Are Smithy 3in1 machines any good?

[CEHansen]

I am not a gunsmith or a machinist. I am an Engineer/Product Designer and I occasionally like to prototype small parts for my current projects. At my skill level it usually takes 3-5 blanks for me to make one good part. Do any of you have any experience or opinion on any of the Smithy products? The 3in1 machines are particularly attractive for my purposes. If you could be model specific that would help.

Thanks in advance.

Carl

 

[butchlambert]

The lower your skill level the better machine you will need. I would pass. Are you doing it for price?
Butch

 

[Chuckw]

my buddy has one and you can literally stop the chuck with your hand. he has given up trying to do rifle work with it. pretty expensive learning experience. by the way, he has been a machinist for a major oil company for a couple of decades so he does know his business.

chuck

 

[SamLS]

I have inspected several. Don't waste your money. They fill a hobby or model makers nitch. Your going to be threading and cutting steel with high cutting forces so you want mass and rigidty, get a good lathe. Good used machinery can be had for cheap with this economy. If your worried about unloading a bridgeport or similar. Most towing companies can help a wrecker with a boom on it can unload and place a machine in your garage. Ask the dispatcher if they have installed milling machines in peoples garages etc.

 

[Preacher]

Your good to go if all you'll do is plastics, but forget it if your doing metal...

 

[edpmedic]

If you can't find a used South Bend or something along those lines, get a Grizzly.
If you are looking for a used lathe I have a Delta/Rockwell with variable speed, quick change gear box. From 8tpi to 224tpi. It has a 3 and 4 jaw chuck with a steady rest. It is a 10 inch swing with a 32 in length if you go center to center. It has a 1-1/2 hole through the head if you use a spider you could do barrels 46 inches.
I'm selling it because I am getting a Grizzly gun smith lathe and I do not have room for both of them.
You could contact me at edpmedic@verizon.net
Marc Weinstein.
I use a phase III quick change tool post. For the year of the machine and the work I put in rebuilding it. I have been doing work on it with no problem. I just need something a little bigger. It also is on a bench table and I use a Lube system with it.

 

[5mmeagle]

You will be time and money ahead to buy other seperate machines. Good used lathe and mill if you are knowledgeable enough about the machines to know they are in decent shape otherwise I would buy a Grizzly Lathe starting with the 12x37" lathe as a bottom end Lathe and 39" 2HP Knee Mill if you are doing gun work. A 13x40 gearhead lathe would be outstanding. they have a couple of lathes setup for gunsmiths and very simular standard models. It is the knowledge of the machinest that makes the tools function. A really good machinest can make good parts on any decent machine. An advanced and super machine is worthless if the operator is not prepared and trained to use it.

We tried the Combination machines, the used machines and ended up with what I show you above for manual machining. Setup is alway the big unknow in making any part and having to tear down one setup to do another is a show stopper IMHO