Anyone ever use one of these Smithy machines?

I have been looking at this metalworking lathe, mill and drill press all in one called Smithy. www.smithy.com I have heard they are great anybody know of them. The small unit is only $995!

 

L.C. - I was going to buy one of those for my race trailer, and a guy that owned one told me it was too small for anything but very small hobby work. I got the packet from them and the one that would fit my needs was around 2g's. Call them for a brochure.

Dan

 

Ditto on that. The one that's useful runs close to $2k, but it's far better than the cheap knock off ones. Well worth the money.

 

I just got one at my company, It's been sitting at the werehouse in the original crate for about 3 and half years, I will be setting it up next week in our shop and will report back. I think the max size on the chuck is about 3 inches.

 

Since they mention the next model up having half-nuts, it looks like this one doesn't.
Most any lathe you buy has half nuts as a normal part of the lathe.
(Half nuts are what the name implies, a split nut that allows you to move a lever and stop transverse travel of the carriage.)
Although ... there's gotta be some way to stop carriage travel besides turning off the motor.
Maybe a friction deal, but looking from here it doesn't sound too swift to me.
Next model up with half-nuts would be ok to me, but I'd do some digging before I sprung for a unit that's gonna drive you half nuts - to coin a phrase.

Spend the money on a small lathe and drill press.
Better yet, if you live in a big city that has a Penny-Saver or Recycler newspaper a lotta times you can find used lathes for reasonable.
Plus, they come with tooling which can add up to a lot of coin.

I have a mill and it doesn't get used much at all.
You can do milling on a lathe, although capacity is limited.
Lathe-milling would probably do 90% of the milling I do.
All you need to accomplish milling in a lathe is either a milling vise that goes on in place of the compound or a table with slots or other method to bolt pieces down.
Get a milling cutter holder, some cutters and you're in business.

The pic below shows a lathe tool block I made and the 1/2" tall and approx 1/2" deep notches were milled in the lathe.
About the biggest lathe-milling project I did was to mill some aluminum swing arm extensions for a hill-climb dirt bike nephew and I built.
The aluminum stock had to be repositioned once, but it was no big deal.
My lathe is a 12 x 36" fwiw.

Having a separate drill press is a lot handier than having to set up the drill press deal on the Smithy as well.

Having said all that, a rod-shop owning friend just got a Smithy and is happy with it.
He turns out a lot of small and neat stuff with it.
Some of the more recent, some small pieces for a trad highboy A roadster with four cylinder A banger motor.

Keep in mind too, if you buy a used lathe of common brand - even though discontinued - you can still get parts for it.
Not to mention if it runs at all you can usually struggle through the manufacturing of parts to bring the lathe up to snuff.
Even making impossible to find gears is no big deal and requires no real special accessories.
The lathe is the only tool that can duplicate itself far as I know.

 

We had one at the Harley shop I worked at. It was absolutely great for bike stuff. I used it quite a bit for car stuff from home.

 

There are a few of those kind of machines around, Smithy has a decent rep, here is one I looked at a while ago that is expandable and is also capable of CNC work!

Shop Task Eldorado



Bit more money than you were looking to spend but I think they have a basic model for under a grand too.

 

a friend o my dad has one and he loves it. again, he just uses it for small hobby stuff. but he said the quality is great.


Mike

 

I got the 1220LTD model (one of the larger ones) two years ago and it has turned out to be both extremely useful and frustruating. The lathe has turned out to work very well and is indispensible for the automotive work I do. The milling part is the frustruating end. The distance between the table and the head is much too large for most normal milling operations and the machine just doesn't feel all that solid one you get started on a cut.

If you want it for the lathe with the occassional milling job, then it would fit the bill nicely.

If you plan on doing a lot milling then I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

Keep in mind that the Smithy models are different sizes with differing features so my experiences only really apply to the machine I have.