RE: The Sled
The mill is this one:
[link]http://www.grizzley.com/products/6-x-21-Mill-Drill/G0619[/link]
And the lathe is this one:
[link]http://www.grizzley.com/products/10-x-22-Bench-Top-Metal-Lathe/G0602[/link]
My goal was to try to find one for 1k each, and came pretty close to that. They have went up by about $100 each since I got mine.
I did a ton of research, and settled on these. I'm pleased with the quality and can get down to about a half of a thousand'th tolerances. The lathe I wanted to have 1 inch through the headstock capability. The computer readout of RPM and digital depth gauge on the mill are very nice too. I know CNC is the big buzword, but doing things manually has turned out to be not tough at all. It's not like I'm making a ton of any one part. Considering I'm making 1 or 2 of about anything, I probably get it done just as fast, by skipping the PC part. I can retrofit the mill with CNC later, and may do that, but figured learning things manually would be wise, and I'm glad I've went that path.
The lathe was what I first started thinking about, but now, realize probably 60%+ of the time is spent at the mill, and am glad I went a bit bigger on the mill, that I had originally planned.
Plan on spending about another 1k on 'extra stuff', from vises, to rotary table, to end mills, lathe bits, measuring tools, etc.
I was heasitant to take this leap, but now after the fact, I'm very glad I did. It's such a great option, if I need a bit of something, to just walk over and make it, down to a thousand'th of an inch, and keep rolling.
Lance