www.MG42.us

Anyone have experience with these mill/lathe combos? I'm looking at "Smithy" and "Bolton".
They seem solid, but I always like hearing from owners and especially a gunsmith.
I know that Bridgeport and South Bend are best according to most, but I'm looking for a small footprint, easy to move, etc. I just don't want to buy a low tolerance, quickly worn out "B" grade machine.

I have machining experience and have only used quality machines so i don't want to waste my money.

Thanks

Greetings, I have a Smithy 1340 Granite mill/lathe combo here at home and have done several rebarrel jobs and some other builds with with it. Accuracy seems real good. As always keep your set up tight and use dial indicators even though the dials are good on this machine. I run an 80'' bed, 16'' chuck Birmingham machine as well as a 3VS Bridgeport mill at my full time job. The Bolton I'm not familiar with so no help there. Only thing I don't like is that it dosen't have the taper attachment and I don't like to cut tapers on a long shaft by offsetting centers. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply.

The bolton products look exactly the same as the Smithy. I'm still not certain which to buy.

I'm currently rebuilding a Bren receiver and I've got a M53 that I haven't started. It's getting hard to work without a good mill.