Designing a Spartan Machine Shop

[Wizard69]

Bandsaw maybe two bandsaws, If I had room I would have 3 bandsaws. One(vertical) for wood, one(horizontal) for cutting bar stock and one(vertical) for cutting shapes into flat metal. Second would be a bench vise, then a bench grinder, then a drill press , next a lathe and finally a milling machine.But out of all the tools I have I feel a bandsaw is one of the most important tools as it cuts your stock down to size so you can then pretty it up with a lathe or a milling machine.

I'm a big fan of bandsaws myself but I don't see them as absolutely required as there are multiple ways to cut metal. That being said I have two bandsaws right now. I much prefer a bands saw for woodwork. As for metal a cut off bandsaw is extremely helpful once stock gets over an inch or so in diameter. Beyond that a band saw can save wear on cutting tools if you can cut the perimeter to near net shape.

 

[Wizard69]

Hi CP,
I wouldn't suggest the Gingery build-your-own, unless you're more interested in making tools than making engines...

I wouldn't suggest the lathe as you can buy better even in the crappy Chinese my iPad lathes. However there is value in learning a bit about machine tools and some of the Gingery stuff you can't buy these days. For example the Gingery mill is an interesting and still unique design for the model engineering crowd. Many have made significant enhancements to this mill with very good results.

The other thing is that the model engineering community as a result of its small size has had to make a lot of its own tooling anyways. That might be an indexer, cam grinder, lapping machine or whatever. So experience with machine tool build and design is a positive factor. I just see building a lathe as a waste of time, this due to used ones being at times dirt cheap.

As has been pointed out, space and funds will dictate your 'shop, but if you're aiming to keep costs down used light-industrial machinery can be cheaper than hobby market - e.g. I bought a 13x30 toolroom lathe needing some fixing for less than a new Chinese minilathe...

Which is nice but that is a big lathe space wise. Don't get me wrong I'd want the larger lathe if I could manage one myself. Especially if it is my first machine tool and likely to be the only machine tool for awhile.

One recommendation I will make, try to get a lathe with a T-slotted cross-slide, it opens up a lot of possibilities, like boring bolted-down cylinders with a between-centres tool, simple milling operations...

This is important. Many lathes are really to simple cross slide wise. A long travel on that cross slide would be good too.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Building shop is a personal journey. I can not tell you what the best way for you .
But here are the hilights of my shop building journey.
My interest in metal working started when I was a young teen I was interested in blacksmithing. I read a lot but i never really dove into it. I have some tools still have an interest an have make a couple small projects over the years. IIRC my high school had a machine shop but never saw a course offered or anyone in the shop.
As a young married man in my mid 20s I had a great neighbor that had a Craftsman 109 lathe and a set of the Gingerly books. But he was more of a dreamer than a doer. I was wanting to have a lathe and purchased a couple of the gingerly books made a couple patterns made a sand box and a couple flasks, and started a charcoal furnace.
In 1996 I transferred into the fabrication shop at my local Air National guard unit . The summer of 97 I spent the summer at Aberdeen PG,MD for welding and machining school. During that time I was able to buy an old tool box full of tools from a guy in Lancaster PA who worked for IIRC Pratt and Whitney engines during WWII. So my first machine tool was a machinist chest.

I desperately wanted a lathe but like you a very limited budget. I ended up with a discontinued version of a Grizzly 7 x 10 IIRC $289 at the time.
I wanted to try pen making but also wanted a machine that would cut metal and make engine parts. I made a few pens but is was difficult without much in the way of tools. After about 6 months we managed to find the money for more tools I purchased a grizzly band saw and a good sized belt/disk sander combo and a friend gave me a HF drill press.
Over time I have made something over a hundred P&P sets that has paid for the initial machines.
Fall of 2001 I added a Micromark mini mill . Later a 9" south bend lathe....and a shaper...
so very much a journey building a shop is.
Tin