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jim72911t jim72911t is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: NoCal
Posts: 2,414
If your estimated budget is anywhere near your estimate, you should have no problem finding quality used equipment. Keep an eye out for auctions, especially CNC shops that are going out of business. Most of these will have a mill and a lathe that are used (infrequently) for tooling and one-offs, and should be in good condition and well maintained. An added bonus is that most of these will be sold with tooling, which can take years and many dollars to collect.

Since you ran your old shop and seem to be familiar with the machines themselves, I won't get into name brands or what to look for with regards to condition. FWIW, I'd take a well maintained 40 year old Monarch or Hardinge lathe and similar age and condition Bridgeport or clone over brand new Chinese junk any day.

Good luck. Not paying for the stuff yourself is the best part.
Old 02-16-2010, 08:18 PM
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