your time. A metal-cutting bandsaw is a whole lot easier.
This is one of the Asian 4x6 bandsaws. Very similar models are availalbe from
several suppliers (Enco, Grizzly, Harbor Freight). This one is a Clarke that I
bought from the local Tractor Supply Co. store. It was a few dollars more (not
many) but I could pick it up today (sometimes I'm not real patient). I'm real
pleased with it. I've been using the carbon steel blade that came with the saw
(bi-metal blades arrived from Enco today, but I haven't tried them out yet) and
it cuts great. It isn't fast (I cut a 1"x4" bar of 1018HR steel in ~20 minutes)
but you don't have to just wait on it. Start the cut and it turns itself off when
it's done (probably a good idea to stay nearby). There's a lot of information
about these saws out on the web.
Update (2 January 2002) - After just three months of use (admittedly, I use it a lot) the Chinese motor on the bandsaw
died. Pretty strange how it happened...I was cutting slices off of a 3" dia. piece of aluminum bar. I'd made 2 or 3 cuts and I wasn't paying a lot of attention
to the saw (I was in and out of the shop) when I noticed the saw had stopped (and something smelled bad). The saw actually stopped because it tripped
the ground fault circuit interrupter on that circuit. I unplugged it and let it cool off. The motor had obviously gotten very hot and had done it very quickly. The
gearbox wasn't hot, the blade was free in the cut, it didn't appear to have stalled - just heated up and shorted out. 
So you've got all these machines that convert large pieces of metal into small pieces of metal. Sooner or later you're going to want to put some
small pieces together. There are a lot of different welding systems available (I'd love to have a mig welder), but none are more flexible than a good oxy-acetylene rig. You can join
pieces of different metals, you can weld, you can cut pieces of steel (assuming you don't have a bandsaw). I've had this rig for years and it's one of
the most useful tools in my shop. OK, I'll admit it, I never learned to arc weld well (I can stick two pieces together, but it isn't pretty). With the gas
torch I can weld things together and it's almost artistic.
Sometimes you need to remove stock, or smooth pieces, or round corners and even the grinder isn't really appropriate. A good belt sander is
really handy. It works great on even non-ferrous metals. Aluminum doesn't grind well on a bench grinder, but works great with a belt sander. There
are a lot of different sanders available of similar capacity (some are pretty cheap, inexpensive and cheap). This one is a Craftsman (Sears) sander.
It's a little more expensive than some of the other models on the market, but it has some real advantages. The motor is an (honest) 1/2hp. The base
is all cast (not stamped sheet metal). It has a really nice mechanism for adjusting the tracking of the belt. However, this is another example of Sears
selling something in a not-quite standard size and charging a premium price for disposable materials. This sander takes a 2"x42" belt. Try finding
that somewhere other than Sears. The 2x42 belts are ~ $3 each at Sears while 1x42 belts are ~$0.50 from Enco. The sander is supposed to take
1x42 belts so you don't have to buy the expensive ones from Sears. I bought several of the 2x42's when I bought the sander and haven't worn them
out yet. I'll let you know if the cheaper 1x42's work as well.
Shop Vac???? Is that really a tool. Sure it says "shop" but
it certainly isn't in the same category as a bench grinder or a horizontal bandsaw. Well, I don't know about your house. My wife is extremely understanding
and long-suffering, but she's a whole lot happier when the chips stay in the garage and don't wind up in the carpet (that means I'm happier too). Actually
it works really well and makes clean-up a lot easier. This is one of those cases where the horsepower rating really doesn't mean much. 2.25 Horsepower?
Sure, if you stall the engine it probably draws that many amps just before it melts down into a puddle of slag.